Cultural identity

Cultural identity can be expressed through external attributes

Cultural identity is the identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as one is influenced by one's belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics.

Child with flag

Description

There are many questions of culture that are transferred into questions of identity. Various cultural studies and social theories investigate the cultural identity. In recent decades, a new form of identification has emerged. This new form of identification breaks down the understanding of the individual as a coherent whole subject to a collection of various cultural identifiers. These cultural identifiers examine the condition of the subject from a variety of aspects including: place, gender, race, history, nationality, language, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity and aesthetics. The division lines between diverse cultures is very fine in some parts of the world. Especially those places of people who are ethnically diverse with completely different ancestry but similar upbringings (in one nation). Areas such as Canada or the U.S. are great examples.

A social process in which individuals participate, in the idea of changing historical conditions. As a "historical reservoir", culture is an important factor in shaping identity. Some critics of cultural identity argue that the preservation of cultural identity, being based upon difference, is a divisive force in society, and that cosmopolitanism gives individuals a greater sense of shared citizenship. That is not to always be divisive. When considering practical association in international society, states may share an inherent part of their 'make up' that gives common ground, and alternate means of identifying with each other. Examples can be taken from both old and contemporary world order. In the old world order European states shared a high level of cultural homogeneity, due to their common history of "frequently violent relationships, and Greco-Roman cultural origins" (Brown 2001). Brown also argues that the Western invention of the nation-state has proven to be an appealing and homogenising factor to many cultures.

Also of interest is the interplay between cultural identity and new media. New media refers to new information and communication technologies, mass/social media and digital messaging, and is thought to trigger processes of cultural change .

"Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits," from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Paris 1948, art. 27. The quality of education can develop better culture identity on citizen.

See also

General

• Demos
• Self-concept
• Self-determination
• Globalization
• Cosmopolitanism
• New media

Identity

• Social identity
• Collective identity
• Identity (social science)
• Multiple identity
• Gender identity

Culture

• Cultural diversity
• Intercultural competence
• Cultural conservatism
• Transculturation

Politics

• Identity politics
• Diaspora politics
• Nationalism
• Pan-nationalism
• Survival of the fittest

References

• Gad Barzilai, Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities University of Michigan Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-472-03079-8
• Tan, S.-h. (2005). Challenging citizenship: group membership and cultural identity in a global age. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate. ISBN 0754643670
• Bunschoten, R., Binet, H., & Hoshino, T. (2001). Urban flotsam: stirring the city : Chora. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers. ISBN 9064503877
• Mandelbaum, M. (2000). The new European diasporas: national minorities and conflict in Eastern Europe. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press
• Houtman, G. (1999). Mental culture in Burmese crisis politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. (library.cornell.edu). ISBN 4872977483
• Sagasti, F. R., & Alcalde, G. (1999). Development cooperation in a fractured global order: an arduous transition. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre. ISBN 0889368899
• Crahan, M. E., & Vourvoulias-Bush, A. (1997). The city and the world: New York's global future. New York: Council on Foreign relations. ISBN 0876092083
• Hall, S., & Du Gay, P. (1996). Questions of cultural identity. London: Sage. ISBN 0803978839
• Cable, V. (1994). The world's new fissures: identities in crisis. London: Demos. ISBN 1898309353
• Berkson, I. B. (1920).Theories of Americanization a critical study, with special reference to the Jewish group. New York City: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Further reading

• Robyns, Clem (1995). "Defending the national identity". In Andreas Poltermann (Ed.), Literaturkanon, Medienereignis, Kultureller Text. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag ISBN 3-503-03727-6.
• Robyns, Clem (1994). "Translation and discursive identity". In Poetics Today 15 (3), 405–428. http://kuleuven.academia.edu/ClemRobyns/Papers/692295/Translation_and_discursive_identity
• Anderson, Benedict (1991). Imagined Communities. London: Verso.
• Gellner, Ernest (1983). Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Bourdieu, Pierre (1980). "L'identité et la représentation". Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 35: 63–70. doi:10.3406/arss.1980.2100. 
• Gordon, David C. (1978). The French Language and National Identity (1930-1975). The Hague: Mouton.
• de Certeau, Michel; Julia, Dominique; & Revel, Jacques (1975). Une politique de la langue: La Révolution française et les patois. Paris: Gallimard.
• Balibar, Renée & Laporte, Dominique (1974). Le français national: Politique et pratique de la langue nationale sous la Révolution. Paris: Hachette.
• Fishman, Joshua A. (1973). Language and Nationalism: Two Integrative Essays. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
• (full-text IDENTITIES: how Governed, Who Pays?)
• Woolf, Stuart. "Europe and the Nation-State". EUI Working Papers in History 91/11. Florence: European University Institute.
• Stewart, Edward C.; Bennet, Milton J. (1991). American Cultural Patterns. Intercultural Press, Boston, MA.
• Evangelista, M. (2003). "Culture, Identity, and Conflict: The Influence of Gender," in Conflict and Reconstruction in Multiethnic Societies, Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press [1]
• Güney, Ü. (2010). "We see our people suffering: the war, the mass media and the reproduction of Muslim identity among youth". Media, War & Conflict 3 (2): 1–14.