Re-imagining Identity through Global Exploration

In the summer of 2019, I completed an internship through WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF). WWOOF is a global network that links organic farmers (hosts) to volunteers (WWOOFers) with the hopes of spreading sustainability and building the organic movement. In exchange for room and board, WWOOFers work a maximum of six hours a day with one off-day per week. My WWOOFing experience took place from June 21st to August 17th, at three organic farms in South Korea: OK Farm, Largo Farm, and Dagam Farm.

OK Farm is located in Yeoncheon, South Korea. From June 22nd to July 6th, I was hosted by Shin Sang Sik and worked alongside two WWOOFers from Thailand, Mar and Parn. OK Farm specializes in raspberry production, but also grows bracken ferns (kosari), and various vegetables.

Largo Farm is located in Boryeong, South Korea. From July 6th to July 20th and August 5th to August 17th, I was hosted by Lim Eun Young, and worked alongside two WWOOFers from Hong Kong, Cristy and Shin Ying. Largo Farm specializes in the production of herbs for tea and aroma therapy, but also functions as an educational farm, providing classes to community members in music and herbal remedies.

Dagam Farm is located in Changwon, South Korea. From July 20th to August 3rd, I was hosted by Chang Gook Kang, and worked alongside three agriculture interns from Malaysia, Zikry, Zul, and Sam. Dagam Farm’s primary crop is the persimmon, but they also grow strawberries and rice. As an educational farm, they provide classes for local farmers about orchard tree maintenance and run experience programs for students to teach them about organic farming.

When I arrived at Largo Farm, my host, imo, asked if I could introduce myself in Korean. Hesitantly, I supplied my name and told her I was American. This, she said, would not do. She set me to work crafting a lengthy introduction that I would recite to groups of middle school girls in the coming days. The beginning went something like this:

“안녕하세요! 제 이름은 린새입니다. 저는 미국대학생이고 지석농업과 저널리즘을 고부하고 있습니다. 한국말 공부하고 있습니다. 반갑습니다!”

“Hello, my name is Lyndsay. I am an American university student studying Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Writing and Media Studies. I am studying the Korean language. I am glad to meet you.”

These words defined who I was to every new face I met in South Korea. But what they reveal is only surface level: I am female, American, and educated; elements of my identity that do not change. They fail to communicate the parts of me that are growing through my exploration of the world — the identity and culture I am actively discovering and creating.

Culture can be defined in different ways, but most broadly, it is the way of life of a people. This definition becomes problematic when considering the rapid pace of globalization. Typically, globalization is seen as a threat to cultural identity, but in his chapter titled ‘Globalization and Cultural Identity’ found in The Global Transformations Reader: An Introduction to the Globalization Debate, John Tomlinson argues that globalization has actually played a significant role in the creation and spread of cultural identity.

Culture can no longer be distinctive or only place-based because people, ideas, and material goods are all moving around the world. This multitude of flows allows citizens in mostly affluent nations the opportunity to exert personal taste in the creation of their culture.

Gordon Mathews, author of Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket, conceptualizes culture as “the information and identities available from the global cultural supermarket.” From this marketplace of ideas, people have access to the global network of music, food, fashion, religion, and so on. With these networks, they can pick and choose how to construct their own cultural identities. But these choices are not as free as one may think when considering outside forces that shape global-to-local cultures today: forces of state power and forces of social influence.

According to Mathews, citizens have been culturally shaped by their nation-states to believe that national identity is bound to their way of life as a people. This ability of a state to influence a common way of life is being challenged by ethnic identity’s growing detachment from state control. While this conflict exists, both national and ethnic identity share the idea that people belong to a specific place. In contrast, Mathews argues that market identities are not place-based, and instead promotes the idea that all the world is our home. As countries grow in wealth and globalization accelerates, the forces of market influence that shape citizens may become just as relevant, if not more, than the forces of state power.

“Most societies around the world are, or are rapidly becoming, ethnically and culturally plural. Ethnic diversity challenges the existing social hierarchies and exclusionary conceptions of citizenship.” — Maykel Verkuyten

Tomlinson echoes a similar point of view, arguing that cultural identity is not easily overtaken by globalization because of the dominant national identity that is constructed and maintained by nation-states. Michael Billig calls this banal nationalism, or “the everyday minute reinforcement; the continuous routinized ‘flagging’ of national belonging, particularly through media discourse — sponsored by developed nation-states.” Tomlinson points out that the power of this ‘banal nationalism’ is changing in response to the forces of market influence that allow for the construction of complex, hybrid identities.

“Political subjects can now experience and express, without contradiction, both attachments to the nation, multi-ethnic allegiances and cosmopolitan sensibilities. The really interesting cultural-political question that emerges is of how nimble and reflexively attuned state apparatuses are capable of becoming in response to these changes.” — John Tomlinson

The question then becomes one of identity formation. Do people believe they have place-based or market-based identities? Are citizens shaped more by their societies and states or the cultures of the world? Many social psychologists argue that identity is not fixed, but instead in the continuous process of recreation. Mathews defines identity after Anthony Giddens, as “the ongoing sense the self has of who it is, as conditioned through its ongoing interactions with others. Identity is how the self conceives of itself, and labels itself.”

