This book shows how the individual constructs a self from the thousands of colloquial identities provided by a society's culture, and reveals how the individual actualizes and sustains an integrated and stable self while navigating the sometimes treacherous waters of everyday institutional life.
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.
The concept of identity has become widespread within the social and behavioral sciences, cutting across disciplines from psychiatry and psychology to political science and sociology. Introduced more than fifty years ago, identity theory is a social psychological theory that attempts to understand person's identities, their sources in interaction and society, their processes of operation, and their consequences for interaction and society from a sociological perspective. In this fully updated second edition of Identity Theory, Peter J. Burke and Jan E. Stets expand and refine their discussion of identity theory. Each chapter has been significantly revised and chapters have been added to address new theoretical developments and empirical research in the field. They cover identity characteristics, the processes and outcomes of identity verification, and the operation of identities to detail in particular the role of emotional, behavioral, and cognitive processes. In addition, Burke and Stets explore the multiple identities individuals hold from their multiple positions in society and organizations as well as the multiple identities activated by many people interacting in groups and organizations. Written in an accessible style, this revised edition of Identity Theory continues to make the full range of this powerful theory understandable to readers at all levels.
This third edition builds on the international success of previous editions, offering an easy access critical introduction to social science theories of identity, for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates. All of the previous chapters have been updated and extra material has been added where relevant, for example, on globalization. Two new chapters have been added; one addresses the debate about whether identity matters, discussing, for example, Brubaker; the second reviews the postmodern approach to identity. The text is informed by relevant topical examples throughout and, as with earlier editions, the emphasis is on sociology, anthropology and social psychology; on the interplay between relationships of similarity and difference; on interaction; on the categorization of others as well as self-identification; and on power, institutions and organizations.
Employing three methods of assessing meaning, this book demonstrates that the thousands of human identities in English coalesce into groups that are recognizable as role sets in the contemporary social institutions of economy, kinship, religion, polity, law, education, medicine, sport, and arts. After establishing a theoretical and a methodological framework for his empirical work, David Heise presents the results obtained when meanings are assessed via dictionary definitions, collocates, and word associations. A close comparison of the results reveals that similar outcomes are obtained through each of these three different approaches of defining meaning. The final chapter summarizes the study, considers the benefits and limitations of studying society via language, and applies the results to describing how individuals operate social institutions via their daily social interactions. Aspects of this book will be of interest to social psychologists, sociologists, and linguists.
Why do people enter total institutions – places that confine and control them around the clock – and how does the experience change them? This book updates Goffman's classic model by introducing the Re-inventive Institution, where members voluntarily commit themselves to pursue regimes of self-improvement.
This book is about the institutional disrespect experienced by refugee immigrants at the hands of the state and its institutions. The desire to be treated respectfully is not felt only by refugees, but they are a much higher risk of not receiving it. Using a case study of recently settled South Sudanese Australians, the author uncovers the social realities of their marginalisation and examines how blocked pathways to cultivate collective and self-identities can lead to a breakdown of social bonds between immigrants and social institutions. Institutional Disrespect invites us to take a fresh look at whose responsibility it is to address the disrespect felt by immigrants and other marginalised groups, and argues that when disrespect is systemic in governance arrangements, or comes in the forms of injustice and institutional mistreatment, the responsibility lies not with individuals but with the state, its institutions and its appointed bureaucrats.
This book addresses the nature of current shifts in professional and managerial knowledge and practice, particularly in relation to power and accountability. Connecting with current debates concerned with work and identity, the book will present a range of theoretical and empirical accounts of the dilemmas and issues facing specialists in various organizational arenas as they seek to adapt to the challenges of organizational and cultural transformation. Contributions offer innovative and sophisticated theoretical engagements which draw upon various perspectives, including those of post-structuralism, feminism, post-marxism and post-modernism.
This book reflects on the research and career of political theorist Russell Hardin from scholars of Political Science, Philosophy, Sociology, Economics, and Law, among other disciplines. Contributions address core issues of political theory as perceived by Hardin, starting with his insistence that many of the basic institutions of modern society and their formative historical beginnings can be understood as proceeding primarily from the self-interested motives of the participants. Many of the contributions in this volume struggle with the constraints imposed on political theorizing by the idea of self-interested agents, or homo economicus. Some reject the idea as empirically unfounded. Others try to show that homo economicus is even more versatile than Hardin depicts. And yet others accept the constraints and work within them. But all pay tribute to the lasting intellectual contribution of Russell Hardin and the challenge he poses. The book should appeal to scholars and students interested in collective action, public choice and democracy, moral reasoning and its limits, constitutionalism, liberalism, conventions and coordination, trust, identity politics, social epistemology, and methods in politics philosophy.
This handbook provides a broad overview of the field of social psychology and up-to-date coverage of current social psychological topics. It reflects the recent and substantial development of the field, both with regard to theory and empirical research. It starts out by covering major theoretical perspectives, including the inter actionist, identity, social exchange, social structure and the person perspectives. Next, it discusses development and socialization in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. In addition to updated discussions of topics that were included in the first edition, the part examining personal processes includes entirely new topics, such as social psychology and the body and individual agency and social motivation. Interpersonal processes are discussed from a contemporary perspective with a focus on stress and health. The final section examines the person in sociocultural context and includes another topic new to the second edition, the social psychology of race and gender and intersectionality.