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Communicating Identity in Intercultural Communication 433

gimes in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, however, saw the resurgence of eth-
nicity in an unsuspected and brutal way. Also, the process of globalization in-
vokes or stimulates certain strategies for constructing and managing one’s
‘own’ national, regional, local or non-territorially bound identities.
As an example of newly arising national identities we take a look at a former
Republic of the Soviet Union: Lithuania. Cepaitiene (2000) studied the creation
and meaning of Lithuanian national symbols in the press and memoirs of Li-
thuanian national revival leaders in the first half of the 20 century and at the
th
th
end of 20 century. Flags as well as crests, currencies, monuments, mottoes, etc.
are seen as carefully constructed and projected images of identity that result
from a conscious decision-making process. The intention to create the Lithua-
nian national flag emerged during the First World War, when the political inde-
pendence of Lithuania was becoming a reality. In the summer of 1988, after al-
most half a century of Soviet occupation, the Lithuanian national flag, which
was banned by the Soviet Union, appeared openly at demonstrations organized
by political movements. Cepaitiene describes (2000: 466) how the banned
national symbol, displayed in public, implied the idea of a recovering nation and
an independent state. The publicity of the national flag crystallized previously
disseminated national feelings. The legalization of the national flag was initi-
ated by authorities who were influenced by Gorbachev’s perestroika. But people
could perceive and experience different meanings of the banned national sym-
bol – and such was the case. When it was proclaimed as a Lithuanian national
flag by the Lithuanian Communist party authority at one of the first rallies, the
Sajudis press reported the next day: “That evening in the Vingis park we finally
experienced our power. Sajudis (political mass movement for a restoration of
Lithuania) and all Lithuanians are awakening to the new moral life” (p. 469).
More and more the flag became an icon of pride in a new state and nation and
emotional affiliation with the ethnic community. In conclusion and finally, the
flag also became a symbol of demarcation from Russia.

2.4. Conclusion: identity in a globalized world
Intercultural encounters make it clear that identity constitutes itself in relation-
ships rather than being merely a characteristic of individuals. Even when we
grant that modern identities are patchwork constructions and that a complex
communicative management is needed to make a certain identity accountable, it
is all the same evident that these identities also need a certain stability and coher-
ence within their respective cultures. For persons, groups or larger social con-
figurations like states it is often the case that the respective identities have to be
asserted in the face of external opposition. Thus, for any unity, a part of the as-
sociated politics of identity will consist in the search for an environment in which
the social identity can solidify and assert itself, secure from outside incursion.