This book is a social psychological inquiry into identity in modern society. Starts from the social psychological premise that identity results from interaction in the social world. Reviews and integrates the most influential strands of contemporary social psychology research on identity. Brings together North American and European perspectives on social psychology. Incorporates insights from philosophy, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, cultural studies, anthropology and sociology. Places social identity research in a variety of real-life social contexts.
This major study develops a new account of modernity and its relation to the self. Building upon the ideas set out in The Consequences of Modernity, Giddens argues that 'high' or 'late' modernity is a post traditional order characterised by a developed institutional reflexivity. In the current period, the globalising tendencies of modern institutions are accompanied by a transformation of day-to-day social life having profound implications for personal activities. The self becomes a 'reflexive project', sustained through a revisable narrative of self identity. The reflexive project of the self, the author seeks to show, is a form of control or mastery which parallels the overall orientation of modern institutions towards 'colonising the future'. Yet it also helps promote tendencies which place that orientation radically in question - and which provide the substance of a new political agenda for late modernity. In this book Giddens concerns himself with themes he has often been accused of unduly neglecting, including especially the psychology of self and self-identity. The volumes are a decisive step in the development of his thinking, and will be essential reading for students and professionals in the areas of social and political theory, sociology, human geography and social psychology.
This book explores the instrumentality of language in constructing identity in contemporary society. The processes of globalization, hyper-mobility, rapid urbanization, and the increasing desire of local populations to be linked to the global community have created a pressing need to reconfigure identity in this new world order. Following the digital revolution, both traditional and new media are dissolving linguistic boundaries. The centrality of language in organizing communities and groups cannot be overstated: our social order is developed alongside our linguistic allegiance, shared narratives, collective memories, and common social history. Keeping in mind the fluidity of identity, the book brings together fourteen chapters providing cultural and social perspectives. The ideas reflected here draw on a range of disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, the politics of language, and linguistic identity.
If you're like most people, you probably believe that your identity is stable. But in fact, your identity is constantly changing - often outside your conscious awareness and sometimes even against your wishes - to reflect the interests of the groups of which you're a part. And that fluid identity has a powerful influence over your feelings, beliefs, and behaviours. In THE POWER OF US, psychologists Packer and Van Bavel integrate their own cutting-edge research in psychology, neuroscience and economics to explain what identity really is and show how to harness its dynamic nature to: Increase our productivity - Improve physical and psychological health - Overcome our individual prejudice - Unlock our altruism - Break the political gridlock - Galvanize others to solve controversial global problems Along the way, they explain such seemingly unrelated phenomenon as why men cry at football games but not funerals, why the history of slavery in U.S. counties is one of the best predictors of current day racism, and why Canada keeps a national reserve of maple syrup. Packed with fascinating insights, vivid case studies, and pioneering research, THE POWER OF US will change the way you understand yourself - and those around you - forever.
Goes beyond the category of transgender to question the need for gender classification Beyond Trans pushes the conversation on gender identity to its limits: questioning the need for gender categories in the first place. Whether on birth certificates or college admissions applications or on bathroom doors, why do we need to mark people and places with sex categories? Do they serve a real purpose or are these places and forms just mechanisms of exclusion? Heath Fogg Davis offers an impassioned call to rethink the usefulness of dividing the world into not just Male and Female categories but even additional categories of Transgender and gender fluid. Davis, himself a transgender man, explores the underlying gender-enforcing policies and customs in American life that have led to transgender bathroom bills, college admissions controversies, and more, arguing that it is necessary for our society to take real steps to challenge the assumption that gender matters. He examines four areas where we need to re-think our sex-classification systems: sex-marked identity documents such as birth certificates, driver’s licenses and passports; sex-segregated public restrooms; single-sex colleges; and sex-segregated sports. Speaking from his own experience and drawing upon major cases of sex discrimination in the news and in the courts, Davis presents a persuasive case for challenging how individuals are classified according to sex and offers concrete recommendations for alleviating sex identity discrimination and sex-based disadvantage. For anyone in search of pragmatic ways to make our world more inclusive, Davis’ recommendations provide much-needed practical guidance about how to work through this complex issue. A provocative call to action, Beyond Trans pushes us to think how we can work to make America truly inclusive of all people.
