The Cultural Structure of Society and the Role of Communication in Forming Cultural Identity – Relevant Aspects for Social Work

Culture is one of the basic components of society, which objectively reflects the state of a people, a nation or a group of people, its level of emancipation and development, both macrosocially and microsocially. Over time, society has been built on the cultural proficiency of individuals, groups and peoples, transposed into their history through artistic and cultural creations in literature, music, sculpture, architecture, religion, science, philosophy, sociology and politology. The components, characteristics and elements that comprise the culture of a community shape its cultural identity, thus building its social identity. National identity is built by cumulation of the elements composing the social identity of all the communities occupying a certain geographical space. When members of a community come into contact with social groups that adhere to different cultural elements, intercultural adaptation begins. The process is marked by the mutual communication of cultural particularities and the negotiation of the values ​​related to these particularities, and through this communicative process the individuals undergo a certain degree of intercultural transformation, corresponding to the degree of communication they had. The purpose of this article is to theoretically analyze the relevant connections, for the field of social work, between the cultural structure of society and communication within the process of cultural identity formation.