Globalisation, Culture and Lifestyle Seminar Eight: Roots and Routes of Identity

Key Lessons From The Lecture  Identity can be understood as the relationship between culture and society  Two main approaches to understanding this relationship  Structural sociology (Marx & Durkheim)  Society as a system  Action sociology (Weber & Simmel)  Society as a series of interactions between individuals  Postmodernity offers a number of opportunities and threats to identity  Multiculturalism v Monoculturalism  Risk and uncertainty

Discussion Topic  Take a few minutes to think about how you would define yourself – what is your identity?  It could be suggested that in a postmodern world our society has become more multicultural but similarly it could be argued that it has become monocultural – debate this argument.  Postmodernity offers a number of opportunities and threats for identity construction. Critically discuss this contention.