Abstract

Based on a qualitative analysis of relevant news media, this article provides a historically contextualized account of the construction and contestation of Austrian national identities. It argues, in Bourdieu-ian fashion, that successive crises since the mid-1980s have transformed a previously non-reflexive habitus/doxa—the taken-for-granted (though not ideologically homogenous) “cultural universe of the undiscussed”—into a contested “universe of discourse.” Focusing on the realms of sport, language/national symbols, and the environment, the analysis reveals discursive struggles around previously “banal” and now consciously negotiated national identities.