Identity, Diversity and Inclusion Lectures and Literature
Eva Craane
Lecture 1 – What is identity?
Identity: 3 main questions:
• How are identities formed?
o Identity the answer to the question who am I?
• How much control do we have in shaping our identities?
o Others identify and label you
• Identities in crisis? Example: national identity
Identity involves
• (A difference and) a link between the personal and the social: individual and
social identity => social categorization
• Being the same as some people and different from others => social comparison
• Identification as active engagement => social identification
• Agency and structure: a tension between how much control I have in constructing
my identities and how much control is exercised over me
Social sciences accounting for identity
• G.H. Mead: we construct our identity by imagining ourselves thereby using
symbols.
• E. Goffman: identity = we act out a role in a play where the scripts are already
written.
• S. Freud: we make an identity our own by a process of largely unconscious
identification.
Conceptualizing social structures
• Class: a large grouping of people who share common economic interests, experiences
and lifestyles
• Gender: the systematic structuring of certain behaviour and practices, which are
associated with women or with men in particular societies
• Social structures interact, e.g. gender and national identity.
o Until 1963 Dutch women who married a foreigner automatically lost Dutch
citizenship.
• Making identity is a key factor in political mobilization
Conclusion
How are identities formed?
• Everyday interactions, social identification (sameness) & comparison (difference).
Symbols as markers of identity and difference.
How much control do we have in shaping our identities?
• We can negotiate our roles, through social action influence constraining social
structures, but there are clearly limits.
Are there particular uncertainties in shaping our identities?
• Yes, as social change continuously takes place, so are identities never secure, but fluid
and constantly redefined.
,Literature lecture 1
Woodward, K. (2003). Chapter 1: Questions of identity. In Questioning identity: Gender,
class, nation. London and New York: Routledge, pp.6-41. (35 pages)
Focus on three questions
• How are identities formed?
o We present ourselves to others through everyday interactions, through the way
we speak and dress, marking ourselves as the same as those with whom we
share an identity and different from those with whom we do not. Symbols and
representations are important in the marking of difference and in both
presenting ourselves to others and in visualizing or imagining who we are. We
use symbols in order to make sense of ourselves in relation to the world we
inhabit. This world is characterized by structures which may limit our choices,
but which may also provide more opportunities.
• How much control do we have in shaping our own identities?
o Both as individuals and through collective action it is possible to redefine and
reconstruct our identities. We can negotiate and interpret the roles we adopt.
Through collective action it is also possible to influence the social structures
which constrain us, but there are clearly restrictions and limits. The scripts of
our everyday interactions are already written and at the wider level structures
are deeply embedded in contemporary culture, economy and society. Identity
formation continues to illustrate the interrelationship between structure and
agency.
• Are there particular uncertainties about identity in the contemporary UK?
o There have been changes in our lives, in the domestic arena, in the workplace,
in our communities and at the level of the nation and its place in the world.
Some of these changes have been translated into questions of identity, for
example in concerns about how people cope with change. Change has also
created new opportunities for redefining ourselves, at home and in the
workplace and as members of different ethnicities and nations within the UK.
There is both uncertainty and diversity. Identity is a particularly useful concept
for explaining how people cope with change and uncertainty and the
opportunities presented by diversity. Identities are fluid and changing. This, in
itself, produces uncertainties.
What is identity?
Identity involves:
• A link between the personal and the social;
• Some active engagement by those who take up identities;
• Being the same as some people and different from others, as indicated by symbols and
representations;
• A tension between how much control I have in constructing my identities and how
much control or constraint is exercised over me.
Who am I?
• Institutions such as the state play an important role in constructing identities.
• Difference is very clearly marked in relation to national identity.
• Such official categories contain omissions and cannot fully accommodate the personal
investment we have in our identities, nor the multiple identities we have.
, Who are you? What can social science tell us?
• In constructing identities we imagine ourselves.
• We do this by visualizing ourselves, thinking in symbols.
• Who I am is dependent on how I am seen by others as well as how I see myself.
In addressing the question about how identities are formed we have focused on the processes
which are involved in constructing an identity within the individual; what happens in the
social situation is left out. What else do we need to know? What happens when people
present themselves to others, in everyday interaction?
There are some important features of Goffman’s original theory which contribute to our
understanding of identity and which offer more detail about how identities are presented in
linking the personal and the social:
• All performances are addressed to an audience.
• Information can be given intentionally or given off, where we might reveal things
unintentionally.
What is the source of the information which is given off, revealed without our consciously
intending to do so? Identity relies upon a conscious, active presentation, but it might also
involve thoughts and feelings about which we might not be conscious. Unintentional signs,
‘slips of the tongue’ are manifestations of the unconscious mind.
The importance of psychoanalytic theory for our investigation of identity can be summarized
as follows:
• The identity positions which we take up may be the result of unconscious feelings
which we may try to rationalize but which we do not know for sure.
• Many aspects of identity derive from childhood experience so that identity is
constructed by the past as well as through the present.
• Identity is not fixed and unchanging, but the result of a series of conflicts and of
different identifications.
• Both gender and sexuality are important to our understanding of identity. Our sense of
who we are is most significantly linked to our awareness of our identities as women
or as men.
Table 1.1 illustrates how each of the approaches discussed in Section 3 addresses this
question. Each involves an interrelationship between agency and structure, but some offer
more scope for agency.
