Abstract

Collective identity builds on individual identity and refers to perceived or experienced continuities as well as ruptures in collectives. The global turn has made multiple memberships as well as plural and flexible identities a normal state. Individuals can belong to several, indeed a multitude of collectives and can change their identity. A watershed is the historically extremely new consciousness of globality and a common humanity. The current global issue of collective identity is whether humanity as a world collective can develop a consciousness of being a community with the same fate on a small planet. Different peoples do not live in different worlds but differently in one world. The main identity issues revolve around global citizenship, cosmopolitanism, and a common humanity in the age of the Anthropocene.