Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies

Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies
and maintenance of a stable identity within global culture or multiculture, we cannot be
sure how we can create an identity perspective.
The fact is that we from the East European region have managed, to a significant
extent, to heal the wounds caused by the turbulent and tragic events of the recent past
and we partly declaratively and partly effectively have entered the process of stabilization
and association through Euro-Atlantic integration. This is happening in the context of
the absolute domination of the mass media and advanced technologies where we are
all in a position to be included, interactive and participative and to individualize our
choices. However, it does not make one an individual who undeniably marks his or her
place in the world with clear social, political and cultural choices or values which might
be defined as identity and which would have its own sustainability in that perspective.
Dominant definitions of global culture hide the apparent paradox: that global
culture presumes increased interconnectedness, blurring of the boundaries, overlapping
cultures, development of transnational cultural identity, unification and cultural
homogenization, as well as protection of differences, plurality and differentiation. We
could assume that the global culture we should build and be part of should be based
neither on a state of opposition and conflict, nor on the principle of exclusion and
replacement nor on the drowning of all cultures in some huge “swimming pool” where
particularities will be blanched and flattened so that they disappear or are lost in the crazy
mixture. Instead, it should presume a constant state of interplay of differences, of close
encounters, of interconnectedness, encroachments, overflows, interferences of things,
like in Sloterdijkian foam, where everything, including identity, is in a state of floating
free, with unstable liaisons and unexpected couplings of “incalculable choreographies”,
as Derrida would say (McDonald, 1982).
References
Funcke, Bettina (2005) Interview with Peter Sloterdijk, Against Gravity (online). Available at:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/127777/against_gravity/ (15 February
2005).
Groys, Boris (2006) Učiniti stvari vidljivima, Zagreb: Muzej suvremene umjetnosti.
McDonald, Christie (1982) Interview with Jacques Derrida, Choreographies (online). Available
at: http://www.mediafire.com/tguylzdwmyo (1 July 2010).
Švob-Đokić, Nada (2011) “Cultural Identities in Southeast Europe: A post-transitional
perspective”, paper presented at the conference Questioning Transitional Dynamics in Redefining
Cultural Identities in SEE, Ljubljana, January 2011.
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