Theme 3: Cultural identity

1
Theme 3 Cultural identity

• Dimensions of identity
• individual, social, cultural
• Essential (definitive) and anti-essential
• (constructive) cultural concept
• Identity politics
• Majority and minority rights

2
Cultural identity as a social construction

• Self-identity
• to become somebody (Stuart Hall) as an individual
  who is distinct and different from any other
  person
• how I am constituted, sustained, recognised and
  known as an individual subject
• what kind a specific person I am
• what is characteristic to my personality
• Social identity
• how my subjectivity is related to you and the
  others
• your expectations concerning my behaviour
• your opinions on my character
• Our relationship to each others
• Cultural identity
• The symbolic representation of my personal
  character and our membership categories
  (signifiers of qualifications, taste, beliefs,
  attitudes and lifestyles)
• Idealisation, identification, representation of
  belonging
• Cultural (re)production of the self ?
  articulation, performance

3
Essential conception of identity

• Identity is the essence of the self as such
• Identity is the core of (individual/social/cultura
  l) self-existence
• Identity is stable, fixed and non-changeable
• Boundaries between I and you, as well as between
  us and them are clearly defined
• We form a cultural member groups as based on our
  similarity (sameness) together
• Those who do not belong to our member group have
  a (personal, social and) cultural identity
  different from us
• Identities and their boundaries are given to us
  as inherited (genetic origin)
• Traditions guarantee the preservation of our
  cultural values (cultural capital)

4
Relative (anti-essential) conception of identity

• The personal self-identity is historically
  constructed during the life-process of an
  individual
• Social relations depends on the situations and
  placements of those who meet each others and
  participate interactions
• Cultural identities are expressed and interpreted
  (narrated) reflexively in social relations and
  their contexts
• Contents of identities are constructed (formed
  and reformed) in our actions through social
  relationships with each others
• Building of an individual identity is a life-long
  project during the biographical process
• Cultural identities are continuously changing
  according to the historical understanding of
  communities
• Identities are relative, flexible, situational
  and moveable

5
Identity politics

• Cultural identities are worked actively further
  by means of reflexive interpretations
• Different materials (gestures, movements,
  pictures, sounds, language) are creatively used
  in interpretation of cultural identities
• Cultural qualifications and competencies are
  continuously constructed and developed when
  defining the situations (placements) of
  identified subjects and their contextual power
  positions
• Cultural identities are used as tools for
  enabling political actors to have and guarantee
  their power positions
• Cultural identities are used to influence in
  hegemonic power relations between the cultural
  majority and minority groups
• Identification means discursive work for cultural
  inclusion and exclusion
• Aspects of emancipation, empowerment and enabling
  power are included in identity politics as
  discursive practices

6
Cultural identity as political strategy

• Individuals are included in social communities as
  culturally identified
• according to their valued classifications
  (comparative preferences)
• to be members of identity groups
• to participate in civic activities
• to defend common interests together as civil
  rights and responsibilities
• to represent those interests as citizens
• Citizen rights and responsibilities are
  recognised
• in accordance with the possibilities of using
  voice in the public opinion formation
• further, in accordance with the political
  categories of representation of group interests

7
Hierarchical formation of the identity position
structure

• Placements of interest-based representations of
  community members are hierarchically structured
• according to positions reached by the actors and
  agencies in the political struggles for the
  membership of cultural communities
• by using political power as an ability for the
  subject to act for having a position to defend
  specific interests inside the cultural field of
  action

8
Majority and minority rights the state of
democracy

• Ways to use majority power influence in how far
  the dimensions of political citizen rights of
  cultural minorities can be reached
• The state of democracy is positively defined by
  inclusive means by allowing minority rights for
  those inside the member community
• The state of democracy is negatively defined by
  the justification of exclusion of those without
  citizen rights in a certain community

9
Citizenship the full membership in a
societyMarshalls definition

• Civil rights
• personal freedom, freedom of expression
• protection from unlawful acts
• prohibition from discrimination
• Political rights
• Active democratic participation
• right to vote
• freedom to associate
• freedom of information, freedom to inform
  publicly
• Social rights
• Right to work
• Equal opportunities in education
• Entitlements to health services and welfare
  benefits

10
Global citizenship

• Cultural rights
• Universalism agreed values
• Multiculturalism similarity vs. differences
• Human rights as related to
• Universality of human values as a welfare
  principle
• Rights of animals and the preservation of nature
  sustaining development of the life environment
• Active citizenship
• Citizen rights as political effort
• Identity politics
• Recognition of others
• Ethical choices