Session 9: Identity Complexities

Session 9: Identity Complexities
Chair: Barbara Saunders

Cultural Shifts and Identity Crisis in the Wake of Online Education
Diane Martinez and Tanya Peterson
Kaplan University, USA

The current divisions in higher education caused by the traditional university’s reluctant response to the exponential increase in demand for online education have forced new cultures into existence, created an identity crisis for the individual, and reshaped existing subcultures and whole societies.  While evolution is inevitable in any culture, the rift in higher education between traditional universities and for-profit institutions, incidentally created by industry, is causing a cultural shift in perception and practice of what it means to be educated.
With the rise of the Internet as a tool for distance education, it is only natural that for-profit institutions would edge in for their share of the spoils.  And, in truth, it is these institutions that have aided in the development and employment of some of the most advanced education technology in use today.  Furthermore, for-profit institutions boast, and deservedly so, that they serve a population that has been ignored or underserved by the traditional academy.  This population would remain underserved if these institutions did not give traditional universities a run for their money.  And, it is money that is forcing the university to rethink its traditional structure, and creating subcultures of traditional and for-profit educated individuals.

Cultural Identity Paradox in United Arab Emirates Male and Female Managers
Michael Willemyns
University of Wollongong in Dubai, Dubai

The United Arab Emirates is a paradox within itself, especially the highly commercialized city of Dubai. In the past 30 years, Dubai has been rapidly transformed from a traditional Moslem fishing and pearling village, into a hyper-modern internationalized (and largely ‘westernized”) city, with expatriates from over 120 countries forming over 80% of the current population.  Indeed, Dubai is increasingly being branded as “The Las Vegas of the Middle East”. This is in itself ironic, when it is considered that gambling is not allowed in this devout Moslem country.  However on the surface level of this largely traditional society, there is now, dichotomously, an abundance of “Las Vegas-style” glitz and glamour. As a result of the recent and rapid societal changes in the UAE, there appears to be a major shift, and perhaps even a fracturing, in the cultural identity of indigenous Emiratis, from the traditional to the modern.  This paper discusses research in which 90 educated Emirati male and female managers (average age 28) participated in interviews and focus groups to explore this emerging set of paradoxical identities.  An ethnographic approach was used in the research, and the theoretical frameworks used were social identity theory, and the cross-cultural theories of Hofstede, Trompenaars, and Hall and Hall. The conclusions suggest that while there is still an enduring traditional high-context and religious underpinning to Emiratis’ social identities, there is also a significant shift towards a more westernized, low-context and individualistic social identity.  Further, it appears that while for some Emiratis there is some internal discord due to their multiple and conflicting social identities, many Emiratis, especially women, have been able to rapidly reconcile the complexities of these conflicting social identities. The conclusions of this research will be illustrated with extracts from the interviews and focus groups.

Identity – A Treacherous Concept
Martin Palecek
Faculty of Humanities, University of Hradec Kralove, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

The aim of this paper is to discuss the concept – or, more properly, the concepts – of cultural identity within the contemporary academic discourse. Trying to clarify what we mean by cultural identity seems both necessary and impossible at a moment like the present, when the study of various kinds of identities rapidly extends across virtually all fields of the humanities. The current concepts of “identity” and “culture” (frequently understood as inextricably interconnected) stem from 60s and have quickly penetrated social sciences, humanities and also political debates.
(1) Using the Czech debate about identity as an example I would like to demonstrate that these debates and these usages of the concepts are both seductive and misleading. I argue that the concept of cultural identity is a tool of social and political practice, rather than a concept suitable for theoretical analysis.
(2) In the second part I argue that recent debate about cultural identity is only a variation on the old theme of the tension between the concepts of “Gesellschaft” and “Gemeinschaft”.