Globalization and Cultural Identity
There is no denying that the contemporary world social order is increasingly char-
acterized by multiculturalism. In Chapter 10, we will talk about how business is now
routinely conducted in a transnational environment, the growing field of cross-
cultural healthcare, and how multicultural education is a contemporary challenge.
Contrary to the belief and dire predictions made by some, globalization does not
appear to be producing a culturally homogenized global society. Giddens claims
that rather than increased similarity, globalization is actually abetting cultural diver-
sity and giving rise to“a revival of local cultural identities in different parts of the
world.”^72 Advances in technology have enabled people of similar backgrounds, ide-
ologies, philosophies, etc. to quickly and easily interact with each other, both virtu-
ally and in person, regardless of their location. This capability promotes activities
that tend to strengthen, and in some cases revive, feelings of cultural identity. How-
ever, openness to cross-border information flow and international travel can repre-
sent a threat in conservative states, where the introduction“of foreign content can
erode the traditional values and indigenous cultural identity.”^73 In Western Euro-
pean countries there is concern about how traditional national identities might be
affected by the increasingly vocal immigrant communities and the rising numbers of
new arrivals.^74 So great is this concern that France established a government agency
charged with“promoting national identity”and subsequently launched a national
debate on the topic.^75
From another perspective, people acknowledging multiple cultural identities are
becoming more common. The globalized economy, immigration, ease of foreign
travel, communication technologies, and intercultural marriage are bringing about
an increased mixing of cultures, and this mixing is producing people who possess
multiple cultural identities. Chuang notes,“cultural identity becomes blurry in the
midst of cultural integration, bicultural interactions, interracial marriages, and the
mutual adaptation processes.”^76 Martin, Nakayama, and Flores further support this
idea by reporting,“increasing numbers of people are living‘in between’cultural
identities. That is, they identify with more than one nationality, ethnicity, race, or
religion.”^77 As mentioned earlier, dual citizenship has become common. For
instance, citizens of any EU nation are also legal citizens of the EU, with the right
to live and work in any other EU nation.
In the United States, immigration, intercultural marriage, and multiracial births
are creating a social environment where the younger generations consider cultural
diversity a normal aspect of social life.^78 Kotkin and Tseng contend that among
U.S. Americans there is“not only a growing willingness—and ability—to cross cul-
tures, but also the evolution of a nation in which personal identity is shaped more
by cultural preferences than by skin color or ethnic heritage.”^79 Hitt points out that
“more and more Americans have come to feel comfortable changing out of the
identities they were born into and donning new ethnicities in which they feel
more at home.”^80
Globalization has also given rise to“intercultural transients,”those people who fre-
quently move back and forth across cultural borders and must manage both cultural
changes and identity renegotiations.^81 Over the past decade a growing number of
nations have made dual citizenship available, thereby increasing the community of
intercultural transients.Other Identities 261Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).