Identity in the Global City

4/6

Bahia Blanca, Argentina

(Prepared for Paginas Valdenses)



In reflecting on the formation of identity in global city, let's first set the context for our conversation. Urban areas are marked by high population density and infrastructure of built environment. For the  first time  in the   history of humanity, the majority of the world's people live in urban areas. (According to the United Nations Population Division,In 2014, 3.9 out of 7 billion.)  As we consider urban communities around the world, we find a number of commonalities. These include:
* The collapse of sustainable rural life and internal migration of people from the countryside to the city
* The impact of global migration resulting in the greatest number of people in motion from one place to another  in history, what artist and filmmaker AI Wei Wei has described as the "human flow." Every urban area is struggling to deal with the inflow of people from other countries. And there is a growing recognition that there is no true distinction between political and economic refugees as political decisions drive the economic realities that make life unsustainable.
* The continuing and expanding income disparity gulf between the super  rich and everyone else.
* The urbanization of former suburbs and rural areas closing the gaps between urban centers and creating extended urban ares with multiple often unrelated governments.( EG, the string of communities along the shores of the Rio Plate leading to the sea.) 

There are also some disparities between the global north and the global south. In the north, the phenomenon of gentrification has become a major factor. Whereas in the 1960's there was abandonment of cities in the "white flight" era, there is now a return of wealth to formerly depressed urban areas resulting in forcing up costs of housing and driving out those who have been living there for decades. This reality is just beginning to take place in cities in the global south.

On the other hand, the global south has the phenomenon of "shanty towns" on the margins of cities where migrants form rural areas are constructing new communities. I once saw a colonia of 20000 people being constructed almost over night in Juarez, Mexico. Again, something similar, though less dramatic, is occurring in the urban communities along the Rio Plate. 

In this  context, people in urban areas seek to build community and maintain a sense of identity. This leads to two contrasting tendencies. One is a creation (or recreation) of former communities or enclaves, within larger communities. In New York City, the Borough of Queens is made up of ethnic enclaves from around the world. There are, for example, neighborhoods where all the signs are in Korean and no English heard on the street. This is not that different than the historic "Chinatowns" of South American Cities. People from one distinct community will establish themselves together in a new community, recreating their community of origin in diaspora.  So many people from Puebla live in the Upper West Side of Manhattan that a consulate, Casa Puebla, has been established there. In the global South, this is particularly true of indigenous enclaves within broader communities.

.The opposite of this is a form of integration in which one claims an identity as part of the city over against the broader nation, for example. in cities like Berlin and New York City, one more quickly identifies as a Berliner  or New Yorker before any identification as German or American. The global city is much more able to allow for multiple identities to coexist than "national" identities. Thus the current debate over what it means to be part of a nation taking place across the globe. 

Within the global city, people may locate their identities through ethnic associations, unions, passionate support of a particular football team and of course, churches. The challenge for the church is as to whether it will simply be a container for preserving the markers of where people have come from or actively serve as a catalyst in the process of creative integration. Both of these are important. The profound beauty of cities comes from the new creations of art and culture and even food that comes from the encounter of diverse communities. Our churches have a call to embrace and facilitate that process as partners with our creator in the ongoing work of creation.