RETHINKING IDENTITY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION

The issue of identity has become one of paramount importance in the age of globalization whose most visible characteristic is the enhanced permeability of frontiers. The stability of nineteenth and even twentieth-century societies was accounted for by individuals developing their sense of belonging mainly in terms of their national identity, experienced as safe and secure within well-guarded national frontiers. The unprecedented opening of frontiers in the twenty-first century has facilitated the cultural encounter and made individuals rethink their identity and define themselves as the crossroads of various cultural forces at work in the contemporary society. Identity has become multifaceted and, with few, if any, exceptions, societies have turned into multicultural ones. The paper aims at offering insight into the various problems with which contemporary societies confront themselves in the global and globalizing environment when individuals act more across than within cultural borders.