Global Cultural Identities Research Articles

Investigating the Complexity of Cultural Identities in Globalizing Societies

Cultural identity has become increasingly important and complex within many contemporary globalized societies. Consequently, methodological development is needed to expand our conceptualization and measurement of (a) the formation and experiences of multiple nested cultural identities and (b) how such identities relate to psychosocial functioning. In the preregistered and experimental quantitative phase (Study 1), Danish participants ( n = 308) were divided into three subsamples completely at random and exposed to various priming regarding global events (i.e., COVID-19, war in Ukraine, or a control prompt not related to current events). Danish, European, and global cultural identities were all highly endorsed across our sample, and global identity was enhanced by priming related to the war in Ukraine as compared with the other two priming conditions. Danish cultural identity was positively associated with well-being (self-esteem and life satisfaction) both directly and indirectly through self-concept clarity, whereas European identity was negatively associated with self-concept clarity, and global identity was positively associated with self-esteem. In the qualitative phase (Study 2), with a selected subsample of the Study 1 sample ( n = 5), we conducted in-depth semistructured interviews to explore the experience of sociohistorically embedded cultural identities (i.e., shaped by a complex interplay of culture, language, and social practices) within the globalized context of Denmark. Results highlight ideographic understandings of cultural identities and how these identities are politically embedded and shaped through intercultural experiences and events. These results are discussed in terms of how multi-method approaches can enhance our understanding of contemporary complex cultural identities.

Learners’ Perspectives on Promoting Cultural Literacy via an Alternative Assessment: A Classroom Approach

In the 21st century learning landscape, arguably few features of teaching and learning are void of technology. Palpably, the pandemic has also revamped our teaching and learning approaches by imposing the use of technology in the remote format. The design and delivery of assessments are no exception, as necessity is the mother of all inventions. Nonetheless, the significance of devising fitting online assessments is not only fundamental to achieving course outcomes but also focal to developing 21st century real world skills. One such assessment that was borne out of necessity is the Virtual Cultural Exhibition (VCE). Within this backdrop, the study explores the experiences of students who were tasked to plan, propose, design, and stage the VCE as part of an alternative assessment initiative. The main purpose of this study was to obtain feedback on the VCE introduced in the Introduction to World Cultures course and improve assessment practices. Specifically, this study was designed to examine how the learners perceived the alternative assessment in helping them (VCE) (a) develop social responsibility and respect for global cultural identities in line with the course learning objectives, (b) develop 21st Century skills and (c) identify the challenges and issues faced by them. To accomplish these objectives, a total of 100 students from five different groups were selected. Different data collection methods (student survey and semi-structured interviews) were used, and the data were analyzed using mixed method approaches. The findings reveal that although the VCE is a promising approach to develop learners’ cultural literacy and promote creativity and collaboration, there are challenges in terms of the distribution of workload among learners. Adjustments were made to the VCE specifically in terms of task specifications in response to the learners’ feedback. This study provides a foundation for improving the design and implementation of online assessments in intercultural communication courses to promote real world skills.

Paper Bridge to Japan: Reviewing the Relevance of Manga in Spreading Japanese Cultural Identity

Originally intended to be a leisurely comic strip with paintings and pictorial representations, manga has emerged as a ‘soft power’ of modern-day Japan. As the world’s largest manga exporter today, the country is considered to be a manga superpower. Its influence on a fanbase spread across the globe has proved to be a noteworthy component in developing cross-cultural empathy within the readers. Despite its traction, the genre entered the literati only recently. Many researchers have analysed the influence of Japanese traditions, history as well as culture upon modern-day manga and their adaptations. Several researchers have also attempted to study the intercultural translation of manga and the influence of manga across countries. The growing emergence of cultural studies as a field of enquiry and manga as a cultural and literary product provides the base for the current article. With the country’s hybrid culture filled with urban and modern legends, myths, traditions and folklore, most of the stories created in manga are steeped in indigenous culture and are combined with modern lifestyle to create a unique reading experience. This renders these graphic novels as cultural products of manga, which are commodified and read throughout the world. The present article acts as a review of contemporary research in the field of manga as a cultural product and identifies its relevance in spreading Japanese cultural identity, thereby contributing to a global cultural identity. The study opens up new lenses to look at manga as cultural products of the 21st century and broadens the scope of recognizing individual and collective manga series for further research as expounders of Japanese cultural identity.

