“Czechs are Germans”: Introducing the concept of gradient identialterity

Abstract

“Czechs are Germans”: Introducing the concept of gradient identialterity. – Sociocultural identity and alterity are ideal types representing the two opposite poles of “the same” and “the other”. In real societies, however, what we find is more of a mixed identialterity – a concept newly proposed in this article. Identialterity is a gradient, conditioned by communicative practices that are both reflexive and, to a certain extent, constitutive of it. The gradient identialterity of social and cultural groups may be, among other methodological viewpoints, studied and analyzed from a deictic perspective.