Identity Salience, Identity Acceptance, and Racial Policy Attitudes: American National Identity as a Uniting Force
In: American journal of political science: AJPS, Band 51, Heft 1, S. 78-91
ISSN: 0092-5853
In: American journal of political science: AJPS, Band 51, Heft 1, S. 78-91
ISSN: 0092-5853
In: Historical materialism: research in critical marxist theory, Band 26, Heft 2, S. 21-45
ISSN: 1569-206X
AbstractThis paper draws on the cultural-materialist paradigm articulated by Raymond Williams to offer a radical historicisation of identity and identity-politics in capitalist societies. A keywords analysis reveals surprisingly that identity, as it is elaborated in the familiar categories of personal and social identity, is a relatively novel concept in Western thought, politics and culture. The claim is not the standard one that people's 'identities' became more important and apparent in advanced capitalist societies, but that identity itself came to operate as a new and key mechanism for construing, shaping and narrating experiences of selfhood and grouphood in this period. From a cultural-materialist perspective, the emergence and evolution of this idea of identity can only be properly understood in relation to the social contexts of its use, namely, the new contexts of consumption of capitalist societies, and the development of new forms of group-based struggle from the 1960s. What the analysis shows is that it was the commercialisation and politicisation of older essentialist understandings of selfhood and grouphood in these contexts that has given rise to the concepts of personal and social identity as we know them today.By exploring the material conditions that have given rise to the contemporary powerful attachment to 'identity', this paper offers a new point of departure from which to pursue many issues of concern to critical theorists and radical activists today, including the conflict over identity politics in radical circles, the historical and social processes behind their development and at least partial co-option, and their relation to neoliberal political-economic formations today.
Establishing a sense of identity is a central task in human development. This research pursued questions about how adult, self-identified feminist women conceptualize their identity, the role of feminism in that conceptualization, and the interaction of feminism with race and sexual orientation. Forty women in five geographic regions across the United States were interviewed. The participants were faculty, administrators, classified staff, and graduate students affiliated with a university in the region. The interviews were completed during a week-long visit to each location; each interview lasted from 45 to 75 minutes. Interviews followed a semi-structured format, using a standard protocol. Questions in the interviews asked about the importance of feminism, occupation, relationships, religion, politics, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation in the women's identities. The connection of feminism to each of the other identity areas was also asked of the participants. The women in this study conceptualized identity as consisting of multiple elements, organized in one of two ways: (a) a whole with multiple parts and (b) a collection of multiple parts. The first is an integrated identity, where all elements are connected to each of the other elements, and the second is a contextual identity, where the connection of elements can depend on situational variables. The multiple identities include traditional categories of occupation, relationships, religion, politics, race, and sexual orientation, but also add other areas such as age, socioeconomic class, avocational interests, and feminism. Women identify themselves as having multiple identities. The way participants in this study view feminism as an identity is organized in four categories: a set of values, a process to make meaning, a contextual identity, and an underlying construct. The categories of feminism vary in the degree to which feminism is connected with other identity elements. Women who view feminism as a set of values speak of it as a set of beliefs or an ideology that may or may not influence other identity areas. The participants who view feminism as a process to make meaning have either an interconnected or contextual view of feminism, with the added element of seeing feminism as a way to understand, interpret, and make decisions about experiences. Feminism as a contextual identity is connected with some parts of identity but not with all elements. For those whose view of feminism is as an underlying construct, feminism is interconnected and interactive with all of the other identity elements. This study adds to the literature about feminism and feminist identity in three ways. First, it suggests that for women who identify themselves as feminists, feminism is not only an ideology but also an important element of their identity. Second, it asserts that a shared definition of feminism is not critical to determining its role in identity. Third, this study's findings challenge the Downing and Roush (1985) model of feminist identity as the principal model. The Downing and Roush model focuses on feminist consciousness rather than identity; it employs a singular, liberal definition of feminism; it ignores multiple identities and their interactions; and it hinges its highest achievement on activist participation. Each of these assumptions of the Downing and Roush model are contradicted by the findings of this research. This study adds to the previous literature about identity in two ways. First, it expands the knowledge about adult women's identity by proposing a definition that takes into account the multiple identities that women have. Second, the findings challenge the limited areas by which identity has been traditionally defined. This study challenges the notion that identity is a singular, core construct based on traditional elements. Individuals must be allowed to identify the elements that make up their own identities. The results of this study also suggest that multiple identities, including race/ethnicity and sexual orientation, are mutually influencing and interconnected rather than independent or singular. Identity is constructed of multiple elements that must be examined together to understand the individual's own definition of self. ; Ph. D.