Global Media and Cultural Identity: Opportunities and challenges for Morocco in the Digital Era

Anthropologists and media analysts have long recognized the Internet and satellite channels as some of the most powerful tools that add tremendous value to the knowledge and experiences of youth. A common interpretation of this idea is that new media technologies have become an important source for information, news updates, cross-cultural communication, socializing, and entertainment. The effects of these tools on young people have predominantly been studied with respect to academic as well as health features. Drawing on data from a survey capturing the digital behaviors of Moroccan students, this article complements previous studies by examining the impact of Internet and satellite channels on the behaviors of Moroccan students. It explores the implicit and denotative consequences of modern media upon the values, behaviors, and lifestyles of young Moroccans. Further, the paper addresses the effects of the massive dissemination of global cultural products on teenagers’ attitudes towards their cultural values. Additionally, the research assumes that inducing behavioral change is overlooked once media outlets start demonizing the uniqueness of local cultures, thus ignite resistance to unconventional values among youth.

Global Cultural Identity Among Young People in Slovakia

Abstract It is becoming increasingly obvious that young people are facing the globalisation of personal identity. It is the result of ongoing interaction between individuals and their globalised socio-cultural environment that leads to changes in self-identification. Cultural openness and the “de-territorialisation” of identity are the key aspects of this process. The paper explores the globalisation of identities among secondary school students, using the concept of global self-identification. The analysis employs quantitative data from the Survey of Young People’s Cultural Literacy. The globalisation of identity is captured by the Global Identity Scale (Türken, Rudmin, 2013), which consists of two dimensions – “Non-nationalism” and “Cultural Openness”. The aim of the study is to examine to what extent young people in Slovakia can be characterised in terms of global self-identification and to identify what affects the propensity for global self-identification. Furthermore, it tests the relationship between global self-identification and other phenomena that are supposedly related to global identity. The results show that the global identity is present among young people in Slovakia. By applying multilevel modelling, we identified a variety of culture-related phenomena that affect cultural openness and non-nationalism, including multicultural interaction and cultural participation. In addition, the study confirms that type of school has a significant effect.

Digital Media in Urban China: Locating Guangzhou by Wilfred Yang Wang (review)

Reviewed by: Digital Media in Urban China: Locating Guangzhou by Wilfred Yang Wang Lishu Tang Wilfred Yang Wang. Digital Media in Urban China: Locating Guangzhou. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. 197p. In an age with advanced technologies and widespread digital networks, the concept of placelessness or globalization has been widely recognized. However, Wilfred Yang Wang opposes such popular discourse and asserts in Digital Media in Urban China that digital media fails to form a global cultural identity or to promote universal values. He argues that “the ideologies and ‘culture’ of digital media are always localised rather than globalised” (22). To prove his argument, Wang chooses [End Page 280] the Chinese city Guangzhou as an example to show how Guangzhou citizens’ applications of digital media technologies contribute to their local cultural subjectivities as well as to the reterritorialization of Guangzhou in a process of urbanization (deterritorialization) initiated by the central Chinese government. Wang’s introduction discusses the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s relentless effort to forge a sense of nationhood and local people’s resistance to the CCP’s ambition and push for deterritorialization. By looking back in Chinese history, Wang points out that the strategy of homogenization is not a recent invention, since it was used by the first emperor Qin shihuangdi, long before the CCP come to power. However, while Qin shihuangdi and the CCP share the same aim of achieving uniformity and standardization within the nation, the latter confronts challenges that are presented in digital forms while dealing with relationships between the center (the official) and the periphery (the local) in the contemporary digital media era. Chapters 1 to 5 concentrate on how residents in Guangzhou take advantage of digital placemaking (reterritorialization) to express and construct a sense of self and place. Wang sees digital placemaking as a form of minjian force; importantly, he believes that conceptualizing the idea of minjian society is a fundamental step to understand digital media in China. The first chapter provides a very detailed interpretation and solid analysis of the term minjian. More than simply giving a definition of min, which means people, and jian, which means space and in-betweenness, the extensive discussion includes associated concepts such as citizenship and guan (officials) that can help readers with different backgrounds understand minjian in the Chinese context. To emphasize the nonexistence of a straightforward connection between minjian society and the CCP-led state, Wang distinguishes min from Chinese citizenship, which he believes is “indeed ‘a state-centric view [that] continued to subject ‘the people’ to [a] metadiscourse of nationalism in China’s nation-building project’ ” (54). Further, to claim that minjian society or minjian force is essentially not interdependent on officialdom or central authorities, Wang elicits the concept of guan and accentuates the paternalistic role that guan has performed towards min. Chapter 2 contextualizes Guangzhou and claims that Guangzhou is structurally organized by the authorities and, at the same time, discursively recreated by ordinary Guangzhou residents’ daily practices. The subsequent three chapters mainly use various case [End Page 281] studies as evidence to show how Guangzhouers’ cultural identity is structured and expressed through digital media. Chapter 3 features the digital placemaking practice––the pro-Cantonese activism that took place on the Chinese social platform Weibo in 2010. By examining the affordability of Weibo, including “portable,” “locative,” and “interactive” (112), Wang concludes that Weibo has played a significant role in igniting Guangzhou grassroots’ passion for preserving Cantonese, which ultimately contributes to their sense of locality and cultural subjectivities. Chapter 4 addresses how geographical knowledge of Guangzhou is formed through digital visualization. The first part of the chapter pays attention to Eat Drink Play Fun in Guangzhou (EDPF), which was one of the most popular Weibo city groups in 2014. By investigating and categorizing the content posted by EDPF, Wang asserts that Guangzhouers’ sense of solidarity, locality, and reterritorialization is established and shaped by visualizations on digital platforms. The second part of the chapter goes beyond geographical boundaries and observes Guangzhou through the western social media platform. By examining the debates on Guangzhou identity and cultural subjectivity posted by the I Love Guangzhou (ILGZ) group on Facebook, Wang demonstrates “the remaking of Guangzhou is an act of transnationality...

