Introductory Paper: Cultures Under Negotiation: Discourse, Identity, And The Reconfiguration Of Meaning In Global Contexts
Keywords:
Cultural reconfiguration, authenticity, discourse, identity, postcolonialism, mediation, resistance, globalisationAbstract
This special issue brings together rich contributions that collectively interrogate the conditions under which cultures are produced, sustained, contested, and reconfigured in an increasingly mediated and interconnected world. Situated at the intersection of literary studies, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, cultural heritage, media studies, and political economy, the papers assembled here share a fundamental concern: How do global forces—technological, colonial, ideological, and economic—interact with local cultural practices, narrative traditions, and social identities? Drawing on diverse theoretical frameworks, including critical discourse analysis, appraisal theory, semiotics, feminist theory, postcolonial thought, sociology of cultural expressions, cognitive linguistics, and ecocriticism, and engaging with textual, digital, visual, and ethnographic data from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Arab world, and the Americas, these studies resist any singular account of cultural change. Instead, they show that culture is always changing, with people negotiating between authenticity and adaptation, continuity and rupture, and resistance and co-optation. This introduction maps the thematic and methodological architecture of the issue across four interconnected tracks: (1) representation and power in literary and media discourse; (2) identity, satire, and resistance in postcolonial and diasporic contexts; (3) technological and algorithmic mediation of cultural memory; and (4) institutional, ritual, and sociolinguistic dimensions of cultural practice. In doing so, it argues that cultural reconfiguration is neither a passive response to globalization nor a straightforward assertion of local resistance but a dynamic, contradictory, and politically charged process that demands sustained interdisciplinary scrutiny.
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