How do identities and social action articulate together? This book explores the 'doing' and the 'making' of identity. It describes how identities emerge from the flow of action and organise social conduct. In social research identity is often treated as a static accomplished fact – already owned, finalised and shaped. Drawing on five years of sustained research within the highly innovative ESRC Identities and Social Action Programme, Theorizing Identities and Social Action develops a very different standpoint. The chapter authors take core social actions – such as performing, excluding, mixing, bonding, relating, 'passing', travelling, campaigning and disputing – and demonstrate how social practices and identities unfold together. A wide range of theories of the identity/action relation are accessibly mobilised in ways which will be illuminating for students and experienced researchers alike. These include Judith Butler's notion of performativity, social identity theory in social psychology, relational psychoanalysis, Bourdieu's notion of 'habitus' and conversation analysis.
'Theorizing Identities and Social Action is a landmark text for social scientists across a large transdisciplinary domain, from psychosocial studies to social theory. It explores the workings of identity in social life through an outstanding collection of empirical studies drawing on a range of theoretical positions and methodological approaches. Covering so many key topics, it confirms the UK Economic and Social Research Council Programme on Identities and Social Action as an intervention of the utmost importance in social science research.' - Professor Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
'This book is the culmination of a unique and ground-breaking project. Diverse contributions from leading identity scholars across the social sciences provide stimulating and powerful analyses of issues at the heart of modern life. This important and timely book provides a comprehensive survey of current research and defines the agenda for the future. It is compelling reading - informative and provocative in the very best ways.' Professor Alex Haslam, University of Exeter, UK
Introduction: The Identity/Action Relation; M.Wetherell
PART I: BIOGRAPHIES AND PERSONAL TRAJECTORIES
Practices, Identification and Identity Change in the Transition to Motherhood; H.Elliott, Y.Gunaratnam, W.Hollway & A.Phoenix
Biography, Education and Civic Action: Teaching Generations and Social Change; J.Martin with J.Kirk, C.Wall & S.Jefferys
Performing Identities: Participatory Theatre Among Refugees; N.Yuval-Davis & E.Kaptani
Tales of Two or Many Worlds? When 'Street' Kids go Global; G.Jones & S.T.De Benitez
PART II: INTERATCIONS AND INSTITUTIONS
Accomplishing Social Action with Identity Categories: Mediating and Policing Neighbour Disputes; E.Stokoe & D.Edwards
Passing as a Transsexual Woman in the Gender Identity Clinic; S. Speer
Identity at Home: Offering Everyday Choices to People with Intellectual Impairment; C.Antaki, M.Finlay & C.Walton
PART III: COMMUNITIES, CITIES AND NATIONS
Identity Making for Action: The Example of London Citizens; J.Wills
Residential Segregation and Intergroup Contact: Consequences for Intergroup Relations, Social Capital and Social Identity; K.Schmid, M. Hewstone, J.Hughes, R.Jenkins & E.Cairns
Crossing Thresholds: Acculturation and Social Capital in British Asian Children; C.Watters, R.Hossain, R.Brown & A.Rutland
Identity, Social Action and Public Space: Defining Civic Space in Belfast; S.Connolly & D.Bryan
Defining Common Goals without Speaking the Same Language: Social Identity and Social Action in Wales; A.Livingstone, R.Spears, A.Manstead & M.Bruder
MARGARET WETHERELL is Professor of Social Psychology at the Open University, UK. From 2003-2008 she was Director of the ESRC Programme Identities and Social Action. She is a former Editor of the British Journal of Social Psychology. Her widely published and cited research investigating masculinities and white identities established discourse theory in psychology. She is editor of Identity in the 21st Century: New Trends in Changing Times (Palgrave).
Description
How do identities and social action articulate together? This book explores the 'doing' and the 'making' of identity. It describes how identities emerge from the flow of action and organise social conduct. In social research identity is often treated as a static accomplished fact – already owned, finalised and shaped. Drawing on five years of sustained research within the highly innovative ESRC Identities and Social Action Programme, Theorizing Identities and Social Action develops a very different standpoint. The chapter authors take core social actions – such as performing, excluding, mixing, bonding, relating, 'passing', travelling, campaigning and disputing – and demonstrate how social practices and identities unfold together. A wide range of theories of the identity/action relation are accessibly mobilised in ways which will be illuminating for students and experienced researchers alike. These include Judith Butler's notion of performativity, social identity theory in social psychology, relational psychoanalysis, Bourdieu's notion of 'habitus' and conversation analysis.
Reviews
'Theorizing Identities and Social Action is a landmark text for social scientists across a large transdisciplinary domain, from psychosocial studies to social theory. It explores the workings of identity in social life through an outstanding collection of empirical studies drawing on a range of theoretical positions and methodological approaches. Covering so many key topics, it confirms the UK Economic and Social Research Council Programme on Identities and Social Action as an intervention of the utmost importance in social science research.' - Professor Stephen Frosh, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
'This book is the culmination of a unique and ground-breaking project. Diverse contributions from leading identity scholars across the social sciences provide stimulating and powerful analyses of issues at the heart of modern life. This important and timely book provides a comprehensive survey of current research and defines the agenda for the future. It is compelling reading - informative and provocative in the very best ways.' Professor Alex Haslam, University of Exeter, UK
Contents
Introduction: The Identity/Action Relation; M.Wetherell
PART I: BIOGRAPHIES AND PERSONAL TRAJECTORIES
Practices, Identification and Identity Change in the Transition to Motherhood; H.Elliott, Y.Gunaratnam, W.Hollway & A.Phoenix
Biography, Education and Civic Action: Teaching Generations and Social Change; J.Martin with J.Kirk, C.Wall & S.Jefferys
Performing Identities: Participatory Theatre Among Refugees; N.Yuval-Davis & E.Kaptani
Tales of Two or Many Worlds? When 'Street' Kids go Global; G.Jones & S.T.De Benitez
PART II: INTERATCIONS AND INSTITUTIONS
Accomplishing Social Action with Identity Categories: Mediating and Policing Neighbour Disputes; E.Stokoe & D.Edwards
Passing as a Transsexual Woman in the Gender Identity Clinic; S. Speer
Identity at Home: Offering Everyday Choices to People with Intellectual Impairment; C.Antaki, M.Finlay & C.Walton
PART III: COMMUNITIES, CITIES AND NATIONS
Identity Making for Action: The Example of London Citizens; J.Wills
Residential Segregation and Intergroup Contact: Consequences for Intergroup Relations, Social Capital and Social Identity; K.Schmid, M. Hewstone, J.Hughes, R.Jenkins & E.Cairns
Crossing Thresholds: Acculturation and Social Capital in British Asian Children; C.Watters, R.Hossain, R.Brown & A.Rutland
Identity, Social Action and Public Space: Defining Civic Space in Belfast; S.Connolly & D.Bryan
Defining Common Goals without Speaking the Same Language: Social Identity and Social Action in Wales; A.Livingstone, R.Spears, A.Manstead & M.Bruder
Authors
MARGARET WETHERELL is Professor of Social Psychology at the Open University, UK. From 2003-2008 she was Director of the ESRC Programme Identities and Social Action. She is a former Editor of the British Journal of Social Psychology. Her widely published and cited research investigating masculinities and white identities established discourse theory in psychology. She is editor of Identity in the 21st Century: New Trends in Changing Times (Palgrave).
|