Culture, Representation and Identity

Culture comprises the shared symbols, values and practices through which communities make sense of the world. Representation refers to the ways in which those social meanings are conveyed—through language, images, performances and material forms—shaping how groups and individuals perceive themselves and others. Identity emerges in the dynamic interplay between cultural belonging and personal agency, as people adopt, adapt or resist the roles and narratives offered by institutions, media and everyday interactions. Research in this field draws on interdisciplinary methods—discourse analysis, ethnography, visual studies and digital analytics—to map how cultural forms circulate and how identities are constructed, negotiated and transformed across local and global scales. From heritage displays that animate the past to online networks that rewrite it, scholars highlight the role of culture and representation in promoting social cohesion, contesting inequality and informing policy on inclusion, education and creative practice.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Analyses of political discourse during a global health emergency reveal how leaders craft collective identity through metaphors of warfare and movement, fostering vertical solidarity under state guidance, horizontal bonds across communities and transnational appeals, while excluding those deemed to flout shared norms. A study of fashion exhibitions at a historic museum site shows that spatial storytelling and haptic engagement transform visitors into active co-creators of meaning, as bodily movement through curated layouts imbues garments with renewed cultural significance. In educational publishing, a social semiotic multimodal discourse study of bilingual adaptations of graded readers uncovers how text and image are recalibrated to reflect regional learning styles and conceptual frameworks, enhancing cultural authenticity without sacrificing core communicative objectives.

Culture, Representation and Identity publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in culture, representation and identity across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Social representation: The collective portrayal of groups and ideas through discourse and imagery that shapes shared understandings and norms.

Cultural authenticity: The degree to which texts, exhibitions or performances reflect the lived experiences, values and conventions of a specific community.

Counter-public sphere: An alternative discursive space where marginalised groups challenge dominant narratives and develop collective identity.

Social semiotic multimodal discourse analysis: A methodological approach examining how language, images and layout jointly produce meaning in texts or materials.

Haptic experience: The engagement of touch and bodily movement as a means of interpreting and co-creating cultural narratives in spatial settings.

References

1. Constructing collective identities and solidarity in premiers’ early speeches on COVID-19: a global perspective. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2021).
2. Exhibiting fashion on the heritage site: the interrelation between body, heritage space, and fashionable clothing. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2023).
3. Analysing and evaluating the bilingual adaptation of English graded readers in China: A social semiotic multimodal discourse study. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2024).
4. Black Twitter: A Response to Bias in Mainstream Media. Social Sciences (2017).
5. Colonial acts in Norwegian EAL textbooks – Relations between coloniser and colonised. Teaching and Teacher Education (2024).
6. Theorizing Intimacies and Articulation in Nigerian Hip Hop Music. Journal of Asian and African Studies (2023).
7. Culture and Identity in the Global Context: Transformation of Locality.