Ethnic identity in a globalizing world (on the example of the Republic of Chad youth)

Abstract

The identity questions have become one of the leading topics in the contemporary social science due to the emergence of a number of problems that complicate self-identification processes in the (post) modern society. The new status of the modernity - ‘fluid’ - has led to the fact that identity as a result of membership in a social group lost its static nature: everyday every individual has to take responsibility to choose his life direction and, respectively, to change his identification as a member of a specific community. Globalization has also changed the process of ethnic identity formation, which, on the one hand, turns into a protest aiming at preserving one’s uniqueness in a globalizing world; on the other hand, ethnic identity is a result of the already accomplished globalization revealing all its transformations. Thus, aggravation of interethnic conflicts related to the identity issues is most common in multiethnic societies. The article presents the results of the empirical research of the ethnic identity of young people in Chad. The interviews conducted by the author revealed the leading type of ethnic identity among young people in Chad and its specific features in new life conditions.

Keywords

• идентификация
• этническая идентичность
• молодежь
• Республика Чад
• Африка
• этнос
• этничность
• этническая группа
• глобализация