In this paper, we conceptualize the days of mourning that followed the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. as constituting a liminal occasion, a moment of in‐betweenness through which we can explore sense‐making in times of transition. How do people navigate through liminal occasions, and are they always transformative? Through a rapid response ethnography (Ninterviews = 64, Nparticipants = 122), we were able to capture the raw moments within which a collective comes together, as part of a national ritual, to transition from ‘here’ to ‘there’. In our data, liminality prompted participants to strategically define British national identity and its future by positioning the Queen as representative of Britishness, her loss as a national identity loss. No longer taken for granted, participants reasserted the value of the monarchy as an apolitical and unifying feature in an otherwise divided society, characterizing the continuity of the institution as an essential part of British identity and society. The analysis illustrates how liminality offers a useful conceptual tool for addressing how temporality and change are negotiated in relation to a shared identity, and how navigating transitional moments brings with it political implications for the future.

中文翻译：

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在阈限场合哀悼和面向未来：英国女王伊丽莎白二世去世后（重新）定义英国国家身份


在本文中，我们将英国女王伊丽莎白二世去世后的哀悼日概念化。构成一个阈限场合，一个中间的时刻，通过它我们可以在过渡时期探索意义建构。人们如何度过阈限时刻，他们总是具有变革性吗？通过快速反应的民族志（Ninterviews = 64，Nparticipants = 122），我们能够捕捉到一个集体聚集在一起的原始时刻，作为国家仪式的一部分，从 “这里 ”过渡到 “那里 ”的原始时刻。在我们的数据中，阈限促使参与者通过将女王定位为英国性的代表来战略性地定义英国国家身份及其未来，将女王的丧失定位为国家身份的丧失。参与者不再被认为是理所当然的，他们重申了君主制的价值，即在一个原本分裂的社会中，君主制是一个非政治和统一的特征，将制度的连续性描述为英国身份和社会的重要组成部分。该分析说明了阈限如何提供了一个有用的概念工具，用于解决时间性和变化如何与共同身份相关进行协商，以及驾驭过渡时刻如何为未来带来政治影响。