Tag Archives: identity

From Pilgrim to Tourist – Or A Short History of Identity, Zygmunt Bauman

Posted on March 24, 2017 by

If the modern problem of identity was how to construct an identity, the postmodern problem of identity is how to avoid fixation and keep the options open. If the catchword of modernity was creation, the catchword of postmodernity is recycling. … Continue reading →

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What is Individualisation?

Posted on March 14, 2017 by

Individualisation is ‘compulsory’ rather than being about genuine personal freedom, and is an integral part of self-hood in the neoliberal (dis) order. As Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim (2001/2002) have argued, individuals are compelled now to make agonistic choices throughout … Continue reading →

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What is the Neoliberal Subject?

Posted on March 13, 2017 by

What are the key aspects of the neoliberal subject? Below is a brief summary of some of the key theorizing around and indicators of the successful neoliberal subject, drawn from Verdouw 2016 (1) They are an entrepreneurial, competitive creature, forming … Continue reading →

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Mobile Phones and Digital Nomadism

Posted on February 8, 2017 by

Mobile phones seem to be having a profound impact on the way we interact with each other and on how we understand ourselves and our relation to place. Their increased usage has mean that many of us have moved away … Continue reading →

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Erving Goffman and Judith Butler’s Perspectives on Identity

Posted on October 11, 2016 by

A summary of one chapter from Steph Lawler’s Book – ‘Identity: Sociological Perspectives’ – Masquerading as ourselves: Self-Impersonation and Social Life In this chapter Lawler deals with the work of Erving Goffman and Judith Butler – for both identity is … Continue reading →

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Nadiya Hussain’s Gift to A Level Sociology

Posted on September 18, 2016 by

The Chronicles of Nadiya, fronted by last year’s Bake-Off winner Nadiya Hussain, is  a surprisingly solid piece of sociological TV. (Episode 1 is available on iPlayer until Friday 23rd Sept 2016, or on eStream until Armageddon if yer one of … Continue reading →

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Sociological Perspectives on Identity (1)

Posted on September 7, 2016 by

A brief summary of Steph Lawler’s ‘Identity’ – Chapter One – Stories, Memories, Identities Introduction: living lives and telling stories ‘We endlessly tell stories, both about ourselves and others, and it is through these stories that we make sense of … Continue reading →

Posted in Book summaries, Postmodernism and Late Modernsim, Social Theory (A2) | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Hidden Privileges of Identity: On Being Middle Class

Posted on September 5, 2016 by

A summary of Steph Lawler’s ‘Sociological Perspectives on Identity’, chapter 7 During summer 2000 and in January 2001, there were two separate community-protests over the housing of child-offenders in the local community, one in a working-class area, by working-class people, … Continue reading →

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Sociological Perspectives on Identity

Posted on August 30, 2016 by

A summary of Michel Foucault’s work on identity, deviance and normality, governmentality, subjectification and technologies of the self, taken from Steph Lawler’s ‘Identity’ (2014) – also includes Nikolas Rose’s development of Foucault’s work. If there’s one central idea in this … Continue reading →

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Giddens – Modernity and Self Identity Chapter Two

Posted on June 20, 2016 by

A brief summary of Anthony Giddens’ Modernity and Self Identity – chapter two – in which he focuses on the psychological aspects of identity Chapter 2 – The Self – Ontological Security and Existential Anxiety. An account of self-identity should … Continue reading →

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