Eva Craane
Lecture 1 – What is identity?
Identity: 3 main questions:
• How are identities formed?
o Identity the answer to the question who am I?
• How much control do we have in shaping our identities?
o Others identify and label you
• Identities in crisis? Example: national identity
Identity involves
• (A difference and) a link between the personal and the social: individual and
social identity => social categorization
• Being the same as some people and different from others => social comparison
• Identification as active engagement => social identification
• Agency and structure: a tension between how much control I have in constructing
my identities and how much control is exercised over me
Social sciences accounting for identity
• G.H. Mead: we construct our identity by imagining ourselves thereby using
symbols.
• E. Goffman: identity = we act out a role in a play where the scripts are already
written.
• S. Freud: we make an identity our own by a process of largely unconscious
identification.
Conceptualizing social structures
• Class: a large grouping of people who share common economic interests, experiences
and lifestyles
• Gender: the systematic structuring of certain behaviour and practices, which are
associated with women or with men in particular societies
• Social structures interact, e.g. gender and national identity.
o Until 1963 Dutch women who married a foreigner automatically lost Dutch
citizenship.
• Making identity is a key factor in political mobilization
Conclusion
How are identities formed?
• Everyday interactions, social identification (sameness) & comparison (difference).
Symbols as markers of identity and difference.
How much control do we have in shaping our identities?
• We can negotiate our roles, through social action influence constraining social
structures, but there are clearly limits.
Are there particular uncertainties in shaping our identities?
• Yes, as social change continuously takes place, so are identities never secure, but fluid
and constantly redefined.
,Literature lecture 1
Woodward, K. (2003). Chapter 1: Questions of identity. In Questioning identity: Gender,
class, nation. London and New York: Routledge, pp.6-41. (35 pages)
Focus on three questions
• How are identities formed?
o We present ourselves to others through everyday interactions, through the way
we speak and dress, marking ourselves as the same as those with whom we
share an identity and different from those with whom we do not. Symbols and
representations are important in the marking of difference and in both
presenting ourselves to others and in visualizing or imagining who we are. We
use symbols in order to make sense of ourselves in relation to the world we
inhabit. This world is characterized by structures which may limit our choices,
but which may also provide more opportunities.
• How much control do we have in shaping our own identities?
o Both as individuals and through collective action it is possible to redefine and
reconstruct our identities. We can negotiate and interpret the roles we adopt.
Through collective action it is also possible to influence the social structures
which constrain us, but there are clearly restrictions and limits. The scripts of
our everyday interactions are already written and at the wider level structures
are deeply embedded in contemporary culture, economy and society. Identity
formation continues to illustrate the interrelationship between structure and
agency.
• Are there particular uncertainties about identity in the contemporary UK?
o There have been changes in our lives, in the domestic arena, in the workplace,
in our communities and at the level of the nation and its place in the world.
Some of these changes have been translated into questions of identity, for
example in concerns about how people cope with change. Change has also
created new opportunities for redefining ourselves, at home and in the
workplace and as members of different ethnicities and nations within the UK.
There is both uncertainty and diversity. Identity is a particularly useful concept
for explaining how people cope with change and uncertainty and the
opportunities presented by diversity. Identities are fluid and changing. This, in
itself, produces uncertainties.
What is identity?
Identity involves:
• A link between the personal and the social;
• Some active engagement by those who take up identities;
• Being the same as some people and different from others, as indicated by symbols and
representations;
• A tension between how much control I have in constructing my identities and how
much control or constraint is exercised over me.
Who am I?
• Institutions such as the state play an important role in constructing identities.
• Difference is very clearly marked in relation to national identity.
• Such official categories contain omissions and cannot fully accommodate the personal
investment we have in our identities, nor the multiple identities we have.
, Who are you? What can social science tell us?
• In constructing identities we imagine ourselves.
• We do this by visualizing ourselves, thinking in symbols.
• Who I am is dependent on how I am seen by others as well as how I see myself.
In addressing the question about how identities are formed we have focused on the processes
which are involved in constructing an identity within the individual; what happens in the
social situation is left out. What else do we need to know? What happens when people
present themselves to others, in everyday interaction?
There are some important features of Goffman’s original theory which contribute to our
understanding of identity and which offer more detail about how identities are presented in
linking the personal and the social:
• All performances are addressed to an audience.
• Information can be given intentionally or given off, where we might reveal things
unintentionally.
What is the source of the information which is given off, revealed without our consciously
intending to do so? Identity relies upon a conscious, active presentation, but it might also
involve thoughts and feelings about which we might not be conscious. Unintentional signs,
‘slips of the tongue’ are manifestations of the unconscious mind.
The importance of psychoanalytic theory for our investigation of identity can be summarized
as follows:
• The identity positions which we take up may be the result of unconscious feelings
which we may try to rationalize but which we do not know for sure.
• Many aspects of identity derive from childhood experience so that identity is
constructed by the past as well as through the present.
• Identity is not fixed and unchanging, but the result of a series of conflicts and of
different identifications.
• Both gender and sexuality are important to our understanding of identity. Our sense of
who we are is most significantly linked to our awareness of our identities as women
or as men.
Table 1.1 illustrates how each of the approaches discussed in Section 3 addresses this
question. Each involves an interrelationship between agency and structure, but some offer
more scope for agency.
