Identity: Sociological Perspectives

identity itself is a social and collective process and not, as Western traditions would

have it, a unique and individual possession.

and in terms of their relations with others); social identity (what we might call a ‘categorical’ identity – an identity that persons have by virtue of their membership of social categories); and ego identity or felt identity.

attempts to understand identity as process, as something achieved rather than something innate, as done rather than ‘owned’.

and reflexive sense that people have of who they are.

and the more personal, ambivalent, reflective

‘one’s humanity is simultaneously shared and singular’ (Jackson, 2002: 142).

Instead of seeing identity as something located ‘within’ the person – a property of the person, we might say – I consider it as something produced through social relations.

both its public manifestations – which might be called ‘roles’ or identity categories