Transculturality: The changing form of cultures today

The concept of transculturality suggests a new conceptualization of culture differing from classical monocultures and the more recent conceptions of i nterculturality and multiculturality. The traditional description of cultur es as islands or spheres is descriptively wrong, because cultures today are characterized internally by a pluralization of identities, and externally by border-crossing contours. Furthermore, this traditional concept, which e mphasizes homogeneity and delineation, is normatively dangerous in structur ally suppressing differences and encouraging separatism and violent conflic ts. The concepts of interculturality and multiculturalism tackle some of th ese ills, but their basic flaw remains the presupposition of cultures as ho mogeneous islands or enclosed spheres. The concept of transculturality seek s conversely to articulate today's cultural constitution, one characterized by intertwinement, and to elicit the requisite conceptional and normative consequences. Furthermore, transculturality is found at the individual micr olevel too: most of us are cultural hybrids. Transculturality aims for cult ures with the ability to link and undergo transition whilst avoiding the th reat of homogenization or uniformization. Cultural diversity arises in a ne w mode as a transcultural blend rather than a juxtaposition of clearly deli neated cultures. While it is currently assumed that we are going global and are, by doing this, uniformizing more and more, the concept of transcultur ality questions this line of thinking. The tendency towards transculturalit y does not mean that our cultural formation is becoming the same all over t he world. On the contrary, processes of globalization and becoming transcul tural imply a great variety of differentiation. Transcultural webs woven fr om the same sources can differ greatly and be quite specific and even indiv idualistic. The concept of transculturality counters the one-sidedness of b oth globalization and particularization diagnoses.