levels may be symbiotic or it may be conflictual: as a Michigan cabinet member put it to two Southern colleagues shortly before the American Civil War, "I see how it is; you are a Virginian and you are a South Carolinian; I am not a Michigander, I am an American".

For the individual, as well as the social institution, different levels of social space come to the fore at different times. To a Britisher, for example, "we" sometimes narrows to southern England, sometimes broadens to refer to "Britain