Identitātes jēdziens Rietumu un Austrumu sabiedriskajā domā

The article aims to provide empirical evidence for the complexity of the identity concept, as suggested in theoretical discussions, and to compare how this concept is understood in Western and Eastern social opinion. The article analyses two questions from a sociolinguistic online survey conducted in 2021 to examine how societies in the West (the European Union) and the East (the Republic of India) perceive and interpret identity. The article also outlines key theoretical approaches to identity, highlighting its multidimensional nature and the challenges in defining it. The survey results show that social understandings of identity are fluid and multilayered. Responses to the open-ended question “What is identity?” indicate that, among respondents from the European Union, identity is more often framed through an individual-oriented perspective, whereas among respondents from the Republic of India, it is more frequently understood in collective/community terms. The most common words used to define identity were belonging, self, sense, culture and values. The closed-end question (with predefined answer options) revealed similar tendencies among both respondent groups: when thinking about their identity, respondents most commonly selected culture, language, views of life, values and belonging to a nation or ethnic group.