Roots and Routes of Identity (MLLS 406) Contextualising Globalisation, Culture and Lifestyle Lecture VIII Daniel Turner and Jenny Flinn

Understanding Identity Identity can be understood as the relationship between culture and society Culture represents the macro pattern of life Identity represents the micro meanings we have as individuals Two views on understanding culture and identity ◦ Structural sociology ◦ Action sociology

Roots of Identity Structural Sociology Marx and Durkheim ◦ Modernist thinkers ◦ Founders of classical sociology? Classical sociology has the following key features ◦ A belief in social progress ◦ An image of society as a system ◦ The view that societies evolve through history ◦ The idea that sociology can understand and solve social problems by scientific means (Kidd, 2002)

Roots of Identity Action Sociology Weber and Simmel Action sociology has the following key features ◦ Humans are not passive victims of the social structure ◦ Society does not exist as a ‘thing’ but as a series of actions and interactions by individuals ◦ Social life makes sense (it is meaningful to those involved) ◦ Sociology and sociologists can only study the reality of society by looking at the micro level – what do people actually do. Contemporary sociologists attempt to find these models too extreme and seek to find a balance, e.g. Bourdieu

Routes of Identity Negus (1996) talks of the crisis of identity in a globalised, postmodern world Postmodernity offers a number of opportunities and threats with regards to identity construction For example, in talking about national identity Bhabha (1990) suggests that immigration can both threaten the continuity and purity of the nation and enhance it’s richness and diversity

Hybridisation of Identity Postmodernity offers the opportunity for hybridisation of identities This allows people to belong to two or more distinct cultural groups simultaneously For example, diasporic groups such as British Asians, Scots-Americans This offers many opportunities but can also raise challenging issues Multiculturalism v Monoculturalism

The Future of Identity ‘People’s identities appear, from one point of view to be liberated by modernity. Their identities are now ascribed, not prescribed. But there is a price to pay for such liberation and that price is risk and uncertainty.’(Miles, 2001:145)