The Challenge of Being Both Local and Global: Bicultural Identity Integration among Indigenous Ladakhi Youth in Delhi

Ladakhi emerging adults have been exposed to cultural globalization through interaction with tourists and media, as well as through prolonged stays at globalized university contexts in major Indian cities. This globalization process has been hypothesized as detrimental to psychological health, in part because it poses the challenge of integrating a local Ladakhi identity with a global Western cultural identity. In the present study, we examined how exposure to cultural globalization and bicultural identity integration (tendency to bring together one’s local and global identities) moderates the positive links of Ladakhi and Western cultural orientation with psychological well-being among Ladakhis studying in Delhi ( N = 196). We found that exposure to cultural globalization did not affect the positive association between cultural orientation and psychological well-being. Moreover, bicultural harmony and blendedness were associated with a weaker relationship between Ladakhi cultural orientation and psychological well-being and, additionally, a stronger association between Western cultural orientation and well-being. Our results highlight contemporary challenges related to being both local and global in a culturally globalized context.

The Societal Consequences of Higher Education

The advent of mass schooling played a pivotal role in European societies of the later nineteenth century, transforming rural peasants into national citizens. The late-twentieth-century global expansion of higher education ushered in new transformations, propelling societal rationalization and organizing, and knitting the world into a more integrated society and economy. We address four key dynamics: (1) Higher education sustains the modern professions and contributes to the rationalization of society and state. (2) The supranational and universalistic orientation of higher education provides elites with shared global cultural frames and identities, facilitating globalization. (3) Consequently, tertiary education provides a foundation for major global movements and sociopolitical change around diverse issues, such as human rights and environmental protection as well as potentially contentious religious and cultural solidarities. (4) Higher education contributes to the reorganization of the economy, creating new monetarized activities and facilitating the reconceptualization of activities distant from material production as economic. In short, many features of the contemporary world arise from the growing legions of people steeped in common forms of higher education. Panel regression models of contemporary cross-national longitudinal data examine these relationships. We find higher-education enrollments are associated with key dimensions of rationalization, globalization, societal mobilization, and expansion of the service economy. Central features of modern society, often seen as natural, in fact hinge on the distinctive form of higher education that has become institutionalized worldwide.

Rappers, Rajas, and Borderless Spaces

ABSTRACT This article examines the complex cultural identities of the newly formed Indonesian province of Kepri through an examination of a rap rendition of the revered poetry of the region’s most esteemed son, Raja Ali Haji (1808–1873). This rendition, ‘Gurindam dua belas’, by the Jogja Hip Hop Foundation was designed to inculcate an awareness of Malayness amongst the youth of Kepri and the Malay world more generally. The article examines how local popular music is created in a situation where entangled allegiances to global, national and local cultural identities are characteristic of the ‘borderless’ space that has resulted from the formation of the ‘Growth Triangle’.

Jung, Neumann and Gebser

Abstract In recent decades, indeterminate states of cultural identity in both individuals and nations have resulted from cross-cultural migrations and the resistance of host nations to critically re-evaluate traditional cultural complexes and welcome new influences. Jung’s theory of individuation, Neumann’s centroversion and Gebser’s integrality provide a new foundation in consciousness for re-evaluating both individual and national cultural identities. In terms of the development and education of children, the two common threads in these three theories are individuation and recapitulation theory. Individuation, re-imagined by Neumann as centroversion, parallels Gebser’s concept of integrality and provides a mediating foundation for comparing individuation and integrality. Both concepts are compared in terms of the first phase of the individuation process, characterized by the development and education of the child. The objective is to achieve an individuated-integral, spiritualized personality in the first half of life so that the spiritually mature adult can contribute to an evolved human consciousness and global cultural identity in the second half of life.

