Crossing the Bridge from Sameness to Narrative Understanding

Abstract

A concern for sameness of the self with social others lies at the heart of many contemporary inquiries into society and culture. Sameness is aimed at explaining how generalized orientations in values, identities, or systems, are fixed and maintained. At the metatheoretical level, sameness is problematic because it is located in a concept of society in which the status quo is the desired state of affairs. Sameness is generally manifested in the emphasis placed on commensurability between cultures, based on a universal conceptual structure (standard), consisting of a set of generalized orientations, along the axis of which cultural differences among nations are given. In an era where multiple identities have become more widely accepted and theorized, organizations and professionals are facing some very pressing issues: Is intercultural understanding that transcends sameness at all possible? How can we resign ourselves to account for change and renewal in identity and identity formation? What approach would describe how we could reach a dialogic state of communication in the border zone between cultures?