Anthropological Linguistics Presentation by Munazza Khan 3rd semester To Madam shazia akbar

Community ,Nation and Globalization

What is community The word "community" derives from the Old French comuneté which comes from the Latin communitas (from Latin communis, things held in common). A community is commonly considered a social unit (a group of people) who have something in common, such as norms, values, identity, and often a sense of place that is situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a village, town, or neighborhood).

Modernity and the decline of community Modernity was tied to industrialization and urbanization played a vital role in this.

The importance of time and space Anthony Giddens’s ‘structurational sociology’ allows us to consider the notion of community with reference to the structures that both enable and constrain us in our life. Giddens suggests that while we are born into a ready made social reality that shapes and structures what we do, within such structures we have the freedom to think, reflect and shape our identity. Daily acts of social action and interaction occur in both time and space.

Cont… Giddens states that: Action has a tempo associated with it that governs its duration. Action and interaction are located at different times – some actions are considered normal at some time but not at others.

Cont… Actions take place in spaces. Individuals are born into a space that structures and shapes their early lives and initially the individuals have no choice as to where or what this particular space will be. Giddens points out that pre-modern societies were more fixed in their space than in the case today. Most people could not travel very far, nor did they have much contact with other cultures.

Cont… Today time and space have been reduced because of transportation and communication networks and consequently our sense of place is very different. Giddens replaces the notion of community with the idea of locale—in both time and space. Locale: a locale is a space that gives a context to the actions that occur within it. These spaces can be macro(large-scale) or micro(small scale).

Cont… Regionalization: It means that the spaces in which we interact are organized into different areas or regions. Some of these regions allow us to act in some ways, others in different ways. For example, in a house different spaces or rooms are used for different actions and interactions at different times of the day and even in different days of the week. Sometimes rooms are used for different activities at different times.

Ways of organizing social life ,relationships and the creation of individual self identity Gemeinschaft It means community .In rural areas ,individuals were bonded into close communities where everyone knew everyone else and had personal contact in all areas of life. Gesellschaft. It allows people the freedom to choose the relationships they wish in their lives outside work.

Problems with defining community Community can be seen by geographical boundaries between different territories. Community can be seen as a localized area , a network of interrelationship. Community can be seen as peoples sense of togetherness.

Nation A nation (from Latin: natio, "people, tribe, kin, genus, class, flock") is a large group or collective of people with common characteristics attributed to them — including language, traditions, mores (customs), habitus (habits), and ethnicity.

National Identity It is one's identity or sense of belonging to one state or to one nation. It is the sense of a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, language and politics. National identity may refer to the subjective feeling one shares with a group of people about a nation, regardless of one's legal citizenship status. National identity is viewed in psychological terms as "an awareness of difference", a "feeling and recognition of 'we' and 'they'".

Globalization Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations. Globalization implies the opening of local and nationalistic perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and interdependent world with free transfer of capital, goods, and services across national frontiers

Cont… Globalization is also a cultural force. Ideas, attitudes, mass media, cultural commodities and symbols also spread by it. Globalization is the reduction of time and space. Globalization could lead to cultural homogenization ,the consumption of cultural products globally( films, fashion, music) resulting in increased similarity but it can also result in people becoming attracted by difference and wanting to access culturally distinctive products globally.

Cont... It may create uncertainty, it might lead to confusion, chaos and cultural disorder in which a stable sense of identity will be difficult to maintain. Globalization has led to the expansion of order and democracy in the world.

Cont… Fukuyama(1992) suggests that globalization is bringing about a new world order where the ideological differences between East and West are being settled . This new world order is symbolized by the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the spread of free-market economic principles into former communist states. Many Marxists are critical of this image of globalization and see it as capitalist ideology across the globe. It is viewed as a process of global ‘Americanization’.

Cont… Marxists also mention that the opportunity to ‘pick and mix’ cultural meanings and identity is open only to those who have the financial resources and status to manipulate the new technology and who have the freedoms of the ‘global village’.

Impact of globalization on national identity It could make national identity stronger. It could weaken identities. It could lead to the development of cosmopolitanism. It could result in more flexible and hybrid identities.

Online communities and identity Some people employ online group activities as ‘an additional source of identification’. Online interactions allowed these individuals a great flexibility in experimenting with different identities than in offline peer groups restricted by place. Blogs can promote a blog-community identification.

Cont… Sub cultural identity can be expressed through blog use. News sites such as Raddit and Digg involve individuals posting stories they find interesting, with comments, to which the community respond with their own opinions, comments and rankings.

Globalization and ‘reflexive modernity’ Reflexive modernity is an age in which we must be reflexive about our lives, our relationships, our future etc. Two key features of reflexive modernity are the creation of a post-traditional social order and the acceleration of globalization. Few people are unaware that their lives are part of a wider, global process and that their day-to-day actions are influenced by remote events. However not only are our individual actions influenced by globalization, our actions in turn influence the spread of globalizations itself.

Cont… Giddens describes globalization not as being ‘out there’ in relation to humans but as ‘in here’. It enables us to think about other cultures and to locate ourselves within a much wider, larger ‘locale’—the world itself. We live in a state of uncertainty, a state in which we become free : free from tradition, free to decide who we are.

Cont… Bauman highlights the negative consequences of global society including the problems the individuals have in developing a stable sense of identity. Individuals live in fear of the negative things that might happen and over which they have no control. According to Bauman, identity development is marketed to us as a fun leisure activity, although identities will always be in a state of flux and a continual project until we find a stable source to which we can anchor our identity.

Conclusion