Ideology And Cultural Identity

In this book Jorge Larrain discusses three of the most important concepts in the social sciences: ideology, reason and cultural identity.

∗ This book provides an account of the concept of ideology in relation to poststructuralism and postmodernism. ∗ One of the few books to relate this discussion to third world issues. ∗ Author is internationally known in the field of development studies and for his previous work in ideology.

The search for identity is a continuous challenge in the global world: from personal identity to social, national, European or professional identities, each person experiences nowadays a multi-dimensional self-representation. Placing the topic against an intercultural background, with a focus on communication, this book addresses the complicated relationship between self, identity, and society, from an academic perspective. The authors of the chapters in this book offer a complex landscape of professional and scholar approaches and research, in various parts of the world, including Canada, China, Estonia, France, Greece, Israel, Romania, and the United States of America.

Despite profound disagreement on whether identities are essential or existential, primordial or constructed, singular or multiple, there is little dispute over whether identities exist or not. In this provocative study, Sinisa Malesevic interrogates the unproblematic use of concepts of identity, and in particular national or ethnic identity.

This book examines dominant discourses in multiculturalism and cultural identity globally. It critiques dominant discourses and debates pertaining to multiculturalism and cultural identity, set against the current backdrop of growing social stratification and unequal access to quality education. It addresses current discourses concerning globalisation, ideologies and the state, as well as approaches to constructing national, ethnic and religious identities in the global culture. It explores the ambivalent and problematic connections between the state, globalisation, and the construction of cultural identity. The book also explores conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable to research on the state, globalisation, multiculturalism and identity politics. Drawing on diverse paradigms, ranging from critical theory to globalisation, the book, by focusing on globalisation, ideology and cultural identity, critically examines recent research dealing with cultural diversity and its impact of identity politics. Given the need for a multiple perspective approach, the authors, who have diverse backgrounds and hail from different countries and regions, offer a wealth of insights, contributing to a more holistic understanding of the nexus between multiculturalism and national identity. With contributions from key scholars worldwide, the book should be required reading for a broad spectrum of users, including policy-makers, academics, graduate students, education policy researchers, administrators, and practitioners.

This book critiques dominant discourses and debates pertaining to cultural identity, set against the current backdrop of growing social stratification and unequal access to quality education. It addresses current discourses concerning globalisation, ideologies and the state, as well as approaches to constructing national, ethnic and religious identities in the global culture. It explores the ambivalent and problematic connections between the state, globalisation, the construction of cultural identity, and the nation-building process – also in connection with history education and the history textbooks used in schools. The book also explores conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable to research on the state, globalisation, nation-building and identity politics. Drawing on diverse paradigms, ranging from critical theory to globalisation, the book, by focusing on globalisation, ideology and cultural identity, critically examines recent research in history education and its impact of identity politics, as well as the most significant dimensions defining and contextualising the processes surrounding nation-building and identity politics globally. Given the need for a multiple perspective approach, the authors, who have diverse backgrounds and hail from different countries and regions, offer a wealth of insights, contributing to a more holistic understanding of the nexus between the nation-state and national identity.

Increasingly, as the production, distribution and audience of films cross national boundaries, film scholars have begun to think in terms of ‘transnational’ rather than national cinema. This book is positioned within the emerging field of transnational cinema, and offers a groundbreaking study of the relationship between transnational cinema and ideology. The book focuses in particular on the complex ways in which religion, identity and cultural myths interact in specific cinematic representations of ideology. Author Milja Radovic approaches the selected films as national, regional products, and then moves on to comparative analysis and discussion of their transnational aspects. This book also addresses the question of whether transnationalism reinforces the nation or not; one of the possible answers to this question may be given through the exploration of the cinema of national states and its transnational aspects. Radovic illustrates the ways in which these issues, represented and framed by films, are transmitted beyond their nation-state borders and local ideologies in which they originated – and questions whether therefore one can have an understanding of transnational cinema as a platform for political dialogue.