In his book, Mathews describes three levels of consciousness he believes are responsible for the shaping of identities. The deepest level lies below the conscious mind and is constructed from the language and social norms conditioned since birth. Most people can seldom comprehend this level because they speak and act in ways that seem innate and unquestionable.

“Because we think in language, we can’t easily comprehend how that language shapes our thinking; because we live through taken-for-granted social practices we can’t easily comprehend how they lead us to live our lives in some ways and not in others.” — Gordon Mathews

The middle level of identity formation is within the individual’s comprehension, but outside of their control. These are the normative social influences that cannot be resisted without facing consequences; they are the reasons Americans obey traffic laws, get an education, and remain quiet in the library. The third level is the most fully available to the conscious mind and thus the most susceptible to change; it is where one can choose how they want to represent themselves in society. In summary, Mathews argues that identity is shaped by actions performed without thinking, actions performed out of obligation, and actions performed by choice.

In their book Identity, Formation, Agency, and Culture: A Social Psychological Synthesis, Charles Levine and James Côté present a different model for identity formation following the personality and social structure perspective (PSSP). The three levels of analysis they present are personality, interaction, and social structure which give way to a taxonomy for understanding identity beginning with social identity, personal identity, and ego identity.

At the level of social identity, individuals are influenced by the pressure to adhere to the social roles within their culture, similar to the normative social influences described by Mathews. The next level, personal identity, is where individuals can exert individual choice in the creation of their identity “style.” Finally, at the level of ego identity, individuals are influenced by their own internal disposition, or their inherent attributes. While Levine and Côté’s approach to identity formation may differ from the framework presented by Mathews, one could easily draw parallels between both.

Mathews believes that these levels of social and cultural formation often function unnoticed until an individual is faced with an unfamiliar social context that challenges their preconceived notions. Only then will the idea of identity formation be entertained, and the question of self be explored. Through this interrogation, new elements of identity can be discovered that lead to the reconfiguration of self-hood.

When Korea arrived in my cultural supermarket in January of 2018, I was intrigued instantly. I didn’t understand why; this new-to-me culture was so at odds with who I was at the time that I rejected it over and over. But something about it kept pulling me back; I wanted to know more. Before long, I undertook one of the biggest identity shifts in my life thus far: I started studying the Korean language and culture.

“We will find that choices from the cultural supermarket…are very often agonized over, for they may be of extraordinary importance to these people in defining what their lives are most essentially about.” — Gordon Mathews

This unfamiliar culture found me during a fundamental period of growth; I was beginning my second semester of college, navigating new relationships, and learning what it meant to be independent. All these new experiences and contexts left me uncertain of myself and my future, inviting me to question who I was and explore the influences that have shaped me, while also awakening the realization that change was okay.

Over the course of the next year-and-a-half, I taught myself the Korean language through a variety of platforms, listened to Korean music, watched Korean drama, and started exploring Korean culture. As a result, I noticed my identity changing in ways I never considered. I became more aware of my physical health, my happiness, and the role I play in ensuring my own success. Interestingly, I also became more conscious of the ways my identity had been formed by the innate workings of language and the normative influences of American society.

To disrupt my identity even further, I decided to travel solo to South Korea to complete a two-month internship through the organization WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF). This experience allowed me to immerse myself in the Korean language, learn about culture through organic farming, and discover elements of my evolving identity.

Within this publication is a series of stories that explore how my experiences WWOOFing in South Korea influenced my understanding of my own identity in relation to the Korean culture. Quotes from a journal I kept over the summer are included as supporting evidence to my memories and experiences. I refer to my hosts and other Koreans using the romanized versions of their honorific titles; these will be italicized throughout the series. All conclusions are drawn from my own interactions and explorations within the Korean culture and are subject to my own subjective analysis.

Read next: The Morning Basket: Uncovering Lessons about Respect and Expectation

References:

Baumeister, R. F., & Muraven, M. (1996). Identity as adaptation to social, cultural, and historical context. Journal of Adolescence, 19(5), 405–416. https://doi.org/10.1006/ jado.1996.0039

Côté, J. E., & Levine, C. G. (2002). Identity, Formation, Agency, and Culture. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.

Flesher Fominaya, C. (2010). Collective Identity in Social Movements: Central Concepts and Debates. Sociology Compass, 4(6), 393–404. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2010.00287.x

Held, D., McGrew, A. G., & Tomlinson, J. (2003). Globalization and cultural identity. In The global transformations reader: An introduction to the globalization debate (pp. 269–277).

Mathews, G. (2000). Global culture/individual identity: Searching for home in the cultural supermarket. New York, NY: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1525/ aa.2002.104.1.367

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