2 think local, act global 2016

THINK LOCAL, ACT GLOBAL

UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL AND LOCAL CULTURAL IDENTITIES

Today 

Progressing towards the assessment

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Introducing cultural identity

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Imagining national communities

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Threatening the nation

Our Progress 

Last week we discussed the idea that our local circumstances are increasingly influenced by global social structures

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Today we consider whether the nation, as a particularly strong form of local identification, is threatened by changes in global social structures

Our Task To critically investigate the impact of the idea of nationhood upon our identities, cultural practices and British society

Is nationhood part of your cultural identity?

First assessment To what extent has your cultural identity been affected by the processes of globalisation? (1000 words, due Feb 22nd) 

The aim is for you to consider how your cultural identity has been influenced by changes on a global scale

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You are able to write in the ‘1st person’ e.g. “As I am an immigrant from New Zealand, I feel…” but must use at least three academic sources An annotated example is available on BBL

Cultural identity 

Culture: The ideas, practices, norms and social behaviour of a particular people

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An identity is an individual’s identification with something external to them, normally an abstract or imagined idea (I am this)

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Cultural identities are the point where individuals meet the social: the process of identification

“In common sense language,

identification is constructed on the back of a recognition of some common origin or shared characteristics with another person or group, or with an ideal, and with the natural closure of solidarity and allegiance established on this foundation (Stuart Hall, 1996, p.14)

�

Cultural identities 

Cultural identities are generally plural and constructed through the cultural resources available – a cultural identity is one’s identification within a set of cultural resources

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We don’t just passively accept everything about our culture(s)

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Instead we go through a process of identification with the ‘symbolic resources’ of a culture to include ourselves within a ‘cultural story’

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On a personal level these cultural identities are not only abstract: we form emotional attachments to them

Mediating global culture 

In a pre-global world, cultural resources would primarily have been sourced from our local environments

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The advent of a global media systems means that these referents are not necessarily local

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Global media sources allow us to become ‘spectators of the world’, consuming cultures from our living rooms

Fragmented identities 

In a global ‘post-modern world’ identities are becoming increasingly fragmented as we come into contact with a wider range of cultural resources.

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So, what things do your people do that you identify with?

My cultural identifications

What elements make up your cultural identity?

Progressing towards the assessment

Today: The nation

Next Week: Global media

Then: Cultural imperialism

Defining the nation 

‘Nations’ are a people with a shared identity, usually based on common geography

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Nations produce social solidarity through belonging and identification

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Nationhood provides localised cultural resources and stories with which many people identify

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It is said that the nation is under threat in a more global world

About you

An imagined community 

Benedict Anderson (1991) argued that the nation was an ‘imagined community’ that is inherently limited and sovereign

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Nations are imagined because we will never meet all the members of the nation, but members still have an ‘image of their communion’ (Anderson, 1991, p.6)

Limited sovereign communities 

Nations are imagined to be limited because they establish ideological and physical boundaries from others

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Nations are imagined to be sovereign because they have rule over themselves (or aspire to)

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Nations are imagined as a community because of the inherent comradeship between members

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This ‘collective imagination’ is based upon an identification with symbols and ideas that allow for the construction of a common identity and common bond with other people

"...national identities are not things we are born with, but are formed and transformed within and in relation to representation. We only know what it is to be English because of the way 'Englishness' has come to be represented, as a set of meanings, by English national culture. It follows that a nation is not only a political entity [the state] but something which produces meaning - a system of cultural representation. People are not only legal citizens of a nation; they participate in the idea of the nation as represented in national culture. A nation is a symbolic community and it is this which accounts for its 'power to generate a sense of identity and allegiance� (Stuart Hall, 1992,p.292)

"National cultures construct identities by producing meanings about 'the nation' with which we can identify; these are contained in the stories which are told about it, memories which connect it to the present with its past and images which are constructed of it" (Stuart Hall, 1992, p.293).�

What shared meanings define your sense nationhood?

