Globalisation and Identity in Place and Space

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue VIII, August 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Globalisation and Identity in Place and Space

Nicole Cullinan
The University of Melbourne, Australia

The idea of globalisation and it informing our identity is not new. Diogenes, a Greek philosopher from 412 B.C. declared he was a “citizen of the world” in response to a question about his place of origin. Fast forward to the year 1993 and it was a very cool way to refer to oneself if residing in Europe. The borders had just been opened through the European Union and there was strong sentiment regarding global citizenship and its connection to our identity. Since then we have entered an era of massive technological change. There now exists a keen interest in our ability to understand what mechanisms determine identity and how they interconnect in a globalised world. This paper aims to investigate identity through a prism of place; our physical environment, and space; our virtual environment. It will examine the circumstances of our physical environment through the lens of Emile Durkheim’s theory of ‘collective conscience’ and Arjun Appadurai theory of ‘deterritorialisation’.Following onto regard the space we occupy from a screen by utilising Karl Marx ‘technological determinism’ as a starting point and then transition to Bruno Latour’s ‘actor network theory’ and finally Berry Wellman’s ‘networked individualism’. There will be a discussion exploring nationalism and how that has influenced the notion of globalised identity. This paper will not be discussing the traditional markers of identity, class and gender, although it should be noted that they are important distinctions in this changing globalised technological world. The focus of this paper is place and space, the environment we live in, and the relationships we have that determine our identity in the globalised world.
Europe in the 1990s was the place to be. The optimism was palpable, and my prideful identity suited the feeling of freedom one has from being able to hop borders. This was the result of the ‘Schengen Agreement’ a treaty signed in 1985. The brainchild of France and Germany who wanted to move towards the abolishment of internal border checks in Europe (Schengen visa info).The western world was perceived as a kind of utopia, where there was a robust sense of liberty and safety. It was a wonderful point in time. This shared collection of beliefs and feeling can be referred to as the ‘collective conscience’. A term Emile Durkheim coined in 1893 in The Division of Labour in Society(Durkheim& Thompson, 2005). This group to which many people belonged created a mechanical solidarity through shared likeness and participation in beliefs that could be considered tribal, almost like a remnant from primitive times gone by. In this instance the collective conscience was a positive force in society and this mood of prosperity fostered peaceful attitudes of acceptance across cultures.

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