Culture Essay Titles: ‘Nation and Community’ Semester 1, XXXXXXXXXX Please choose ONE of the following titles: In what ways and to what extent are borders and boundaries involved in the construction...

In what ways and to what extent are borders and boundaries involved in the construction of national, communal or individual identity
Running Head: BORDERS AND BOUNDARIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY 1
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BORDERS AND BOUNDARIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY
Borders and Boundaries in the Construction of Identity
Name
Institution
Question One
Borders and Boundaries in the Construction of Identity
Introduction
Identities are built around different sets of moral propositions, which control the behaviour and the value of a community. As a result, identity construction involves the idea of the desirable and the undesirable, right or wrong, and the polluted and the unpolluted. The norms are built with an aim of ensuring that they appear to be indefinite, which ensures that they are inviolable from questioning. Boundary mechanisms have a chance of explaining how collectivist sustains itself solely. Anything can be regarded as a boundary maker ranging from a dress code for the type of diet. Boundaries have to be maintained and protected at all times. Recently, the idea of boundaries has been identified as an important line of scholarship. It is associated with any research conducted on cognition, social identity, commensuration, cultural membership and ethnic group positioning (Prokkola, 2009, p. 31). Social boundaries are forms of social differences which are objectified and manifested within an access to equal distribution of resources as well as social opportunities.
Borders and Identity Construction
Within national, communal or individual identity, the boundaries, which attract the attention of individuals, include social boundaries despite the fact that they may have territorial counterparts. If a group maintains its social identity after interacting with other social groups, this provides a criterion for membership determination and the ways in which the membership could be signalled as well as excluded. Borders and boundaries play a major role in the construction of identity since it canalizes social life. It is composed of a complex organization of behaviour and social relations. Identifying an individual as a member of an ethnic community means that the person shares the similar criteria of evaluation and judgment as any other member of that ethnic community. This holds a meaning that the members of the ethnic community are playing the same game. This means that the potential for diversification and ensuring expansion of their social relationship is in existence (Herb, 2004, p. 164).
Within his works, ‘Aus dem Leben eines Tagenichts Novalis’, Heinrich von Ofterdingen identified other individuals as strangers to an ethnic community implies that there are limitations existing on the level of the shared understanding. In addition, differences are also exhibited in the criterion of judgement and a common interaction of the mutual interest. Cultural units and boundaries are there persistent. Ethnic communities are only in existence as significant units if they have the ability of having a marked difference in behaviour such as cultural differences within an ethnic group. This is evident as Novalis dreamt of regions which are far away. To reach the far away regions, he had to cross borders such as dark forests with a green network of trees. He also had to climb a neighboring hill which was a symbolic border between his community and that of the neighboring individuals (Ofterdingen, 2010).
In urban and national communities, boundaries have always been a central issue of concern. Communities are identified by internal segmentation and external perimeters. Borders and boundaries are utilized within the context of national identity to show that nations, places and culture are not isomorphic. In addition, borders and boundaries also show the extent of national identity such as the level of nation building. Borders provide people with a concrete and a powerful definition of a state as a site where citizenship is enforced in a strong manner through have passport checks prior to entry (Herb, 2004, p. 164).
The social experience associated with borders encompasses both formal and informal ties between local communities and larger polities. This provides a chance for site analysis of both the broader and narrower dimensions of the national identity. Territorial boundaries or borders are also regarded as instrumental in the construction of difference normally examines the process of nation building. There are...