Construction of identity and sustainable development in sociocultural landscapes

For the purpose of this study, construction of personal identity is understood to be a state of social stability, influenced by relationships with outside “others” as well as how such relationships transform or inform each culture’s understanding of its own being. Focusing on plural societies, this paper addresses the nature of such social identities and the consequences of the social comparison process, as a selective application of the accentuation effect, primarily to those dimensions that will result in selfenhancing of each individual culture in plural societies. Understanding identity in this way enables us to seriously talk about “interweaving” or “communing” of various cultural practices which is the very process of dialectical investigation and the possibility of discourse in a social context.