The (Re)construction and Negotiation of Cultural Identities in the Age of Globalization

This chapter develops an interactionist conceptual framework for the interpretation of identity shifts in the age of globalization. The cultural identity of the nobility disappeared in most European countries after the displacement of that social group with the emergence of new sociohistorical conditions. The research literature suggests five major constitutive features of cultural identity: temporality, territoriality, contrastivity, interactivity, and multiplicity. The chapter also develops a typological scheme for the classification of cultural communities into sensible and usable categories. From an interactional perspective, one may conceptualize globalization as an historically unique condition for the (re)construction and negotiation of cultural identities. Globalization introduces new territorialities and temporalities to cultural identification, which in turn influence the other three constitutive features of cultural identity, namely, contrastivity, interactivity, and multiplicity. The successful negotiation of identity requires recognition that interdependence (i.e., community) takes precedence over sovereignty.