Culture as an Essential Element in the Grounding of National Identity: Reconsidering the Culture and National Identity Relationship From Historical Foundations to Contemporary Debates

This study examines how culture underpins national identity in an era of globalisation and postmodern critique, in which the meaning and legitimacy of nation-state models are increasingly questioned. Existing research often focuses either on theorists who conceptualise national identity within Western historical contexts or on single contemporary empirical case studies; however, few studies integrate the historical, institutional and contemporary dimensions of the culture-national identity relationship within a single analytical framework. Addressing this gap, the study employs a qualitative, theory-driven content analysis of sixty-one canonical and recent works on national identity and culture, together with selected empirical studies on migration, hybrid identities and digital mobilisation. The findings show that cultural repertoires of language, faith, education and shared memory continue to play a central role in nation-building processes and in contemporary struggles over identity, not only by providing symbols and narratives of unity but also by structuring how crises, borders and differences are interpreted. The analysis further demonstrates that national identity is constructed and transformed through cultural frameworks that stabilise political and social order while simultaneously opening space for contestation and change. This study proposes a multi-layered analytical model that connects historical and genealogical debates with modern and postcolonial theories, institutional configurations, and contemporary empirical research. In doing so, it offers an integrated framework for understanding the cultural foundations of national identity today.