What do flags say about us?

Depending on their context, flags can have vastly different connotations. Image: Shutterstock

In the wake of protests around England, Doug Specht considers the wide-ranging uses of flags around the world

In recent months, protests across the England have been notable for the prominence of the flag of St. George.

Whether waved at marches or draped from motorway bridges, the red cross on white has become a powerful visual shorthand. But what does it communicate? For some, it symbolises pride, tradition, and belonging.

For others, its appearance at political demonstrations signals exclusion, nationalism, and division. Flags have always carried this dual potential: simple pieces of coloured cloth that can both unite and divide.

Enjoying this article? Check out our related reads:

They are among the most enduring geographical symbols in existence, transforming identity and territory into a form that can be carried, brandished, and displayed.

Flags translate identity and geography into a concise visual symbol. They are profoundly spatial objects, proclaiming territory, origin, or allegiance. Unlike landscapes or built monuments, a flag is portable, an emblem that can be unfurled and folded away but retains meaning wherever it appears.

A flag seen fluttering above a public building signals official claims to space. When carried through the streets during demonstrations, it claims new ground temporarily. And within everyday life, football stadiums, music festivals, even beach holidays, flags declare where people are from and what they associate with.

How are flags used positively?

At their best, flags inspire connection.

They can provide a shared language across barriers of ethnicity, language, and nationality. At international sporting events, waving of national flags creates moments of collective joy, signalling unity in diversity. For diasporas, flags are anchors of cultural identity.

Caribbean, Latin American, and South Asian flags at Notting Hill Carnival help unite and connect people. During Pride parades, a cacophony of brightly coloured flags reinforce visibility within wider society, affirming that national and sexual identities are not mutually exclusive but can be celebrated together.

Caribbean, Latin American and South Asian flags have been used to connect us at Notting Hill Carnival. Image: Shutterstock

There are also examples of flags contributing to reconciliation.

In Northern Ireland, where national symbols have long been battlegrounds, alternative designs bringing communities together in rugby or sporting contexts have become crucial. Meanwhile, activist groups have re-appropriated flag culture. Extinction Rebellion's distinctively designed flags, fluttering in city squares and motorway blockades, combine political urgency with aesthetic impact.

Indigenous communities worldwide have used flags not simply as cultural statements but as tools of resistance, demanding recognition and making their struggles visible.

How are flags used negatively?

The same qualities that make flags potent symbols of unity can also make them symbols of exclusion. The English flag, in particular, has been mobilised by far-right groups to draw lines of belonging. In demonstrations opposing immigration or multiculturalism, the waving of St George's Cross suggests that Englishness is singular and exclusive.

A collection of Union Jack flags outside Buckingham Palace, London.

Image: Shutterstock

Elsewhere in the world, flags operate as flashpoints. They are routinely burned to provoke outrage, desecrated to signal rejection, or imposed to demand allegiance. During protests in Kashmir, in contested areas of Ukraine, or along borders in the Middle East, the sight of one community's flag flying where another group feels they belong can escalate conflict.

Even in everyday life, the meanings of flags can shift dramatically. A Union Jack flying at Buckingham Palace may evoke stability, ceremony, and unity, yet the same flag employed in certain protests is perceived as defending tradition against multicultural change. Ultimately, the meanings of flags are constantly reshaped by the context in which they appear; they never stand still.

Ambiguity and contestation

This ambiguity is what makes flags so fascinating.

Flags operate as what social scientists call 'empty signifiers', symbols that can be filled with multiple, sometimes contradictory, meanings. Their simplicity makes them versatile, but it also makes them vulnerable to appropriation. The same design can mean very different things depending on where and when it is used.

In a rugby ground, the English flag may express convivial team spirit; at a street protest opposing migration, it communicates exclusion and hostility. [embedded content]

An immigration protest in London earlier this week. Image: Shutterstock

Flags condense identity, territory, and belonging into a lightweight, highly visible symbol.

Their power lies in their portability, reproducibility, and performativity. They can be stitched into shirts, painted on walls, or waved from car windows. Whether they unite or divide, however, depends less on their design and more on their setting, display, and appropriation.

Because they take up physical and visual space, they become unavoidable markers of presence, broadcasting messages of pride or protest into the public sphere. Flags open up larger questions about space and society. Who claims a territory, and under which banner?

Whose identities are made visible, and whose remain invisible? And what happens when the meaning attached to a flag shifts, as has occurred with the English flag in Britain over the past few decades? As Britain grapples with competing identities and allegiances, the future of flag politics will remain central to public life.

A flag is never just decoration, it is a declaration, with serious, and potential dangerous political meaning.