Where are we in the question of identity: Jordanian youth as a model

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the concept of national identity and its constituents as perceived by Jordanian youth. Its main question is about the identity we have nowadays. The study sought to understand and analyze the concept of identity and its subjective and objective constituents through the identification of the perceptions of Jordanian youth of the identity by realizing its constituents, following the approach of social field studies and through some simple statistical analyses based on a sample which consisted of (250) young university people. They were asked about national identity and its most prominent constituents through the method of international sample. After analyzing the results, the study concluded the following:

First:   Jordanian youth consider identity as the perception of membership to both Jordan and the tribe and devotion to the political regime as being the protector of this identity and its connection with their living place and way of upbringing.

Second: The most prominent constituent of identity is the regional dimension with (62%), followed by the national dimension (21%), and finally the religions dimension (17%).

Third: The study concluded the result that there is confusion among Jordanian youth in regard to the constituents of identity, its local and national concept and the degree of perception.

The study recommended the necessity for the preparation of joint programs between the public sector and the institutions of civil society in order to create common distributors within the Jordanian collective sensation for one identity that reinforces membership to both society and identity simultaneously.