How embracing multiple identities fuels creativity and collaboration

Through the lens of transculturality

Growing up in a household deeply rooted in South African traditions (language, storytelling, respect for elders, and collective responsibility) while being immersed in Dutch educational systems, social norms, and public discourse, I learned early on to navigate between cultural logics. This often meant negotiating my identity across contexts: being perceived too Dutch in African spaces and too African in Dutch ones. Over time, I came to see this not as a dislocation, but as a form of cultural fluency.

Welsch’s concept of transculturality offers a critical lens to understand this experience. In a globalized world, cultures no longer exist in isolation but are increasingly interwoven, giving rise to hybrid identities and ongoing transformation. My own life reflects this dynamic: I do not belong to a single cultural sphere, but inhabit a space where boundaries blur and new possibilities of being emerge.

Culture as negotiation

This transcultural perspective shapes both my interests and critical approach. I am drawn to questions of identity, representation, and belonging. Rather than seeing my cultural identity as fixed, I understand it as an ongoing, negotiated process, one that evolves through ongoing interaction with diverse cultural frameworks and is grounded in both self-awareness and social understanding. Navigating these dynamics is not only a challenge, but also a source of strength, shaping how I think critically about identity and belonging, and how I navigate the world.

I also approach my identity through an intersectional lens. My experience is shaped not only by culture, but also by the interplay of race, gender, geography, and tribal affiliation. These overlapping social positions do not operate in isolation; they compound and interact, shaping how I am perceived, how I experience inclusion or exclusion, and how I position myself in the world. This intersectional awareness deepens my understanding of power, belonging, and representation and leads me to ask not just Who am I? But also Who are we? Who belongs? Who is seen? Whose stories are centered, and whose are marginalised?

Transculturality as a framework

Ultimately, my transcultural identity is not merely a background detail; it is a framework that shapes how I engage with knowledge, connect with others, and contribute to conversations. This perspective also holds vital lessons for organisations; particularly those navigating mergers or collaborations across borders. When two or more cultures come together in a professional context, the challenge is often framed as ‘integration’, but in reality, it is about learning to live and thrive in the ‘in-between’, the space where different cultures, identities, or logics overlap, blur, and interact without fully collapsing into one or the other.

Creating a shared space

Transculturality in organisations undergoing change, growth or merger, means moving beyond simply combining practices or preserving separate identities; it is about creating a shared space where new cultural logics, hybrid ways of working, and new possibilities of belonging can emerge. This requires cultural fluency, i.e. the ability to navigate complexity, embrace hybridity, and leverage diversity as a strategic strength. The question, then, is not how to eliminate tension between cultures, but how to work with it productively. What becomes possible when organisations stop aiming for alignment and start designing for meaningful difference?