Manuel Castells: Manuel Assmann's Concept Of Identity
According to Assmann (1992:130), it depends largely on the degree an individual regards himself or herself as a person. This can also be applied to a community, whose members regard themselves as a “tribe“, “folk“ or “nation“ as far as they perceive themselves as such a community.
Figure 2: Identity, Assmann, 1992:131.
The above figure 2 illustrates Assmann's notion of “identity“ that divides the conception of “identity“ in the forms of “I“ and “We“, and consequently in “individual“, “personal“ and “collective“. Within this context, “individual identity“ implies the awareness of an image that an individual has from himself or herself and that makes that person different from someone else. In contrast to that, “personal identity“ refers to …show more content…
In order to go further into the conceptual notion of “identity“ within this research it seems to be of main importance to consider Manuel Castells' assumption of “identity“ below:
“By identity, as it refers to social actors, I understand the process of construction of meaning on the basis of cultural attribute, or related set of of cultural attributes, that is/ are given priority over other sources of meaning.“ (Castells, 1997:6)
According to the above quotation, “identity“ seems to be nothing pure, but artificial. Though “social actors“ have the ability to pick some of these “cultural attributes“, other characteristics seem to be placed upon the “social actors“. Therefore, the quotation gives the impression that “identities“ are mainly a product of “social process“.
In this view, Castells (1997:6-7) distances from what is generally known in social sciences as “roles“ and “role-sets“, due to the fact that “identities organize the meaning while roles organize the function“. Therefore, “identities“ appear to be regarded as something created. What seems to be more important in this context is the question that arises from this:
By what means “identities“ are created and moreover, who is responsible for this creation and for which
Figure 2: Identity, Assmann, 1992:131.
The above figure 2 illustrates Assmann's notion of “identity“ that divides the conception of “identity“ in the forms of “I“ and “We“, and consequently in “individual“, “personal“ and “collective“. Within this context, “individual identity“ implies the awareness of an image that an individual has from himself or herself and that makes that person different from someone else. In contrast to that, “personal identity“ refers to …show more content…
In order to go further into the conceptual notion of “identity“ within this research it seems to be of main importance to consider Manuel Castells' assumption of “identity“ below:
“By identity, as it refers to social actors, I understand the process of construction of meaning on the basis of cultural attribute, or related set of of cultural attributes, that is/ are given priority over other sources of meaning.“ (Castells, 1997:6)
According to the above quotation, “identity“ seems to be nothing pure, but artificial. Though “social actors“ have the ability to pick some of these “cultural attributes“, other characteristics seem to be placed upon the “social actors“. Therefore, the quotation gives the impression that “identities“ are mainly a product of “social process“.
In this view, Castells (1997:6-7) distances from what is generally known in social sciences as “roles“ and “role-sets“, due to the fact that “identities organize the meaning while roles organize the function“. Therefore, “identities“ appear to be regarded as something created. What seems to be more important in this context is the question that arises from this:
By what means “identities“ are created and moreover, who is responsible for this creation and for which