BASE
In: Peace review: the international quarterly of world peace, Band 9, Heft 4, S. 497-502
ISSN: 1040-2659
It is contended that the epoch of modernity is distinguished by the prevalence of subjectivity & identity. Insight into identity as liberation & liberation as identity, the dialectical faces of self-reflection & self-consciousness, is a prized aspect of modernity that allows individuals to be the subject of their own representations, & places them on the path to liberation. Perils that can block the transition from objecthood to subjecthood & prevent meaningful identity construction include (1) presenting identities as self-created, self-sufficient, & autonomous; (2) believing that identities are essences & therefore inescapable; (3) construing identities as empirical data; (4) expecting the true nature of an identity to appear in a flash of insight; (5) waiting for a leader to point the way to discovering one's identity; & (6) de- & reterritorializing the self of an identity. It is contended that understanding these pitfalls increases awareness of the entwinement of identity & liberation, as well as the social space in which both occur. J. Lindroth
In: Nations and nationalism: journal of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism, Band 26, Heft 1, S. 123-137
ISSN: 1469-8129
AbstractThis article looks at modern sectarian (here referring to Sunni/Shi'a) identities and their interaction with nationalism in the Middle East. In doing so I make three interrelated claims: 1) the term 'sectarianism' is distortive and analytically counterproductive. A better understanding of modern sectarian identity requires us to jettison the term. 2) Once discarded, our focus can then shift to sectarian identity: how it is constructed, perceived, utilized and so forth. A holistic understanding of sectarian identity must recognize the multiple fields upon which it is constructed and contested. The model adopted here frames sectarian identity as simultaneously operating on four fields: doctrinal, subnational, transnational and, crucially for our purposes, the national dimension. 3) Thirdly, this article challenges the assumptions regarding national and sectarian identities in the modern Middle East. Contrary to conventional wisdom, modern sectarian identities are deeply embedded in the prism of the nation‐state and are inextricably linked to nationalism and national identity. The article will rely primarily on the example of modern Iraq but, as will be seen, the Iraqi example is significantly echoed in the cases of Bahrain, Syria and Lebanon.
In: Anthropology, culture, and society
In: International journal of public administration, Band 31, Heft 9, S. 957-970
ISSN: 1532-4265
SSRN
Working paper
Written by one of America's leading political thinkers, this is a book about the good, the bad, and the ugly of identity politics.Amy Gutmann rises above the raging polemics that often characterize discussions of identity groups and offers a fair-minded assessment of the role they play in democracies. She addresses fundamental questions of timeless urgency while keeping in focus their relevance to contemporary debates: Do some identity groups undermine the greater democratic good and thus their own legitimacy in a democratic society? Even if so, how is a democracy to fairly distinguish betwee
In: Cambridge studies in international relations 9
Personal Identity, National Identity and International Relations is the first psychological study of nation-building, nationalism, mass mobilisation and foreign policy processes. In a bold exposition of identification theory, William Bloom relates mass psychological processes to international relations. He draws on Freud, Mead, Erikson, Parsons and Habermas to provide a rigorously argued answer to the longstanding theoretical problem of how to aggregate from individual attitudes to mass behaviour. With a detailed analysis of the nation-building experience of preindustrial France and England, William Bloom applies the theory to international relations
In: Key ideas
1. Identity matters -- 2. Similarity and difference -- 3. A sign of the times? -- 4. Understanding identification -- 5. Selfhood and mind -- 6. Embodied selves -- 7. Entering the human world -- 8. Self-image and public image -- 9. Groups and categories -- 10. Beyond boundaries -- 11. Symbolising belonging -- 12. Uncertaintly and predictability -- 13. Institutionalising identification -- 14. Organising identification -- 15. Categorisation and consequences -- 16. Identity and modernity revisited.
In: Environmental politics, Band 9, Heft 4, S. 59-81
ISSN: 0964-4016
In: Middle Eastern studies, Band 33, Heft 2, S. 405-437
ISSN: 0026-3206
A review essay on a book by Liora Lukitz, Iraq. The Search for National Identity (London & Portland: Frank Cass, 1995), which describes historical facts that have affected Iraq's vacillation between integration & dismemberment & solidarity & instability. Lukitz relies on a presumed common culture to explain the attempt to find a national identity, even though her study reveals the diverse & often antagonistic ethnic-communal identities of Iraqi society that have resisted unifying efforts. She traces Iraq's development from its beginnings & shows how new state laws, procedures, & nationalist ideology raised the question of whose state it is & strengthened community allegiances, thereby encouraging social conflict. Iraq lacks popular consent, which distinguishes legitimate rule, & power has been retained by the use of armed forces to crush resistance to centralized authority. Iraqi attempts to create a larger Arab state are discussed, & Lukitz's analyses are compared to other literature that focuses on national identity in the Middle East. J. Lindroth
In: Key Ideas
Social Identity explains how identification, seen as a social process, works: individually, interactionally and institutionally. Building on the international success of previous editions, this fourth edition offers a concise, comprehensive and readable critical introduction to social science theories of identity for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates. All the chapters have been updated, and extra new material has been added where relevant, integrating the most recent critical publications in the field. As with the earlier editions, the emphasis is on sociology, anthropology and social p.
"We know that it matters crucially to be able to say who we are, why we are here, and where we are going," Peter Brooks writes in Enigmas of Identity. Many of us are also uncomfortably aware that we cannot provide a convincing account of our identity to others or even ourselves. Despite or because of that failure, we keep searching for identity, making it up, trying to authenticate it, and inventing excuses for our unpersuasive stories about it. This wide-ranging book draws on literature, law, and psychoanalysis to examine important aspects of the emergence of identity as a peculiarly modern