Contemporary American society, with its emphasis on mobility and economic progress, all too often loses sight of the importance of a sense of “place” and community. Appreciating place is essential for building the strong local communities that cultivate civic engagement, public leadership, and many of the other goods that contribute to a flourishing human life. Do we, in losing our places, lose the crucial basis for healthy and resilient individual identity, and for the cultivation of public virtues? For one can’t be a citizen without being a citizen of some place in particular; one isn’t a citizen of a motel. And if these dangers are real and present ones, are there ways that intelligent public policy can begin to address them constructively, by means of reasonable and democratic innovations that are likely to attract wide public support? Why Place Matters takes these concerns seriously, and its contributors seek to discover how, given the American people as they are, and American economic and social life as it now exists—and not as those things can be imagined to be in some utopian scheme—we can find means of fostering a richer and more sustaining way of life. The book is an anthology of essays exploring the contemporary problems of place and placelessness in American society. The book includes contributions from distinguished scholars and writers such as poet Dana Gioia (former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts), geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, urbanist Witold Rybczynski, architect Philip Bess, essayists Christine Rosen and Ari Schulman, philosopher Roger Scruton, transportation planner Gary Toth, and historians Russell Jacoby and Joseph Amato.
This book explores the causes and consequences of the contradictions in young people’s lives stemming from the affluence–purpose paradox: a lack of purpose-in-life among many of those living in the most affluent societies in human history. This paradox is endemic to identity societies where people experience a choice-contingent life course, and is examined using an interdisciplinary approach—largely with an integration of developmental psychology and sociology, but also using historical, anthropological, economic, and political perspectives. The transition to adulthood is now commonly a prolonged process, with young people facing a number of psychological challenges and sociological obstacles in their identity formation. Challenges include difficulties in making prudent choices about goals. Obstacles involve cross-pressures in the wider society as well as in educational institutions. Consequently, many youth experience their education as alienating and stressful rather than as an opportunity for personal development. Those without a sense of purpose have more difficulties with their identity formation that can produce symptoms of anxiety and depression. The current student mental health crisis is examined in this context. An additional challenge is an ambiguously defined adulthood. Young people who are confused about appropriate adult roles often value hedonistic activities rooted in narcissism and materialism rather than in more fulfilling long-term goals. Conversely, those who are agentic in their personal development can thrive in adulthood, especially when they combine agency with generativity. This book ends with a series of recommendations for researchers and policy makers to help youth cope with the affluence–purpose paradox.
'Identity' and 'selfhood' are terms routinely used throughout the human sciences that seek to analyze and describe the character of everyday life and experience. Yet these terms are seldom defined or used with any precision, and scant regard is paid to the historical and cultural context in which they arose, or to which they are applied. This innovative book provides fresh historical insights in terms of the emergence, development, and interrelationship of specific and varied notions of identity and selfhood, and outlines a new sociological framework for analyzing it. This is the first historical/sociological framework for discussion of issues which have until now, generally been treated as 'philosophy' or 'psychology', and as such it is essential reading for those undergraduates and postgraduates of sociology, philosophy and history and cultural studies interested in the concepts of identity and self. It covers a broader range of material than is usual in this style of text, and includes a survey of relevant literature and precise analysis of key concepts written in a student-friendly style.
We may think we control our own destinies, but who we are, how we think, what we feel, and how we act are shaped by multiple, intersecting identities that have different amounts of power and value in our society. Being Unequal explores how identity categories associated with race, class, gender, and sexuality help shape inequality. This concise and accessible book asks: How is identity experienced? How does identity help reproduce inequality? How does identity help resist inequality? What is the relationship between micro and macro inequality—in other words, how do our personal experiences shape larger social forces? Being Unequal argues that identities matter because they are a critical part of a complex social process in which everyday interactions contribute to larger systems of structural inequality. By recognizing the links between identity and inequality, Being Unequal also highlights the power of collective action to resist and oppose domination and exploitation. Filled with engaging real-world examples ranging from the social construction of momentary high school cliques to the emergence of momentous social movements, Being Unequal is a powerful introduction to social identities and the ways they shape our world.
Identity and Social Change examines the thorny problem of modern identity. Trenchant critiques have come from identity politics, focusing on the construction of difference and the solidarity of minorities, and from academic deconstructions of modern subjectivity. This volume places identity in a broader sociological context of destabilizing and reintegrating forces. The contributors first explore identity in light of economic changes, consumerism, and globalization, then focus on the question of identity dissolution. Zygmunt Bauman examines the effects of consumerism and considers the constraints these place on the disadvantaged. Drawing together discourses of the body and globalization, David Harvey considers the growth of the wage labor system worldwide and its consequences for worker consciousness. Mike Featherstone outlines a rethinking of citizenship and identity formation in light of the realities of globalization and new information technologies. Part two opens with Robert Dunn's examination of cultural commodification and the attenuation of social relations. He argues that the media and marketplace are part of a general destabilization of identity formation. Kenneth Gergen maintains that proliferating communications technologies undermine the traditional conceptions of self and community and suggest the need for a new base for building the moral society. In the final chapter, Harvie Ferguson argues that despite the contemporary infatuation with irony, the decline of the notion of the self as an inner depth effectively severs the long connection between irony and identity.
