Media, Culture and Diversity
Summary of the UGent and VUB course of 2021 by lecturer Frederik Dhaenens
Seminar 2: Identity, diversity and popular culture
Non-essentialism and social constructionism
Essentialism =
- Identity is assumed to be natural and exists before you are born (= biological
determinism)
- Experiences are universal and ahistorical, they don’t change
Non-essentialism =
- Identity is shaped and made meaningful through culture
Social constructionism =
- Combination of both
- Experiences can be universal (when some you love dies, you are sad)
- Identity is socially constructed and shaped through culture
Subjectivity and identity (Barker)
Subjectivity =
- Being a person and becoming a person (biologically and culturally) is an experience
you can’t always describe
Self-identity
- The verbal concepts and descriptions you have of yourself and how you identify with
those descriptions
Social identity =
- How society thinks of you and expects you to behave
Identity
Giddens:
- Identity is ever changing and non-essential
- You make sense of yourself by maintaining a narrative
o = How you introduce yourself to others, how you talk about experiences
- Culture shapes social identities
- Identity = social ascription + self-description
- Socialisation = gradually becoming aware of you position in society and who you are
1
, Hall:
- Fractured self = you have different personalities, your ‘self’
isn’t stable
- You make yourself feel at ease by maintaining a narrative
Identity politics
Barker:
- A group of people who share an identity can come together to demand social change
or challenge the status quo
- Language is important (LGBTQ, BLM, MeToo)
Spivak:
- “Strategic essentialism”
People come together on shared id
o entity to demand equal rights
o Non-essentialist
They recognise each other’s differences
o Mostly about minority groups
Culture (Williams)
= The way of life of a certain group
- By studying culture, you can see the norms and values of a
society
- Doesn’t mean everyone agrees with those norms
Politic of representation (Hall)
- Representations are never neutral
o You must ask yourself “who is encoding” + “why?”
o Representations are social constructs
2
Summary of the UGent and VUB course of 2021 by lecturer Frederik Dhaenens
Seminar 2: Identity, diversity and popular culture
Non-essentialism and social constructionism
Essentialism =
- Identity is assumed to be natural and exists before you are born (= biological
determinism)
- Experiences are universal and ahistorical, they don’t change
Non-essentialism =
- Identity is shaped and made meaningful through culture
Social constructionism =
- Combination of both
- Experiences can be universal (when some you love dies, you are sad)
- Identity is socially constructed and shaped through culture
Subjectivity and identity (Barker)
Subjectivity =
- Being a person and becoming a person (biologically and culturally) is an experience
you can’t always describe
Self-identity
- The verbal concepts and descriptions you have of yourself and how you identify with
those descriptions
Social identity =
- How society thinks of you and expects you to behave
Identity
Giddens:
- Identity is ever changing and non-essential
- You make sense of yourself by maintaining a narrative
o = How you introduce yourself to others, how you talk about experiences
- Culture shapes social identities
- Identity = social ascription + self-description
- Socialisation = gradually becoming aware of you position in society and who you are
1
, Hall:
- Fractured self = you have different personalities, your ‘self’
isn’t stable
- You make yourself feel at ease by maintaining a narrative
Identity politics
Barker:
- A group of people who share an identity can come together to demand social change
or challenge the status quo
- Language is important (LGBTQ, BLM, MeToo)
Spivak:
- “Strategic essentialism”
People come together on shared id
o entity to demand equal rights
o Non-essentialist
They recognise each other’s differences
o Mostly about minority groups
Culture (Williams)
= The way of life of a certain group
- By studying culture, you can see the norms and values of a
society
- Doesn’t mean everyone agrees with those norms
Politic of representation (Hall)
- Representations are never neutral
o You must ask yourself “who is encoding” + “why?”
o Representations are social constructs
2
