ABSTRACT
Globalization is poignantly characterized by facts that indicate the growth rates of markets, technologies and information. The publications of the United Nations Development Programme devoted to analysis of globalization and its human consequences emphasise four driving forces of globalization: new markets, new technologies, new agents and new norms. Public space is being privatized, with severe consequences for the public good and the common benefit. Identity needs a shared space in which to establish sympathy and friendship with other identities. Identities also need a favourable time. Individualism means that identity today is closely linked to money. In addition to money and identity, style is the third basic form of life. In the perspective of the twenty-first century, identity is a new unity of tradition, language, knowledge, innovation, technology and market. Many peripheral countries are trying to postulate their national identity by adding to its construction exactly these decisive forces of globalization.