Contrasting imaginations 

Whilst our national imaginations are based on shared symbols and ideas, they cannot be fixed

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Certain representations of nationhood become dominant and others are excluded

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Within the nation there emerges a ‘them’ who thwarts our vision of the nation

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In a global world, this threat also comes from the outside

Challenging the nation 

Whilst nationhood provides a powerful sense of identity for some, and a common bond between many, it has come under threat from a number of sources:   

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The emergence of global political and economic institutions The spread of global cultures The presence of multiple national identities within a nationstate A return to localist politics

These factors challenge both the way we think of ourselves and the way our lives are organised through the nationstate

Nations and states 

Nations might be imagined, but they are also built

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Modern nations are generally coupled with states (the nation-state)

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Nations are cultural constructions, states are political institutions that manage the organisation of the nation

National solidarity 

Those who live close to each other are expected to share common values 

We can be legally part of a state but identify with a different nation

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Whilst common points of identification can operate on a micro level, they are encouraged to extend to coincide with legal geographical boundaries

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Without any cultural commonality, social relations are often defined by conflict over the right way to do things, or who benefits from existing arrangements

0 Colombia

Cyprus (Non-‌

Zimbabwe

Austria

Iraq

Latvia

Korea (South)

Slovakia

Malaysia

Nepal

Mauritius

Iran

Netherlands

Canada

Russia

Greece

Hungary

Afghanistan

tish Indian Ocean‌

New Zealand

Sweden

Ghana

Philippines

Bulgaria

Brazil

Somalia

Japan

Turkey

Jamaica

China

Spain

South Africa

Sri Lanka

Australia

Pakistan

Bangladesh

United States

Romania

Germany

Italy

Portugal

Nigeria

Lithuania

France

Ireland

India

Poland

Non-UK Population in London by Nationality

160,000

140,000

120,000

100,000

80,000

60,000

40,000

20,000

Does London feel British to you?

The aliens amongst ‘us’ 

Immigrants from distant localities can bring the global into the local

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Immigrants come to embody the threat of globalisation and different values and lifestyle: our imagined communities are no longer limited

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Alternative national imaginations and identifications start to emerge

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As a consequence, many people attempt to reestablish the limits on who belongs

Nationalism: Asserting the local 

Nationalism is the desire of a people to assert their autonomy, identity and unity through a patriotic identification with the nation over other forms of identity, particularly divisive ones 

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‘We are all English’

Nationalism is a powerful method for attempting closure (‘suture’) of identity, primarily by excluding those we do not ‘fit’ with a version of the nation imagination

Purifying identity 

A number of movements have emerged that reject outside influences in the name of an imagined ‘original’ peoples “We [UKIP] believe in the right of the people of the UK to govern ourselves, rather than be governed by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels (and, increasingly, in London and even your local town hall)”  “The EDL believes that English Culture has the right to exist and prosper in England” 

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As national/cultural identities have become more complex, there is a greater desire to simplify them by removing ‘intruders’

The ‘Cricket Test’

“A large proportion of Britain's Asian population fail to pass the cricket test.

Which side do they cheer for? It's an interesting test.

Are you still harking back to where you came from or

where you are?

”

Conservative UK Politician Norman Tebbit (1990)

Is it important for immigrants to identify with the nation of their residence?

Is nationhood an important part of your cultural identity?

Take-away points 

Our points of identification and attachment are often very local – for many, the nation is a core source of cultural identity

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Nations are imagined and built rather than ‘born’

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Nations and the nation-state in particular have come under threat from global cultural, economic and political culture forces

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This has led to a rise in localist politics and defence of the nation

Next Week WEEK 3 MEDIATING GLOBALISATION: COMMUNICATING HEGEMONY OR TECHNOLOGIES OF RESISTANCE

READINGS: Core reading: Chapter One: Introduction in Hafez, K. (2007) The Myth of Media Globalisation. Cambridge: Polity (online book, available through the library website)

See also: Introduction, McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media. Abingdon: Routledge.

Rantanen, Terhi., (2005) "Theorizing Media and Globalization" from Rantanen, Terhi., The media and Globalization. pp.1-18, London: Sage