-
What is me? Two perspectives from East and West
If I have to define who I am – not me in particular but as an individual – I might say that I am the aggregate of my experiences. At any given moment, a human life is a conscious experience plus a recollection of previous experiences stripped off their spatial and temporal aspects: memories, knowledge, skills… They make up who I am. I am my life. Or so I thought before moving to India. There is a short anecdote about…
-
Identity is both personal and social
Our identities are formed not only by what makes us different from other individuals, but also by the ways in which we identify with certain others. For example, you are different from your brother because your personalities and interests are different, but you also identify with each other for being part of the same family and sharing the same nationality. Identity is both individual and collective; both personal and social. In their seminal work on intergroup conflict, Henri Tajfel and…
-
Dubai: world’s least cosmopolitan city
Dubai is possibly the most international place in the world, with less than 10% of its inhabitants holding the local passport. But calling Dubai 'cosmopolitan' would be a mistake, based on a wrong understanding of the term and of reality of life in the Arab Gulf. In fact, Dubai is maybe the least cosmopolitan city there is.
-
Identity and nationality in the Gulf
Few countries in the world have more foreigners than locals living within their borders. It is the case in the Arab Gulf states, where the majority of the population consists of immigrants: up to more than 85% in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. For the locals, this poses unique challenges to their concepts of identity and nationality.
-
Islamic State: media and identity
The Islamic State might have been defeated, but ideas does not die so easily. And they are different from what 'the West' thinks.
-
In search of Buenos Aires
"My contemplations streamed into a gaping expectation of novelty that was not filled by Buenos Aires. As a European, I had covered inhumane distances to get here and yet it seemed I had only traveled in terms of time - some 24 hours - and not in space. It was not a New World; it was a copy of the old one."
