Challenges of Global Identity

Vlad Krivoshchekov argues that the possibility of humankind identity is still an open question

When we talk about identity in terms of globalization, we talk about the increasing interconnectedness of societies, economies, and cultures as basic characteristics of contemporary life. Today, a great number of people visit other countries, immigrate to them, or merely interact with foreign cultures via different types of consumption (information, media, products). These world interactions among different cultures often occur in people’s home countries, as representation of foreign cultures.

It seems that people are becoming to be connected to people all over the world in most parts of the day. Is it possible to state that we are moving toward single global world identity? The answer, however, is not that simple.

Social groups are an essential feature of human life. According to social identity theory, social groups guide their members’ perceptionand behavior through shared norms, beliefs, and values. Although this theory is often used as a possible way to explain intergroup discrimination, competition, and conflict, it suggests a broader framework for understanding how people manage their collective identities in the context of status and power relations among groups.An important continuation of social identity theory, self-categorization theory, elaborates the social cognitive processes underlying collective behavior. According to it, group behavior (e.g., conformity to group norms) stems from the internalization of social categories into the self-concept (i.e. social identification), as well as the extent to which these categorizations are relevant in a particular situation.

Furthermore, self-categorization occurs at different levels of inclusiveness: as a unique individual, as a member of an intermediate collective (an ingroup; e.g., a nation state), or even as a human being. More inclusive (or higher order) categories are referred to as superordinate groups. Because groups always are situated within a common superordinate category (i.e., one that contains both the ingroup and relevant outgroups), the superordinate group provides the background for intergroup comparisons. Compared with a salient outgroup, individuals more positively evaluate their ingroup to the extent that they perceive it to be prototypical of the superordinate, inclusive group.

As a popular illustration, Germans and Greeks can each identify with their respective national ingroup and the shared superordinate group of Europeans. According to the theory, the superordinate prototype of Europeans defines the positive standard in this intergroup comparison. Thus, the extent to which Germans or Greeks view themselves in relatively more favorable terms depends on how representative they see themselves of Europeans.

Today, when we talk about globalization of identities, we talk about global-Western identity and humankind identity. Typically, values and cultural content of West arrange the basis of contemporary globalized culture: globalized Western culture contains a set of views that highlights self-expression, individuality, and personal freedom, together with a praise of personal achievement, consumerism, and hedonism. At the same time, it encourages transnational identification and proposes a universal human rights and global concern as a subject to be discussed.

Overall, exisitng evidence from cross-sectional and experimental studies of assessing global identification in various ways indicates that these identities do matter for globally minded, prosocial action. Hence, identification with humankind is connected with the belief that every human being deserves the same basic outcomes and corresponds to a widening of the sphere of moral inclusion.

Despite the promising inferences of research on globally inclusive identifications, is global identity a real possibility? From theory it is clear that a category becomes salient whenever it offers a meaningful contrast from other social categories. Could a human-level ingroup perceptually be prominent in many situations? It is still an open question. However, identification is also regarded as a relatively stable individual characteristic that can become consistently accessible. For some individuals, then, human identification can remain salient even in the absence of strong situational cues.

It is worth remembering that social identities do not exist in space but rather function within a constrained set of circumstances in specific sociocultural contexts. Context fills social categories with meaning and value, making them suitable bases for individual identifications. In this sense, the revival, rediscovery, or total invention of new cultural content is the rule rather than the exception in the construction of social identities. For example, the notion of nation-states, which “orchestrate” our world of politics, is brand-new in historical terms. Compliance, securing loyalty, and commitment to these “imagined communities” requires the mobilization of a plurality of discourses, cultural symbols, and historical narratives. The latter are often used to justify the existence of nations and present it simply as the way things are and always should be. Having been socialized into these nation-states it is hard for to imagine a world without them.

Nevertheless, all social identities and social orders were formulated and reformulated over social processes, we should not consider them as an immutable, naturally occurring feature of social and psychological reality. Although at this point in our history, global identities may prolong forms of social injustice, the future may keep other options. Cultures and identities are fluid and dynamic, influenced by changing conditions and determining them reciprocally. Therefore, the current social reality that presents inclusive globality as a somewhat fragile and problematic scene may be changed. Moreover, if inclusive identities gain momentum, we can expect their meaning and content to become clearer. With this societal shift, people may become more inclined to self-categorize in globally wide-ranging terms, reinventing social reality once again, as humankind has done countless times already.

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