Cultural And National Identity SocializationGroups

Explain What Is Meant By the Term Culture

Culture refers to generally a certain group’s way of life. This include values, believes, norms, customs, language, diet, skills among other things practices and learned in a society. Culture is a central concept that involves a range of phenomena that are transmitted via social learning in society. As people grow up, various individuals affect how they choose to live through both secondary and primary socialization.

National identity refers to the sense of belonging to one state or person identity. This is represented by distinct language, culture, traditions, and politics. People are socialized in the following ways.

National symbols- these are entities which consider and manifest themselves to the world as a national community. They unite people by creating a representation of the national people, values, and goals. Include, flag, the court of arms among others. For example, the US flag is a sign of identity and unites the country’s people.

Secondly is the national language. This is a language that has some connection with people and the state they occupy. This language usually classifies certain people based on country – national identity. For instance, Chinese people can be identified based on their language (Conteh & Meier, 2014).

Lastly is the culture and cultural artefacts. Every country has various rituals and norms that are distinct from other states. For instance, Krishna Janmashtami festivals are a traditional festival associated with Indians.

Socialization is a lifelong process of disseminating and inheriting norms, ideologies as well as providing people with habits and skills necessary for participating within his own society. Some of the theoretical approaches on the role of socialization in the formation of culture and identity include;

This approach observes gender in its relation to power both at reflexive and face-to-face interactions within the structure of the society. It focuses on some factors such as race, sexual orientation, and nationality. It focuses on women oppression and men historical dominance within most societies. The feminist approach view women as disadvantaged and their interaction are ignored in society. This indicates that women from their early years of their lives feel neglected or disadvantaged and this make them realize who they are in society (Ross, 2017). Furthermore, they are thought to behave in a certain way based on societal gender expectations. For example, during the early years, women were expected to dress in a certain way and stay at home and take care of the children.

This theory is based on micro levels of social structure. This approach suggests that gender inequality exists as an efficient way to create a labour division where a particular segment of a population is clearly responsible for certain activities while the other segment responsible for other activities. This perspective creates norms, customs, and traditions in society (Smith, 2010). Herbert Spencer presents these norms and traditions as organs that work together for the proper

Globalization refers to the economic process of integration and interaction that is usually associated with the cultural and social aspect. Globalization has created increased economic, social and political interaction across cultural and political boundaries and this has greatly affected people’s identity. Globalization seems to encourage cultural homogenization and hybridization. This section describes some of the ways globalization has affected people’s identity.

First, globalization has increased and encouraged intermarriages. Intermarriage is the marriage between individual of different tribes, religion, ethnicities and social classes. Globalization has increased immigration of people from one state to other and ultimately increasing intermarriages. For instance, the United States has absorbed many people who come from diverse background and cultures. These immigrants intermarry with the locals and end up confusing their national identity. Cila & Lalonde (2014), stipulate that young adults especially those born into interfaith families find it complex to define their identity and finding acceptance is always difficulty. This indicates how globalization has adversely affected the sense of belonging to a culture or state.

Secondly is increased global migration. Globalization has increased the number of people traveling to different parts of the world and this is creating a chance for people to witness and experience different cultures and ways of life. Furthermore, people are becoming more educated as education is open for everyone to study anywhere in the world and this has greatly affected people’s way of thinking and interacting (Beck, 2018). On the centre of globalization is transnationalism theory which is the interconnectivity between people and receding economic as well as the significance of boundaries among national states. This is driven by the development of technology and communication at affordable prices (Thussu, 2018). This indicates how globalization has created multicultural in different states, created the use of foreign languages to ease communication and this affect the sense of belonging to a certain community or state of an individual.

In addition, globalization has created increased use of the internet. When it comes to matters of the internet, people have both positive and negative views. Through the internet, communication has become easier and the ease of doing business increased. Nevertheless, the internet has forced people to forget that there are real people in their surroundings who require their attention or have socialization need and make them recognize virtual friends rather than real ones. With the involvement of people in the internet, people have decreased their rate of interaction and socialization and many people are adopting other people’s way of life and culture forgetting their own, which is part of individual identity (Komito, 2011). Based on Aristotle’s theory of friendship, virtual friendship is not a genuine friendship since does not involve real-life interaction (Fröding & Peterson, 2012). This firmly confirms the loss of identity due to globalization.

Assess How the Agents of Socialization Creates and Reinforce an Individual’s Gender Identity

Socialization refers to the process in which an individual acquires social skills, language and value to conforms to the roles and norms required for integration into community. It involves primary socialization which occurs when a kid learns the values, actions and attitudes necessary to a person as a member of a particular norms and values and secondary socialization which is the activity of learning the necessary behaviour as a member of certain communities. Socialization is differently based on gender. Gender is the in this perspective, is the characteristics pertaining to the variation between feminist and masculinity and usually based on biological sexes. It is a social construction which is a notion that feminist and masculine have different roles. This section assesses socialization and reinforces an individual’s gender identity.

Secondly, Peer group begins at the earliest years of a child. Peers enable children to specialize in different activities based on gender which seems to enforce gender identity. Research has indicated that a peer group creates a social setting based on norms and this influence socialization, especially between feminist and masculinity.

Thirdly, religion is another agent which is an important avenue of socialization. Religions uphold gender norms and contribute their enforcement via socialization. Most religions have stereotypes where men are depicted to be more superior and usually lead most religious functions (Bhopal, 2018).

Social media greatly influence social norms and mostly depict female as a sexual object for the pleasure of the male viewer-male gaze (Dyrskog, 2017). This issue seems to support the feminist theory which addresses gender inequality. These sites greatly enforce gender issues, especially to young children.

Lastly, school is an agent of socialization where students spend most of their early years learning. School reinforces what society expects from the children-hidden curriculum. In conclusion, gender realization and identity is greatly influenced by socialization agents from the family when a child is born.

References

• Bhopal, K., 2018. Gender, 'race' and patriarchy: a study of South Asian women. Routledge.
• Cila, J. and Lalonde, R.N., 2014. Personal openness toward interfaith dating and marriage among Muslim young adults: The role of religiosity, cultural identity, and family connectedness. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 17(3), pp.357-370.
• Conteh, J. and Meier. 2014. The multilingual turn in languages education: Opportunities and challenges (Vol. 40). Multilingual Matters.
• Dyrskog, L.K., 2017. Visual Representations of Gender in English Foreign Language Textbooks and 10th Graders’ Reflections on Gender Equality and Visual Literacy (Master's thesis, University of Stavanger, Norway).
• Holborn, M., Langley, P. and Haralambos, M., 2004. Haralambos and Holborn Sociology: Themes and Perspectives. AS-and A-level Student Handbook Accompanies the Sixth Edition. Collins Educational.
• Komito, L., 2011. Social media and migration: Virtual community 2.0. Journal of the American society for information science and technology, 62(6), pp.1075-1086.
• Ross, C.E., 2017. Social causes of psychological distress. Routledge.
• Smith, A.D., 2010. The Concept of Social Change (Routledge Revivals): A Critique of the Functionalist Theory of Social Change. Routledge.
• Thussu, D.K., 2018. International communication: Continuity and change. Bloomsbury Publishing.

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