The myriad meanings of cultural identities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide the authors’ response to three commentaries (Batra and Wu, 2019; Papadopoulos, 2019; Westjohn and Magnusson, 2019) on Strizhakova and Coulter (2019), “Consumer cultural identities: local and global cultural identities and measurement implications,” International Marketing Review. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper and a response to commentaries on the initial paper Strizhakova and Coulter (2019), “Consumer cultural identity: local and global cultural identities and measurement implications”. Findings This paper continues an important dialogue on the topic of multifaceted consumer cultural identities. Specifically, the authors discuss the myriad meanings of cultural identity, as well as meanings of global, local, disinterested/disidentified and glocal cultural beliefs. The paper offers directions and poses questions that warrant future research attention and have important implications for global and local brand managers. Originality/value The paper addresses important issues and future research directions about the provocative topic of consumer cultural identities, their meanings, measurements and practical/research implications.

Consumer cultural identity: a comment

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to comment on the article “Consumer cultural identity: Local and global cultural identities and measurement implications” by Yuliya Strizhakova and Robin Coulter. Design/methodology/approach The commentary summarizes the main characteristics of the authors’ study, positions it in the context of globalization, and suggests additional directions for potential future research. Findings The article by Strizhakova and Coulter has many strengths and provides a good base for new studies on consumer cultural identities and their global, local or glocal orientations. Originality/value This paper adds four points on the theme of “what else” might additional research in this area contribute: The need for further investigations into the cultural orientations of consumers in less developed countries; whether and how practitioners use the findings of academic research; the difficulties in absorbing and using the existing voluminous literature when designing new studies; and the benefits to be gained by introducing more granular perspectives in research about consumers’ cultural identities and their effects on their marketplace behaviour.

Comment on “Consumer cultural identity…”: global citizenship and reactance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the review paper by Strizhakova and Coulter (“Consumer cultural identity: local and global cultural identities and measurement implications”) and offer several observations that extend the discussion into new territory. Design/methodology/approach A short essay. Findings The authors pinpoint a lack of research attention within the global consumer culture literature into a manifestation of global identity that can be termed “humanistic global identity.” Originality/value The paper contends that the reactance (conflict) Strizhakova and Coulter point to, which may occur between global and local identity and culture, is more likely in a culture and consumption domain than in a “shared-humanity” domain.

Conceptualizing and operationalizing local and global cultural identities: a comment

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a perspective on the Strizhakova and Coulter article in this issue, with particular focus on the conceptualization of local and global identities. Findings Strizhakova and Coulter (2019) offer valuable service in their discussion of the conceptualization and measurement of local and global identities. The authors suggest that local identity should not always be reduced to a local-as-national identity, but may be relevant as a sub-national or regional identity. The authors also find that another relevant identity-relevant construct is that of consumer disidentification that represents active rejection of one’s national identity as opposed to the passive disinterest represented by the unengaged category. Originality/value This commentary offers a new perspective to the local-global identity discourse by integrating consumer disidentification as the active rejection of identity.

Consumer cultural identity: local and global cultural identities and measurement implications

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to offer a framework for considering the interplay between local (national) and global (world-based) identities and consumption practices with attention to various conceptualizations and measurements of consumer cultural identity.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper reviewing major works on consumer cultural identities and offering a framework for future considerations of the interplay between global and local identities.FindingsThe framework identifies two dimensions which underlie consumer cultural identity conceptualizations and measurements: first, consumer engagement with globalization–localization discourses, and second, more general identity beliefs vs consumption-based identity beliefs. Clustering and categorical measure approaches (vs a compensatory approach) are preferred for identifying and exploring global/local/glocal and unengaged consumer cultural identity segments. Research foci should guide use of global and/or local general identity vs consumption-based identity beliefs as predictors of marketplace outcomes or as segmentation variables.Research limitations/implicationsThe conceptualization of consumer cultural identity is based on Berryet al.’s (1986) early work on acculturation and Arnett’s (2002) bicultural identity theorizing, and thus the authors acknowledge four consumer segments, those with: stronger global (weaker local) identity, stronger local (weaker global) identity, strong global and local identities and those unengaged with global–local discourses. The authors review measurement approaches to examine consumer cultural identity and determine that categorical and clustering (vs compensatory) approaches are consistent with the conceptualization of consumer cultural identity segments.Practical implicationsInternational marketers can gain insights into major conceptualizations and measurements of consumer cultural identity, and understand the advantages and limitations of different measurement approaches. The authors highlight two important dimensions underlying cultural identity that demand managers’ attention and consideration for strategic decisions. Social implications – this paper brings attention to various conceptualizations and measures of consumer cultural identity, highlighting the need to further examine differences between various cultural identity segments, specifically the unengaged consumers and glocally engaged consumers.Originality/valueThe paper provides a broadened lens to understanding conceptualizations and measurements of consumer cultural identity, identifying two dimensions underlying consumer cultural identity: consumer engagement with globalization–localization discourses, and more general identity beliefs vs consumption-based identity beliefs.

