Mapping hybrid identities: A matrixing model for transculturality

Abstract

With the development of Advanced Information and Communications Systems (AICS), the dissemination of cultural constructions has become more rapid and has broadened in scope to include most regions of the world. Many of the cultural systems being transmitted globally through AICS are Euro-American: these include concepts regarding economics, consumerism, civil rights, politics, gender roles, morality, lifestyle, notions of success, fashion, and diet. When external concepts permeate traditional regional cultural systems, irreversible alterations occur. Thus, the idea of concise homogeneous cultures is antiquated. Current cultures are hybridisations. In the global paradigm of informatization, regional societal sets are transcultural. Holding that identity is constructed internally within an individual from external cultural factors, then it may be concluded that identities today are culturally hybrid. To better address the forging of identity under the forces of globalisation, the authors have developed a theoretical model of the identity formation process, termed Identity Matrixing, which accounts for the conditions of transculturality. The chapter begins with an overview of Lacan’s concepts on the structuring and production of human identity from the diverse cultural constructions of the Symbolic Order. Building upon Lacan’s work, the authors propose that while the members of a particular societal set share elements of that set’s Symbolic Order, each individual, based upon their unique experiences, has a Symbolic Order unto themselves. Here the authors introduce the concepts Vertical Matrixing and Horizontal Matrixing. This development provides insight into the individuality of identities. The Meta-Symbolic Order, which is directly related to globalisation, will then be discussed with attention being given to its transcultural properties. The final section considers Global Hodological Mapping, a concept derived from Sartre’s notion of an internalised hodological map in Being and Nothingness. It is proposed that an understanding of the aforementioned concepts will foster the creation of transcultural frameworks to better engage and traverse globalising cultural landscapes.