National Identity in the Context of Globalisation

Abstract

Nationhood is not an a priori entity, if not a symbolic and communicative device around which people imagine themselves to be. Hence the concept of identity does not refer to a universal, fixed identity, but to a contingent, historically and culturally specific social construction. Fragmented, cross-cultural, multiple identities may be generated in the relationship between cultural identities and globalisation. Globalisation has increased the range of (re)sources available for identity construction, allowing for the production of hybrid identities in the context of a global society. The widespread “cut’ n’ mix” of cultural forms in the context of globalisation will be illustrated in the paper by the Bhutanese community. The ensuing changes will be analysed as leading not only to the fragmentation of the ‘self’ and the formation of multiple personal identities, closely followed by the fragmentation and differentiation of culture, but also to the destruction or undermining of the older bases of political and social identity. This process of fragmentation and multiplication is symptomatic of an erosion of national identity, a dissolving of it in the onslaught of globalisation.