Ideology, Identity, and Intercultural Communication: An Analysis of Differing Academic Conceptions of Cultural Identity

Cultural identity is a ubiquitous concept in intercultural communication and across social science disciplines. Based on a review of a broad range of literature addressing issues of cultural identity, this article describes how the pluralistic turn in ideology in American society at large and the blurring of boundaries between academic research and social activism have influenced how cultural identity has been defined and conceptualized in recent decades. Employing the author's analytic framework of “ideological circle” consisting of assimilationism, pluralism, integrationism, and separatism, the author examines implicit or explicit ideological messages emanating from various conceptions of cultural identity. The results reveal five different basic themes of cultural identity: (a) an adaptive and evolving entity of an individual; (b) a flexible and negotiable entity of an individual; (c) a discrete social category and an individual choice; (d) a distinct and communal system of communicative practices; and (e) a discrete social category and a non-negotiable group right.