CULTURAL IDENTITY IN A PLURAL SOCIETY: CURRENT PROPOSALS AND NEW PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. The concept of cultural identity has gained renewed importance in recent years due to new ways of dealing with cultural diversity. Both minority groups and host societies are claiming for greater attention and respect for their own cultural elements, which have not found a reasonable accomodation within multicultural societies. METHODS. In this article, I analyze this issue and examine some current proposals that try to combine respect for culturaldiversity with promotion of social cohesion. RESULTS. After traditional cosmopolitanism approaches, new alternatives have emerged such as those which stress multiple dimensions of identity; others that propose social cohesion founded on finding a shared fate; and others that support a multicultural identity. DISCUSSION. Due to the many problems presented by these proposals, I propose an identity education based on strong links to one´s own cultural heritage where human beings reach a maturity that allows them to respect others. Nonetheless, education should foster a critical sense compatible with a sense of belonging to one´s own community, so it is necessary to reconceptualize cosmopolitism as a fusion between two elements: openness to what is new, and loyalty to what is known and one´s own. Though clearly dogmatic approaches have to be rejected, this does not mean that every local tie, which is externally influenced but has certain predetermined —though not necessarily immutable— charactristics, has to be excluded. Moreover, this sense of the local prevents cosmopolitanism from drifting into a nomadic identity that prevents individuals from developing a sense of moral responsability or undertaking stable committments.