This collection of work on the theme of identities was the result of a conference held in the spring of 2005 at Edge Hill under the auspices of The Centre for Liverpool and Merseyside Studies. Whilst a significant proportion of the research focused on Liverpool and the North West, the theme of identities was sufficiently broad to entice scholars from diverse and varied fields. This collection, therefore, reflects the range of work presented and discussed at the conference and the multi-layered and multi-facetted nature of identity. Contributors to this edited collection examined the concept of identity in Britain through a range of historical perspectives, concerning themselves primarily with the later modern period. They reflect the extent to which nineteenth and twentieth century British social, cultural and political change has given rise to pluralist, fragmented and fractured identities and highlight the extent to which class, gender, religious and institutional frameworks have shifted continually. This publication will therefore be of interest to those working in diverse fields but who share an interest in the importance of identity as a decisive cultural, social, economic and political determinant. Questions of identity have centred a good deal of debate in the social sciences, especially since the reception of Foucault's work in the English-speaking world in the last couple of decades. This has often taken a theoretical form. Attempts to link theory with analytical practice have been strongest in the field that might be characterised as the 'politics of identity'. At any rate this has provided an important instance of theoretical and practical conflict. Herethe focus of the debate has been around questions of gender, nation, language, economy, security and race. It has tried toto clarify crucial divisions in the analysis of identity as between explanatory and constitutive models, and between positivist and post-positivist procedures. For the most part these intense and extensive concerns have passed by largely unnoticed among historians practising in Britain in the well-found but conventional idioms of political and social history. What this conference volume seeks to do is to help redress thedeficit, to domesticate some of the theoretical and polemical exchanges around 'identity' into a world of practical,yet conceptually aware historical work. This is a difficult but surely worthwhile task: to broach various imaginaries of identity, issues of identitarian politics, and questions of identity formation on a series of relatively familiar historical contexts. Of course, no selection of subjects for practical research in this way can be exhaustive. The group of essays offered here is sufficiently wide, and occasionally gratifyingly unexpected, at least to begin the job, to stimulate others and, most importantly, to interject theoretical concern into historial fields sometimes lacking it. Ten essays are included, together with the editor's introduction. The pieces are bound together by a common strategy not a shared empirical territory. They range from studies of gendered identity formation , to regional identities formed around seaside resorts, to empirical questions of class and capitalism and their identitarian politics, to historical analysis of mourning, and on to language, nationality, deafness, motherhood and their inflection in identity in past time. This well-edited combination of shared conceptual purpose and variety of empirical form seems to me to work well. The book will be widely used in a variety of historical fields, not least in those which have been the most resistant to recenttheoretical innovations in the social sciences. Keith Nield Editor SOCIAL HISTORY 'This is a fascinating and wide-ranging collection of essays linked by the over-riding theme of identity. While primarily historical in their focus, the essays will be of interest to more than just historians. They raise a variety of interesting conceptual and theoretical issues, from, for instance, the significance of the staymaker in the formation of eighteenth-century female identity, to the relationship between regional identity and late-nineteenth and early twentieth century Lancashire seaside resorts.' Sam Davies, Professor of History, School of Social Science, Liverpool John Moores University

This volume brings together perspectives on social identity and peace psychology to explore the role that categorization plays in both conflict and peace-building. To do so, it draws leading scholars from across the world in a comprehensive exploration of social identity theory and its application to some of the world’s most pressing problems, such as intrastate conflict, uprising in the middle east, the refugee crisis, global warming, racism and peace building. A crucial theme of the volume is that social identity theory affects all of us, no matter whether we are currently in a state of conflict or one further along in the peace process. The volume is organized into two sections. Section 1 focuses on the development of social identity theory. Grounded in the pioneering work of Dr. Henri Tajfel, section 1 provides the reader with a historical background of the theory, as well as its current developments. Then, section 2 brings together a series of country case studies focusing on issues of identity across five continents. This section enables cross-cultural comparisons in terms of methodology and findings, and encourages the reader to identify general applications of identity to the understanding of peace as well as applications that may be more relevant in specific contexts. Taken together, these two sections provide a contemporary and diverse account of the state of social identity research in conflict situations and peace psychology today. It is evident that any account of peace requires an intricate understanding of identity both as a cause and consequence of conflict, as well as a potential resource to be harnessed in the promotion and maintenance of peace. Understanding Peace and Conflict Through Social Identity Theory: Contemporary Global Perspectives aims to help achieve such an understanding and as such is a valuable resource to those studying peace and conflict, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, public policy makers, and all those interested in the ways in which social identity impacts our world.

This text brings together sociological, anthropological and social policy perspectives on the life course with a view to developing the conceptual rigour of the term as well as to exploring the rich range of debates and issues it encompasses. Linking traditional sociological and anthropological concerns with more recent postmodern debates centred on the self, identity and time, the book integrates theoretical debates about childhood, youth, middle age and later life with empirical material in an illuminating and innovative way.

Drawing on the non-individualistic perspective of social representations theory, this book presents an alternative view of social identity by articulating the inseparable dynamic relationships that exist between content, process and power relations when social identity is embedded in social knowledge.

"Identity" has become a core concept of the social and cultural sciences. Bringing together perspectives from sociology, anthropology, psychology, history, and literary criticism, this book offers a comprehensive and critical overview on how this concept is currently used and how it relates to memory and constructions of historical meaning.

Jekatyerina Dunajeva explores how two dominant stereotypes—“bad Gypsies” and “good Roma”—took hold in formal and informal educational institutions in Russia and Hungary. She shows that over centuries “Gypsies” came to be associated with criminality, lack of education, and backwardness. The second notion, of proud, empowered, and educated “Roma,” is a more recent development. By identifying five historical phases—pre-modern, early-modern, early and “ripe” communism, and neomodern nation-building—the book captures crucial legacies that deepen social divisions and normalize the constructed group images. The analysis of the state-managed Roma identity project in the brief korenizatsija program for the integration of non-Russian nationalities into the Soviet civil service in the 1920s is particularly revealing, while the critique of contemporary endeavors is a valuable resource for policy makers and civic activists alike. The top-down view is complemented with the bottom-up attention to everyday Roma voices. Personal stories reveal how identities operate in daily life, as Dunajeva brings out hidden narratives and subaltern discourse. Her handling of fieldwork and self-reflexivity is a model of sensitive research with vulnerable groups.

Social identity theory is one of the most influential approaches to identity, group processes, intergroup relations and social change. This book draws on Lacanian psychoanalysis and Lacanian social theorists to investigate and rework the predominant concepts in the social identity framework. Social Identity in Question begins by reviewing the ways in which the social identity tradition has previously been critiqued by social psychologists who view human relations as conditioned by historical context, culture and language. The author offers an alternative perspective, based upon psychoanalytic notions of subjectivity. The chapters go on to develop these discussions, and they cover topics such as: self-categorisation theory group attachment and conformity the minimal group paradigm intergroup conflict, social change and resistance Each chapter seeks to disrupt the image of the subject as rational and unitary, and to question whether human relations are predictable. It is a book which will be of great interest to lecturers, researchers, and students in critical psychology, social psychology, social sciences and cultural studies.