Globalization and national identity in contemporary society

Globalization and national identity are two separate but important concepts in contemporary sociology; however, neither is well grounded. There is little consensus on these two subjects. Yet we need to establish a foundation for talking about both globalization and national identity, and we need to establish a foundation for talking about the relationship between the two. By reviewing the appropriate literature, this paper presents many sides of the controversies concerning these topics. Globalization is many things and it can be interpreted from many different perspectives: economic, social, psychological, political, and even philosophical. There is little argument that globalization is now a major characteristic of our daily lives. The notion of identity had its beginnings in psychology, where scholars sought to explain the individual self. As the theoretical foundations for the psychological sense of self, or identity, were operationalized, the next step was to superimpose this view upon social systems. The result was the explication of local, regional and national identities. These developed similarly to individual identity, except the intrinsic questions became: Who are we? We are like those people, but unlike those other people. We are like those people in these respects, but not those respects.