Socio-Cultural Self-Identification: Lost, Created and Asserted Identity

Abstract

Mutual influence of external and internal factors that determine the process of sociocultural identification is now becoming increasingly interrelated and unpredictable. The documentation of the observed trends in the media text, which is the subject of this study, allows for the research study and philosophical understanding of the ongoing changes. In particular, a comprehensive analysis of the publications in the authoritative British magazine The Economist in recent years made it possible to identify the main contexts in which the linguistic projection of the concept of identity constitutes itself, as well as to establish the most noticeable directions of its changes. The analysis of the dynamics of these changes, in turn, opened up the opportunity to highlight the main directions of the search and conditions for the adoption of new identities, that complement or replace existing ones. As a result of the research, it has been proved: from the standpoint of the authors of The Economist, first, politics always directly or indirectly affects all dimensions of personal and collective identity; secondly, any political action today is perceived by them in the context of identity politics. If for the subject identity determines meaning and provides security, then for the external actors it is an opportunity to gain political weight through “support” and “pressure”. According to the stance of The Economist, identity change often occurs arbitrarily rather than involuntarily and represents the promotion (akin to advertising) of group identity. Several conclusions of the study concern how natural language is able to convey the subtleties of identity dynamics, and how this is related to the development of the concept of identity culture. The results of the study are applicable for a detailed analysis of the discourse of identity by specialists from different scientific fields, as well as for the development of communicative competence in general.

Keywords

• philosophy of culture
• sociocultural identity
• identity transformations
• media representation
• conceptualization