Social Meaning-Making in Globalized Societies

Although globalization has created a platform where cultures meet, mix, and interact, the process of meaning-making as a byproduct of this mix have remained insufficiently theorized. In this dynamic, the interrelation of cultural hybridization, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism tends to pose advantages and disadvantages for individuals and communities who attempt to build organized identities and navigate cultural diversity. This study examines how social meanings, identities, values, and experiences are renegotiated in globalized societies through the interrelated forces and platforms of cultural hybridity, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism. The study argues that these distinct concepts interact to shrink global boundaries into a community with shared cultures and identities. Anchored in the postcolonial theoretical framework, we implemented qualitative interviews and observations among ten adult participants in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria to investigate how specific cultural elements blend and evolve to create hybrid identities, practices, and meanings in multicultural populations. The findings from this study reveal that cultural hybridity, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism offer different ways of understanding identity, belonging, and cultural blending, but also reflect deeper tensions, apprehensions, and contradictions that characterize globalization. The study concludes that as forces of globalization continue to draw the world into one humanity, the ways in which social meanings are constructed will remain central to the ongoing negotiation of identity and belonging.