Personal Identity & Globalization Essay

Globalization is an irrefutable fact of reality, a reality that influences human daily life, the choice of clothes, speech and culture as a whole. Modern people live in a world of globalization, when technological progress and the development of technologies have accelerated the interaction of peoples and cultures. As a result, this process has had a different effect on the human nature: both positive and negative. Thus, the main aim of the assignment is to identify how arts, technologies, scientific discoveries, political ideologies, and globalization contributed to modern identities. The thesis is the following: the development of personal identity in the globalizing world is a complex and contradictory process: on the one hand, the borders of external freedom expand on the basis of the development of new types of communication, various communication infrastructures, social and political institutions; on the other hand, there exists the process of strengthening the alienation of the individual from society, other personalities and own nature.

To begin, it is important to note that at any stage of the history, the technological leap has an impact on the level of social development in terms of relative isolation of people, and this time it happened in a larger volume, which led to the development of communication technologies (Maalouf, 2012). First of all, this accelerated the movement of capital and caused unpredictable revolutionary changes in this area. In addition, there was seen interference in the basic logic of the evolution of national states, and there were opened new opportunities for further development.

Moreover, when people use the words “to be yourself”, they, of course, mean the manifestation of identity, which, in turn, is formed by the intertwining of culture and the heritage of human civilization. This manifestation of identity, developing at the expense of human memory, consciousness and conscience, being expressed in feelings, thoughts, language and the perception of art, is closely connected with human traditions and customs, is actualized in all spheres of public life. People, as a matter of fact, project it on all aspects of the surrounding world. In such a way, the spread of the process of globalization in all spheres of life of modern society makes people to think about ethnic identity. It seems that the process of globalization acts as a destructive factor for the distinctive tradition and culture of the people, eroding the boundaries of ethnicity. To explain, earlier the national identity was represented as a sociocultural community of ethnoses (ethnos, social group). It was defined in the individual and public consciousness by ideas about its history, culture, traditions, language, religion, territory, and ethno-social characteristics. Nowadays, with the development of the globalization process, it becomes difficult to determine those factors that were previously the main ones for the determination of ethno-national identity.

Identifying different ways how arts, technologies, scientific discoveries, political ideologies, and globalization contributed to modern identities, it is possible to say that at this stage of world development, globalization creates advantages for the most developed countries (USA, EU countries, Japan), which leads to a growing gap between them and the developing countries. On the one hand, these countries feel their leading positions in different spheres, while on the other hand, these countries, due to their developed and accumulated wealth, way of life, values ​​and behavioral stereotypes have become the most vulnerable to new challenges and threats in the context of globalization and the creation of a network society.

Using art as a good example for discussion, it becomes obvious that it has a great influence on identity because art does not exist outside or above the dynamic sphere of social change, it never develops exclusively autonomously. In addition, it is also good to emphasize that art is never determined entirely by the social context. Taking into account the fact that it borrows the symbols of the entire spectrum of culture, it retains a critical approach to the representation of modern society. However, its way of interacting with this sphere requires further explanation. The main idea is that art is neither an imitation mask that conceals anything nor a rhetorical weapon that reveals a political struggle: its functions are not reduced to either dramatizing the repressive or reflecting the injustice of the forces behind social reality. Rather, it implies that the involvement of art in a policy based on oppositions will not coincide with the pre-determined position.

Being more specific, it is good to explain that science, as well as education, is only a part of culture. However, this very important part of it stands on the border between the known and the unknown. Scientific research allows humanity to push the boundaries of human culture. Globalization in science is not only the immigration of ideas or their bearers, but also interstate contacts, supranational scientific projects that put applied and fundamental tasks before them. Globalization allows to remove certain restrictions that inhibit the growth and development of the scientific, as part of the cultural space.

Naturally, there exist some fears of the foregoing progress because a new global confusion of internal and external, one’s own and alien environment threatens the total failure of the mechanisms of human identity and may lead to the unpredictable breakdowns. Therefore, it is important to have mechanisms of self-identification based on deep individual and civilizational values for the development of the personal identity (Locke, 2007). Personality grows and develops in a certain social, cultural and national environment, and the invasion of alien cultural, social and other elements in its development may lead to various kinds of irreversible processes.

Exploring the importance of the identity, it can be said that identity of a person is an integrating principle, a central quality that gives a person a feeling of the inseparable connection with the surrounding world. Psychosocial identity is subjectively experienced as a sense of self-identity, as an individual’s self-image with all the richness of relations to the surrounding social world, and finally, as a feeling of merging with certain social groups. The concept of identity can be also identified as a sense of the organic belonging of an individual to his historical epoch and the type of interpersonal interaction that is characteristic of a given epoch (Rousseau and Rosenblatt, 2010). The Identity of a person presupposes, therefore, the harmony of ideas, images, values and actions inherent in it, with the socio-psychological image of man dominating in a given historical period, the acceptance of social being as their own.

The identity of a certain personality cannot be recognized unless it is recognized as belonging to a certain sociocultural life form. Obviously, the native culture is a kind of a central core for the individual. It seems that cultural identity expresses the essence of human freedom, its formation and realization. When elements that constitute the basis of cultural identity (language, religion, history) become the subject of cultural intervention, this inevitably leads to conflict.

In conclusion, we have explored relationships between globalization and its manifestations in modern world and identity, and have proved that the development of personal identity in the globalizing world is a complex and contradictory process. Moreover, we have also found that respecting the right of peoples to their own culture and destiny, globalization should allow establishing a universal ethical dimension, permeated with concern for the culture and survival of humankind as a whole in the relations between them. Foreign spiritual values should be changed alternatively, without prejudice to the individual’s right to choose the way of own development.

Works Cited

Locke, J. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Pomona Press, 2007.

Maalouf, A. In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong. Arcade Publishing, 2012.

Rousseau, J. J. and Rosenblatt, H. Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men: by Jean-Jacques Rousseau with Related Documents. Bedford, 2010.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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