Where do we find our identity as a nation in a world of change

In the 16th and 17th centuries, most people in Britain lived in small village communities. They knew all their neighbours. They dressed alike, and almost all were white. The vast majority belonged to the same religion, and spoke much the same language. And, at regular intervals, these very similar people, possessed of very similar values, would cheerfully go and watch some of their number being burned alive at the stake, or slaughtered with swords, because they were deemed to possess the wrong brand of Christianity.

British values, whatever they are, won't hold us together

Which is something we discussed in What comes after Communities Dominate Brands?

In contrast, politics has been professionalised and managed down to the last detail. There is no room for risk. A Radio 4 Today interview is often about testing out the political skills of evasion and unflappability. We are not being provoked to reflect, but to witness a gladiatorial contest of wits. The consequence is that some of the most fraught political controversies of our time are migrating into art. In the case of Mark Wallinger's State Britain, this is literally true. One of the entries on this year's Turner prize shortlist - which is billed as the most political ever - State Britain is a re-assembly of more than 600 of the posters and objects of the anti-war protester Brian Hawes that were forcibly removed from Parliament Square in 2006. Now they're sitting in an art gallery.

So we struggle for the role of what our individual identity means and what this means in terms of a national identity. A few years ago I created a project that explored these deep issues. I think a government could be part of such an intitiative but a brand could also play a meaningful role too. Particuraly a mobile phone company. We did talk to one about the possibilities of a big idea that transcended all media channels, but they decided that spending millions of ££££ on the Power of Now, as more interruptive communications made more financial sense. Its almost as insane as the big shots at the music companies refusing to engage with file sharing and the implications of living in our digital universe.

So what could or should be done?

But there are at least three practical things that could be done, which are long overdue. First, a standardised, chronological history of Britain should become part of the national curriculum. This history need not be built around the reigns of monarchs. It need not obscure the cultural and political differences between Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland, although it should draw attention to the persistent and powerful connections that have always existed between them. And it certainly does not need to be insular, or remotely reactionary. For good and for ill, Britain has had more to do with the rest of the world over the centuries than most other countries. Schoolchildren need to learn, for instance, that 18th-century Britons were the world's leading transatlantic slave traders, and that in the 19th century Britons and the Royal Navy took the lead in a global campaign against slave trading. But most of all, schoolchildren need to learn. For how can they grow up to be British citizens if they haven't a clue how Britain came to be what it is?

And without context there can be no meaning. In a country of mixed history and cultures, points of view, needs and desires – we do need to re-evaluate what we are and where we are going. Engagement is how we do this.

In the debate that ensued from I argued

networked societies have the means to affect and effect change. Or as Jörgen would say transformation. Elected body politics, and organisations, are all built on the heireachical model of industrial processes which do not allow an indiviual a voice in that process. As much as those incumbent organisations would argue otherwise. Today, we can have a voice and we can play a meaningful part in that process, if we so choose and desire to do so.

Reductionist vs. Holistic.
The idea of group forming networks extrapolates this theory, and negates the role of conventional institutions or even governments and oveturns the idea of even countries. For Northern Europeans for example, our stories and culture are dramatically altered by immigration. For me the Second World War plays a defining role in my identity as an Englishman and what it means to be English. However, there are many people now that cannot define their identity through this history. I don't mourn such a loss, I just observe that today its different.

The story of immigration – what role do immigrants play and how do they shap their identities in a post modern world in their adpoted countries. Think of the Dutch story told through the book Infidel. Where is the voice for these people, and how do they become part of the body politic? They must become part of civial society and the democratic process.

Witness the riots in Paris in 2005 - this was a community which was frustrated in its seemingly endless existence at the frayed edges of French civial society. How do we give them "a world that changes solely on the communicated wishes of individuals and groups?"

Not by locking them out.

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