Cultural Theory and Microcultures Flashcards
What are cultural identities?
Cultural identities emerge and change in relation to migration, everyday political discourse, social practices, rituals & the media
Being a member of a cultural identity group (in group) implies demonstrating ability to understand and use discourses (e.g. of national identity) and practices etc. to define one’s identity.
What are the stages of Cultural Identity development, according to Fong (2004)?
1) Unexamined cultural identity: taking cultural identity for granted (e.g. in the unexamined intracultural situation)
2) Cultural identity search (e.g. awareness of difference through travel, encountering different values)
3) Cultural identity achievement: clarity and confidence about identity
What are other key terms, in terms of cultural identity?
Subjective identity: how one perceives oneself in ethnic/cultural terms.
Objective identity: how others perceive our cultural identity (e.g. our physical characteristics) – often based on stereotypes/ prejudice.
Identity crisis: e.g. a minority person experiences conflicting identities, prejudice etc.
What is an example of subject identity?
Subjective identity may be hybrid (mixture of ‘both’ identities).
For parents/family the person may be ‘too British’.
For the wider society/media ‘Pakistani’ identity may preclude being considered full ‘British identity’.
Conflict may engender identity crisis.
What do people do to distinguish themselves as ‘insiders’ from ‘outsiders’?
People ENACT cultural identity.
Identity formation is thus a process of ‘ascription’ and ‘avowal’.
What is the process of Avowal?
My self-definition of my cultural identity:
This is who I (we) am (are) as a member of my (our) cultural group e.g. ‘I am Scottish/British/German/Polish etc.’ (national identity)
What is the process of Ascription?
The attribution of identity to a group by people outside that group.
The identities ascribed by others (how others see us) may be in conflict with avowed identity.
Awareness of negatively ascribed identities impact on the avowed identity of the person(s) to whom it is ascribed.
CIT focuses on how people define their identity through dialogue (or conflict) between ascribed and avowed identities.
What are the levels of cultural identity?
Individual identity: individual’s interpretation of his/her identity
Relational identity: relations with friends, neighbours, co-workers etc.
Communal identity: communal practices in reflected in group identity
Regional identity: strong development in some countries.
National identity: e.g. Scotland, UK, Europe. Primary identification or not? Nationalism/patriotism.
Cosmopolitan or transnational identity: varied cultural origins; EU or ‘world citizen’; transnational capitalist class?
What are the different facets of cultural identity?
Gender identity: what is considered ‘masculine’, ‘feminine’ and who determines it (men or women)?
Age identity: actual age group (young, middle age, elderly), how defined/by whom?
Spiritual/religious identity: practitioner of formal religion or not? How important is religion to the self (in a secular society or not)? Others’ attitudes to religious identity (e.g. Persecution, stereotyping).
Class identity: how defined? Working class, middle class, upper class. How important today?
What are Cultural Identity Theory’s advantages for intercultural communication?
1) Acknowledges the heterogeneity, overlapping and dynamic nature of cultural identification
2) Recognizes that different cultural identities may come into play according to the political situation, power relations etc.
3) Recognizes that different groups within one nation may have different cultural identities (e.g. ethnic groups). Avoids ‘cultural homogeneity’ assumption.
Explain Nations in terms of Cultural Identity Theory?
Implicit critique of the nation as sole basis for defining cultural identity.
The nation seen as ‘imagined community’ (Benedict Anderson) –a historical idea of nationhood.
The question of who ‘belongs’/who feels excluded?
Do nations fully represent the diverse people living in them?
Explain Banal Nationalism in terms of Michael Biling.
‘If nationalism is an ideology of the first person plural, which tells ‘us’ who ‘we’ are, then it is (also) an ideology of the third person. …The national community can only be imagined by also imagining communities of foreigners. The ‘foreigner’, in the age of the nation-state, is a specific category. Not merely any ‘other’.
(Michael Billig, Banal Nationalism 1995: 78-9)
Banal nationalism is not necessarily political nationalism.
What do most countries now have?
Substantial ‘minority’ communities.
What are the two main political models of dealing with cultural identity?
Assimilation model and Multicultural model.
What is the Assimilation model?
Aim: full ‘integration’ of minority cultural identities into ‘host’ identity.
Assertions of minority cultural identity seen as ‘problem’.
Little reflection on how ‘host’ identity has changed due to migration.
