Globalisation & Identity
Globalization and Identity
Introduction
Globalization is the speeding up of global interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt & Perraton, 1999). It leads to formation of spaces where economies, technologies, policies and most importantly people from different places and backgrounds intermingle (Saldanha, 2002). It is a complex concept has several dimensions such as political, technological, human, environmental and cultural (Pais, 2006).
Identity often refers to the ways in which individuals take to distinguish themselves or are perceived to be distinguished, in their social relations with other individuals and collectivities (Jenkins, 1996). But James Fearon (1999) argues that the term identity is used in two senses namely social and personal. While in the former sense the reference is only towards a social classification of a group of people differentiated by the rules and attributes, the latter sense of personal identity is more closely related to the individual and is taken to be the set of distinguishing characteristics and sense of pride that a person takes while representing these characteristics.
It is these concepts of globalization and identity that this essay seeks to explore in context to India. India, as a country is vast with each of its twenty eight states representing diversity not only in terms of geography but with regards to language, lifestyle and essentially the culture. The demographics pose another enormity including men, women, youth, aging population, lower, middle and upper class. Considering this immense range, the scope of the essay has been narrowed down to represent the issues of globalization and identity and the effects of these issues particularly on the youth of India, in two of its major cities of Bangalore and Delhi. This scope has been selected as irrespective of what age limits are taken to define the age of youth, majority of India’s population is young and globalization
Introduction
Globalization is the speeding up of global interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt & Perraton, 1999). It leads to formation of spaces where economies, technologies, policies and most importantly people from different places and backgrounds intermingle (Saldanha, 2002). It is a complex concept has several dimensions such as political, technological, human, environmental and cultural (Pais, 2006).
Identity often refers to the ways in which individuals take to distinguish themselves or are perceived to be distinguished, in their social relations with other individuals and collectivities (Jenkins, 1996). But James Fearon (1999) argues that the term identity is used in two senses namely social and personal. While in the former sense the reference is only towards a social classification of a group of people differentiated by the rules and attributes, the latter sense of personal identity is more closely related to the individual and is taken to be the set of distinguishing characteristics and sense of pride that a person takes while representing these characteristics.
It is these concepts of globalization and identity that this essay seeks to explore in context to India. India, as a country is vast with each of its twenty eight states representing diversity not only in terms of geography but with regards to language, lifestyle and essentially the culture. The demographics pose another enormity including men, women, youth, aging population, lower, middle and upper class. Considering this immense range, the scope of the essay has been narrowed down to represent the issues of globalization and identity and the effects of these issues particularly on the youth of India, in two of its major cities of Bangalore and Delhi. This scope has been selected as irrespective of what age limits are taken to define the age of youth, majority of India’s population is young and globalization
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