Cultural hybridity and Australian children: speaking back to educational discourses about global citizenship

ABSTRACT Fluidity of cultural identity is an enduring inheritance of contemporary globalisation. One of the less-spoken consequences of this shift has been the increased pressures on young people as they navigate the transformation of their cultural identity between the new and the old. For this group, which comprises not only the children of migrants, but those born into families of multiple cultural heritages, the hybridisation of their cultural identity is occurring at a time of their lives when self-image is challenged on numerous fronts, especially at school. As scholars interested in cultural histories, geographies and pedagogies, the authors became interested in this research when they discovered mutual links with Sri Lanka and its post-1945 diaspora. This autobiographical family study draws upon micro history and life history techniques to demonstrate how the circumstances of their own families challenge macro-Australian education policy discourses about global citizenship, cultural identity and cultural understanding.

Brazilian History as Global History

The article discusses the relationship between global history and Brazilian history and suggests an agenda for future research. It argues that global history scholars could profit from Brazil's great scholarly tradition, which conceptualises key topics of global history such as global encounters and cultural identities, power asymmetries and spatial orders. Scholars interested in Brazilian history, on the other hand, will find a set of approaches and questions from a global history perspective helpful for research on central fields of Brazil historiography such as the coffee economy, scientific racism, the Cold War and the Amazon.

Global and Domestic Spheres: Impact on The Traditional Settlement of Penglipuran in Bali

The issue addressed is how to situate the ‘life-world’ of a traditional Balinese village in the context of global tourism which is now worth USD$ 7.61 trillion, This problem has been brought sharply into focus, indeed amplified, by the recently adopted policy of local government in Bali to designate specific villages as tourist sites. Such action appears to be taking place in the absence of any prior studies of the social, environmental and other impacts on local communities. The following paper represents an initial attempt to sketch out the breadth of the problem from the global to the local. The paper first proceeds by examining the conceptual framework of globalisation - fundamentally an economic process, - from which global cultural identities merge. It proceeds to give an overview of policy at a global level starting with the idea of designated United Nations World Heritage sites and the inevitable commodification of ‘place.’ Then the issues and problems that flow from these first sections are discussed. Next, the situation in Indonesia as a whole is brought into sharp relief, focussing on policy and legislation that affect the internationally celebrated island of Bali. Finally, a case study of Penglipuran, a traditional Bali Aga village is discussed taking into account the preceding context. In conclusion, suggestions are made as to the significant research and policy issues that need to be addressed concurrently with the development of the settlement. The study documented in this paper was conducted using phenomenological approaches. It was grounded by researcher's experiences, gained from her deep involvement in community life as well as physical and site observation activities during data collection period.

The Role of Multilingualism in Effectively Addressing Global Issues: The Sustainable Development Goals and Beyond

In a globalized, interconnected world, multilingualism is essential for effective communication, understanding of other cultures, and the development of global citizenship values. In addition to being part of a global personal cultural identity and a practical tool for communication in transnational teams, multilingualism has been linked to creativity and to problem-solving, both of critical importance in addressing complex issues, and regular use of more than one language has even been shown to stave off dementia. International organizations, multinational corporations, and educational institutions approach multilingualism differently, each with the language strategy that aligns most closely with their mission and goals. How can international educators best prepare students for an increasingly multilingual world and workplace where multilingualism is the norm rather than the exception?

“One, No One and One Hundred Thousand” contacts. The exponential growth of relations in the construction (or destruction) of the collective identity

According to Niklas Luhmann, Art is a special kind of communication that uses perceptions instead of language, and it operates at the boundary between the social system and consciousness. The paper supports the thesis that the product of imagination is a tool for storage, transmission, reproduction of cultural identity in the social system. This happens through contents (“form”) and through the medial support (“medium”) of the imaginary. But in the present age of the so-called Revolution 2.0, the increasing and unstoppable dimension of the “sharing” seems to arise some different considerations. In fact, in the “world society”, imaginary could be potentially able to build a global cultural identity or rather to interpret the loss of it.