Identity : sociological perspectives / Steph Lawler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lawler, Steph, 1958- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Group identity.

Identity (Psychology)--Social aspects.

Identity (Psychology).

Physical Description:

vi, 210 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

New edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Polity, 2013.

Summary:

Questions about who we are, who we can be, and who is like and unlike us underpin a vast range of contemporary social issues. What makes our families so important to us? What do the often stark differences between how we self-Identify and the way others see and define us reveal about our social world? Why do we attach such significance to being ourselves? In this new edition of her popular and inviting text, Steph Lawler examines a range of important debates about identity. Taking a sociological perspective, she shows both how identity is produced and embedded in social relationships and how If is worked out in the practice of people's everyday lives. She challenges the perception of identity as belonging within the person, arguing instead that if is produced and negotiated between persons. Chapter by chapter, her book explores topics such as the relationships between lives and life stories, the continuing significance of kinship in the face of social change, and How taste works to define identity. In particular, the updated edition has a new chapter on identity politics, as well as carefully compiled guides for further reading that reflect the broad importance and impact of these ideas and the fact that, without understanding identity, we cannot adequately begin to understand the social world. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Identity as a Question 1

2 Stories, Memories, Identities 23

3 Who Do You Think You Are? Kinship, Inheritance and Identity 45

4 Becoming Ourselves: Governing and/through Identities 68

5 I Desire Therefore I Am: Unconscious Selves 92

6 Masquerading as Ourselves: Self-Impersonation and Social Life 116

7 The Hidden Privileges of Identity: On Being Middle Class 138

8 Identity Politics, Identity and Politics 160.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780745654157

0745654150

0745654169

9780745654164

OCLC:

858310738