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Identity in Question
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Identity in Question

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Cultural Theory | Social Theory | The Self

February 2009 | 248 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
"A spectacular collection of essays by the most noted theorists of identity. The book well frames the issues around identity that presently are defining living in the early 21st century … A must read."
- Patricia Ticineto Clough, City University, New York  

"A wonderfully disparate and impressively distinguished set of authors to address the question of identity. The result is exciting and fruitful. No other book connects so elegantly sociological notions of individualization with the psychoanalysis of melancholy."
- Scott Lash, Goldsmiths, University of London  

Identity in Question brings together in a single volume the world's leading theorists of identity to provide a decisive account of the debates surrounding self and identity.

Presenting incisive analyses of the impact of globalization, postmodernism, psychoanalysis and post-feminism upon our imaginings of self, this book explores the complexity, contentiousness and significance of current debates over identity in the social sciences and the public sphere.

As these contributions make clear, mapping the contours and consequences of transformations in identity in our globalizing world is not simply an academic exercise. It is a pressing concern for public and political debates. As identity continues its move to the centre of political life, so too do the possibilities for creatively re-imagining how we choose to live, both individually and collectively, in an age of uncertainty and insecurity.

Identity in Question is essential reading for all students of self, identity, individualism and individualization.  
Anthony Elliott and Paul du Gay
Introduction
Zygmunt Bauman
Identity in a Globalizing World
Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim
Losing the Traditional: Individualization and 'Precarious Freedoms'
Anthony Elliott and Charles Lemert
The Global New Individualist Debate: Three Theories of Individualism and Beyond
Drucilla Cornell
Heeding Piedade's Song: Feminism and Sublime Affinity
Angela McRobbie
Top Girls? Young Women and the Post-Feminist Sexual Contract
Paul du Gay
The Identities of Self-Interest: Performativity, History, Ethics
Anthony Elliott
The Constitution of the Subject: Primary Repression after Kristeva and Laplanche
Jeffrey Prager
Melancholic Identity: Post-traumatic Loss Memory and Identity Formation
Stephen Frosh and Lisa Barraitser
Goodbye To Identity
Jessica Evans
Cathected Identities: Governance and Community Activism
Janet Sayers
Psy-Art: Re-Imagining Identity

A spectacular collection of essays by the most noted theorists of identity. The book well frames the issues around identity that presently are defining living in the early 21st century … A must read.

Patricia Ticineto Clough
City University, New York

A wonderfully disparate and impressively distinguished set of authors to address the question of identity. The result is exciting and fruitful. No other book connects so elegantly sociological notions of individualization with the psychoanalysis of melancholy.

Scott Lash
Goldsmiths, University of London

A series of cutting-edge papers on the new individualism... an excellent collection that I would recommend to anybody who wants to understand the state of individuality today.

Mark Featherstone
Keele University

adoption feedback should be at least 20 characters long.

Martin Malone
June 12, 2014

This is a useful text which may benefit student learning in a variety of contexts. For this reason I will be adopting the text as supplemental to dedicated module texts throughout the course.

Mrs Haz Hughes
Health , University Campus Suffolk
November 12, 2009

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter One PDF


For instructors

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