Globalization of culture and new identity patterns

Abstract

This paper discusses the shaping of new identities within the culture of the global society. Culture is observed as a framework for the shaping of new identity patterns. The author draws particular attention to the globalization of culture and changes of cultural identities in various stages of the development of the society. He divides theoreticians of globalization into globo-optimists and globo-sceptics, while globalization itself is considered as a premonition of identity crisis, equally affecting the personal identity and the family of collective identities. The author does not linger on the analysis of traditional society, since the roles of all of its actors are predefined. He is interested in new identity patterns, formed under the wing of modern and postmodern society/culture. Modernity has led to the strengthening of the process of individuation and pluralization of identity. This is when a multiethnic and multicultural society is created, where no cultural form dominates over another. While the modern society witnesses multiplication, ambivalence and heterogeneity of identities, the identity in the postmodern discourse is constructed in the thinking of difference. The postmodern identity is produced under various historical and socio-cultural circumstances. The starting points in its interpretation are anti-essentialism and cultural constructivism. Within the analysis of the postmodern society, the author emphasizes popular culture and its role in the construction and presentation of identities. He analyzes virtual reality and virtual identities, which are products of new media culture, new communication systems and simulated reality. In popular culture, the media show the construction of identities through image and style. The influence of media stars on the audience, identification, imitation and projection as processes of attachment are greater than ever before. Having in mind that postmodernism has introduced rapid changes in all aspects of human life on the Planet (post-modern society, post-culture, post-socialism, post-structuralism, etc.), the author concludes that today one can also speak of post-identities.