Network Cultures has thus made a new step towards a better understanding of the complex relations between history, ethnicity, language, religion, culture, territory on the one hand, and active citizenship on the other hand. The perverse use of identity is also analysed and concrete advice is being offered as to ways and means to mobilise local communities on the basis of their identity without falling into fundamentalism, exclusion and violence. More than ever, identity is « dynamite » but also source of « dynamism » !

Dr. Wandra Dressler presents her insights on the difficult exercise of Kazakhstani culture and of nation-building in Kazakhstan..

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, a muslim scholar from Malaysia wrote a critical analysis of Samuel Huntington’s famous essay on cultural identity : « The clash of civilizations ». The Chilean economist, Luis Razeto, offers his views on economic life rooted in the local identity of marginalized people.