UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY, CULTURE AND POLITICS [Lesson TWO]
CULTURAL IDENTITY
is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group. It is part of a person's self-conception and self-
perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of
social group that has its own distinct culture.
o Nationality: Your nationality determines your cultural identity because you usually assimilate to the
culture of the country that you live in.
o Ethnicity: Your ethnicity is what race and culture you are. It is very important to your cultural
identity, because you usually have the culture of your ethnicity. Your ethnicity also sometimes
determine how you look, though not always, because most ethnicities have universal looks:
o Religion: Your religion is the god that you worship and follow. It helps your cultural identity, and help
determine what values you have as a person. Religions have also helped to shape culture, as
Christianity has influenced culture greatly in Europe and in the Americas, as Islam has in the Middle
East.
o Social Class: Your social class is how much money you have, and how it benefits your life in
society.
o Generation: Your generation is all the people that are alive and living at the same time as you are.
The general gap for a generation is 30 years, at which time the previous generation has grown up,
become adults and begun to have children of their own.
o Locality: Your locality is the settlement in which you live, and how populated the area is. There are
3 types of settlements: villages, towns and cities.
Culture is all the things that make up a certain way of life or living. That includes all the beliefs and
values, language, customs, style of dress, food, song, and stories that belong to a group of people.
A person's cultural identity comes from the way they take certain aspects of each of the cultures they
belong to and use them to shape and define who they are.
Some young people might find it hard to make sense of their cultural identity. They might have a mixed
background or be living in a society where the main culture is different to their own. They might feel for
a while like they don’t fit in anywhere and might resent or reject certain parts of their cultures in an effort
to feel more accepted by others.
Young people are often looking for their place in the world and might feel a little bit lost at times. They
might feel like an outsider or feel pressure to prove the stereotypes about their cultural group wrong.
Keep an eye out for them:
o Rejecting their culture – not wanting to get involved, go to church with their family or identify with
their background
o Being bullied, ignored or ridiculed at school for being different
o frustrated, depressed or anxious
o self-esteem - feeling worthless or like they don't belong
SOCIAL IDENTITY
is one's sense of self as a member of a social group (or groups). Sociologists use the concept of social
identity to explain how people understand who they are and why they do what they do.
According to social identity theory, people classify themselves and others as belonging to specific groups.
People regard groups more like themselves more positively, identifying themselves as members of such
groups in contrast to others.
For example, preferring certain values, one might identify oneself as a conservative as opposed to a
liberal.
Some sociologists believe social identity can explain extreme behavior. A gang member, for example, might
kill someone because the gang member identifies himself or herself as a member of a specific gang as
opposed to another.
Henri Tajfel's greatest contribution to psychology was social identity theory. Social identity is a person’s
sense of who they are based on their group membership(s).
UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY, CULTURE AND POLITICS [Lesson TWO]
Tajfel (1979) proposed that the groups (e.g. social class, family, football team etc.) which people belonged to
were an important source of pride and self-esteem. Groups give us a sense of social identity: a sense of
belonging to the social world.
In order to increase our self-image we enhance the status of the group to which we belong. For example,
England is the best country in the world! We can also increase our self-image by discriminating and holding
prejudice views against the out group (the group we don’t belong to). For example, the Americans, French
etc. are a bunch of losers!
Therefore, we divided the world into “them” and “us” based through a process of social categorization (i.e.
we put people into social groups).
This is known as in-group (us) and out-group (them). Social identity theory states that the in-group will
discriminate against the out-group to enhance their self-image.
The central hypothesis of social identity theory is that group members of an in-group will seek to find
negative aspects of an out-group, thus enhancing their self-image.
Prejudiced views between cultures may result in racism; in its extreme forms, racism may result in genocide,
such as occurred in Germany with the Jews, in Rwanda between the Hutus and Tutsis and, more recently,
in the former Yugoslavia between the Bosnians and Serbs.
Henri Tajfel proposed that stereotyping (i.e. putting people into groups and categories) is based on a normal
cognitive process: the tendency to group things together. In doing so we tend to exaggerate:
o the differences between groups
o the similarities of things in the same group.
We categorize people in the same way. We see the group to which we belong (the in-group) as being
different from the others (the out-group), and members of the same group as being more similar than they
are. Social categorization is one explanation for prejudice attitudes (i.e. “them” and “us” mentality) which
leads to in-groups and out-groups.
o Examples of In-groups – Out-groups
Northern Ireland: Catholics – Protestants
Rwanda: Hutus and Tutsis
Yugoslavia: the Bosnians and Serbs
Germany: Jews and the Nazis
Politics: Labor and the Conservatives
Social Class: Middle and Working Classes
IDENTITY POLITICS/ POLITICAL IDENTITY
is when people of a particular race, ethnicity, gender, or religion form alliances and organize politically to
defend their group’s interests. The feminist movement, the civil rights movement, and the gay liberation
movement are all examples of this kind of political organizing.
Identity politics seems to be experiencing a flow in recent times, which has led some people to criticize this
approach to politics, calling it divisive (disruptive). Critics of identity politics claim that it only deepens the
divides that exist between different groups in society—black versus white, straight versus gay, Jew versus
Arab, Sunni versus Shia, Protestant versus Catholic, and so on.
Instead of focusing on our differences, the critics say, we should recognize our common humanity.
Sadly, over two decades later, we keep seeing more stories like that, which highlight the depths of
institutionalized racism in several countries, especially when black people have encounters with law
enforcement, which is why we now have movements like Black Lives Matter. So long as some people are
marginalized, victimized, or oppressed because of their identities, we will need identity politics.
The mere wish that we could all just get along can do nothing to combat sexism, homophobia, or white
supremacy. In an unjust world, where certain segments of society are oppressed by others, simply trying to
transcend our identities is not the answer.
there is a worry that the obsession with identity politics could turn out to be a recipe for endless struggle and
division. Take somewhere like Palestine and Israel, where intense identity politics rule the day. Can there
ever be peace in that troubled region if the people there can’t transcend their narrow identities and embrace
their common humanity? When both sides become so deeply entrenched in their respective religious
identities and enduring sense of victimhood, it’s hard to be optimistic that there will be a solution.
