Nested identities:: national and European identity in Spain

This article focuses on Spain to explain individual variation in the strength of identification with Europe. It relies mainly on statistical analysis of a nationally representative survey conducted in March 2000, but also on historical and newspaper sources. The statistical results support Inglehart's hypotheses about the contribution of high degrees of cognitive mobilization and education to the development of a European identity, but contradict his Postmaterialism thesis. Also, they support Turner's and Tajfel's hypotheses about the role of positive group images in fostering identification with groups. Finally, they show that in Spain regional and national identities are compatible with a European identity. This result is consistent with Calhoun's and Brewer's view of nested group identities who do not see a priori incompatibility between nested identities. Furthermore, it supports the authors' claim that nested identities are potentially compatible, as in Spain, when they are not portrayed and seen as impinging on each other.