Tradition and translation: national culture in its global context

Abstract

This chapter is about changing geographies – particularly the new forces of globalization that are now shaping our times – and what they mean for the economic and cultural life of contemporary Britain. It helps the reader to understand the emergence, over the last decade or so, of both enterprise and heritage cultures. As Raphael Samuel argues in his account of the pathology of Tradition, the idea of nationality continues to have a powerful, if regressive, afterlife, and 'the sleeping images which spring to life in times of crisis – the fear, for instance, of being swamped by foreign invasion testify to its continuing force'. It is a concern with the past and future of British Tradition that has been central to Prince Charles's recent declamations on both enterprise and heritage. The historical development of capitalist economies has always had profound implications for cultures, identities, and ways of life.