Self, Identity, and Globalization in Times of Uncertainty: A Dialogical Analysis

Abstract

Our era is witnessing an increasing impact of globalization on self and identity and at the same time a growing uncertainty. The experience of uncertainty motivates individuals and groups to find local niches for identity construction. This article's central tenet is that the processes of globalization and localization, as globalization's counterforce, require a dialogical conceptualization of self and identity in which global and local voices are involved in continuous interchanges and negotiations. This tenet is elaborated along 2 lines of argument. First, 3 factors are described as crucial to understanding the processes of globalization and localization on the individual level: the increasing number of voices and countervoices, the role of social power, and the role of emotions. Second, the authors argue that the apparent tension between the widening horizons of globalization and the need for local niches requires acknowledgment of the pervasive influence of biologically based needs for stability, safety, and security. Finally, the authors propose studying self and identity on 3 levels—individual, local, and global—and some lines of research at the interface of these levels.

Fragmentation or Differentiation: Questioning the Crisis in Psychology

“…For example, the notion of "structure" during the 20 th century enabled dialogue between linguists, anthropologists, and psychologists (Barthes, 1953;Levi Strauss, 1958;Piaget, 1968). In current sociocultural psychology, the notion of dialogicality has become a nodal concept enabling interchange between post-Vygotskian research, social representations research, Bakhtinian analysis, and psychotherapy (Cornish, 2004b;Hermans, 2002;Hermans, & Dimaggio, 2007;Marková, Linell, Grossen, & Salazar Orvig, 2007;Marková, 2007;Salazar Orvig & Grossen, 2008). In what concerns the articulation of levels of analysis, notions such as 'conflict', 'rupture', and 'transition', can be used to describe ontogenetic, intrapsychological processes, interpersonal dynamics, intergroup processes, etc.…”

The dialogic construction of self and other in response to terrorism.

“…Disguising one's membership of the newly suspect grouping is a response to being positioned that derives from the asymmetry of social power (Hermans & Dimaggio, 2007;Linnell, 1990); possible negative or violent reactions of the majority Other feel sufficiently significant to reduce explicit statements of collective identity by some minority British Muslims. Others respond differently to this tension.…”

“…Hermans (2001) and Hermans and Dimaggio (2007) characterize identity in terms of a multiplicity of voices and positions. Moreover, the Self (or subject) is always understood or stabilized in relation to some 'Other', and because of this interdependence is said to be dialogically constructed.…”

“…The multiplicity of positions and voices used by an individual can thus include voices of other individuals and of groups, both one's own groups and groups that the Other is held to belong to; tension and conflict can arise across any of this multiplicity. Social power, dominance and asymmetry cannot be ignored in this conception of the dialogical Self, particularly when considering globalized contexts such as London or New York, and minority groups such as Pakistan-heritage Muslims living in Britain (Linnell, 1990;Hermans & Dimaggio, 2007).…”

“…It is combined here with social-cultural theory (Markova, 2000;Vygotsky, 1962) and dialogism (Bakhtin, 1981;Hermans, 2001;Hermans & Dimaggio, 2007) to connect lives with conversations (also Linnell, 1998).…”