Identity Mania : Fundamentalism and the Politicization of Cultural Differences

by Thomas Meyer

• ISBN13: 9781842770634
• ISBN10: 1842770632
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2002-02-09
• Publisher: Zed Books

Summary

A critically important question confronts many countries in the post-Cold War epoch: are culturally determined political conflicts inevitable? While acknowledging people's need for identity, and that different cultures necessarily produce differentiated identities, Professor Meyer argues that difference only leads to intolerance and violence when politically ambitious leaderships exploit it. Fundamentalism is therefore essentially a political phenomenon that has occured in all civilizations, particularly in contemporary Europe and North America. In the present age of globalization, Meyer suggests that social crisis grows out of an exclusionary dynamic that marginalizes growing numbers of people. Little wonder that the deepening of inequality between North and South has undermined popular confidence in secular leaders' vision of development and triggered a divisive fundamentalism that declares war on modernism and, ironically, on traditionalism too. This argument contains real grounds for optimism. In seeking political strategies to defeat fundamentalism and the identity mania that accompanies it, the focus must be on developing economic and social structures that give all citizens a common interest in the operations of a socially responsible market economy, which delivers to all.

Author Biography

Thomas Meyer is Professor of Political Science at the University of Dortmund. Born in 1943, he studied philosophy and political science with Adorno, Horkheimer, Habermas and Fetscher in Frankfurt am Main. He has taught and conducted research in several countries, including India, and is the author of numerous essays and books on culture and politics, political communication, and socialism. These include Fundamentalismus: Aufstand gegen die Moderne (1989), Was bleibt vom Sozialismus? (1990), and Die Transformation des Politischen (1994).

Table of Contents

Editor's Note	ix
Fundamentalism: Failed Modernity and the West A Foreword	xi
Hartmut Elsenhans
Spotlight	xxi
The Birth of an Ideology	1	(26)
An Indignant Look at a New Experience	1	(3)
The Politics of Cultural Identity	4	(10)
Identity: Necessity and Mania	14	(3)
Fundamentalism: The Modern Identity Mania	17	(10)
Attempts at Clarification	27	(5)
Civilization, Civilizational Styles and Culture	27	(5)
Unexpected Strains of Fundamentalism in Europe	32	(20)
The Right-Wing Mania for Identity: Ethnopluralism	32	(4)
The Left-Wing Identity Mania: Community as Society	36	(3)
The Post-Modern Identity Mania: Psychosects	39	(8)
The Identity Mania Engendered by Exclusion: Young Turks in Germany	47	(5)
Unwanted Interactions: Global Scenarios for Culture and Politics	52	(18)
The Clash of Civilizations	52	(5)
Insulation through Globalization	57	(6)
Opening-up through Identity	63	(4)
The Clash within Civilizations	67	(3)
The Language of Empirical Investigation: Facts and Research Results	70	(21)
Basic Social Values in Cultures	71	(9)
Post-materialism in Cultures	80	(2)
Socio-Cultural Milieus in Cultures	82	(3)
Understanding between Cultures	85	(6)
Prospects for the global Community	91	(6)
Theories on Fundamentalism	91	(6)
Transculturality: A Contemporary Concept of Culture	97	(12)
The Case of Islam	97	(4)
Cultural Linkages	101	(4)
Refuge and False Enticement	105	(4)
Opportunities in Risk	109	(4)
Appendix I: A Comparison of Fundamental Values on the Basis of Hofstede's Data	113	(8)
Appendix II: Post-Materialism in 40 Countries on the Basis of Gross National Product	121	(1)
Appendix III: Socio-Cultural Milieus in Europe	122	(1)
Select Bibliography	123