How Personal Identity Influences the Events We Choose to Attend: Carnival and Carnivalesque by Mikhail Bakhtin

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Recommended: Why globalization is important

“The nature of events in a 21st century society: A critical discussion of events, gender and identity”

Identity: The fact of being who or what a person or thing is. The principle objective of this paper is to establish how the role of identity and our belonging impact on what types of events we attend, where we attend and who with? How has globalisation impacted the events industry through social, economic and cultural levels? The objectification of both men and women; how has this created an even bigger impact on events in our ever changing world? Has this enhanced our freedom in choosing which events we can attend or restricted us? This essay is focused on the works of Mikhail Bakhtin “Carnival and Carnivalesque” and his critique on cultural theory related to the events industry. This essay also looks at the works of Pierre Bourdieu; his “habitus and embodiment” theories and the way we have internalised the external environment and how this ultimately affects our behaviours. Goulding and Saren’s publication of: Performing identity: an analysis of gender expressions at the Whitby Goth festival has equally given a clear critique of the nature of gender identities within a specific subculture, a subculture firmly rooted in objects of consumption and bonded together by a common fascination with the vampire.

Globalisation is now recognised as a key factor in influencing young people. There have been many connections established between identities and living in a global society. Giddens (1991) suggests that globalisation can be defined as ‘the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa’. Social analyst B...

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...val is important.” Carnival can re-unite people, from many a different background or community.

French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1984) defines habitus as 'a durable, transposable system of definitions' acquired initially by the young child in the home as a result of the conscious and unconscious practices of her/his family. This comprises the 'primary habitus'. Subsequently this is transformed into a secondary, tertiary or further habitus by the child's passage through different social institutions, principally schooling. (Broker 1999)

Habitus is neither a result of free will, nor determined by structures, but created by a kind of interplay between the two over time: dispositions that are both shaped by past events and structures, and that shape current practices and structures and also, importantly, that condition our very perceptions of these (Bourdieu 1984)

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