The Fragmentation of Identity Formation in the Age of Glocalization

摘要

Although the issue of identity has been a concern since the dawn of time, the globalizing drive has triggered more interest in the phenomenon, quite often leading to geopolitical and social crises. As a matter of fact, with the advent of a new age of glocalization—generally characterized by its deterritorializing tendencies—identity construction has proven to be fraught with a number of fragmentations, only to suggest that our understanding of how our identities are co-construed is still way too far to be accounted for in its entirety. This study argues that identity is a process of becoming rather than being, and it is thus formed in compliance with the exigencies of each and every time. While accompanied in theoretical perspectives, the study attempts to lay bare the different processes involved in one’s identity construction as it has been negotiated in the “pre-modern,” “modern,” and now “(late-)post-modern” ages. Such genealogical perspective paves the way to uncover the contentions inherent in the phenomenon, especially as we are nearing times where the blend of the local and the global has been exacerbated today more.