Development of multiple identity. the social, cultural, civic and cosmopolitan identity

Abstract

The fall of the Berlin Wall opened the doors to a new world; it definitely became the global village that H. M. McLuhan had prophesied in the sixties. The world enters in an accelerated one, according to I. Ramonet's words, fusion dynamics, opening unimaginable horizons shortly before. Think of the exponential growth, produced from that moment, of commercial, scientific, technical and information exchanges around the world; in the mobility of people or investments. Since then, migratory flows have multiplied, becoming a structural and global feature of our time. But, although in the first moments we saw the new scenario more full of opportunities, soon after we could perceive its risks: the other side of the phenomenon, which Ramonet himself calls fission dynamics. With all clarity we see in its various forms the new threats to democratic coexistence that hover over the world scene.

All this makes us think that the time to relearn to live democratically together has arrived.

Following the thesis supported by Tzvetan Todorov, the exercise of life in common can only be done from a feeling of belonging, that is, from an identity that would be characterized by being both: variable; dynamic and multiple (social identity, cultural identity, civic identity and cosmopolitan identity)

Each of these identities is taking shape throughout childhood and adolescence. Consequently, the school curriculum must be oriented towards the development of said identities. Its contents must be presented transversally in the general curriculum and in specific programs of independent subjects, so that they accompany the process of social, cognitive and affective development of the child in the infant, primary and compulsory secondary stages.