What is really happening when people either individually or in groups identify with particular definitions of themselves or strike out to take up new identities? Do gender, class and ethnicity offer some stability, or are they limiting?

This book offers a revision of psychoanalytic theory. It highlights how philosophical perspectives on language, embodiment, time, history, and conscious/unconscious experiences can contribute to clinical interpretations of gender, sexuality, race, age, culture, and class.

Why and how do contemporary questions of culture so readily become highly charged questions of identity? The question of cultural identity lies at the heart of current debates in cultural studies and social theory. At issue is whether those identities which defined the social and cultural world of modern societies for so long - distinctive identities of gender, sexuality, race, class and nationality - are in decline, giving rise to new forms of identification and fragmenting the modern individual as a unified subject. Questions of Cultural Identity offers a wide-ranging exploration of this issue. Stuart Hall firstly outlines the reasons why the question of identity is so compelling and yet so problematic. The cast of outstanding contributors then interrogate different dimensions of the crisis of identity; in so doing, they provide both theoretical and substantive insights into different approaches to understanding identity.

This reflexive, transcultural dialogue scholarship integrates autobiography alongside an in-depth, critical analysis of Eastern and Western philosophy. Moon revisits his cultural heritage providing rich narratives that debunk a universalized, Eurocentric approach to truth in the contemporary curriculum and social discourse. As an exploration of multiple versions of knowing and identities, The Flows of Transnationalism allows readers to extend and invent their own approaches to examining the fluidity of identities. Moon promotes diverse perspectives within curriculum studies by disrupting the self-other and cultural sameness-difference dichotomy. Amid the urgent need of developing anti-racist pedagogy, this book provides an innovative way to studying identities in a transnational context. This thought-provoking book on transculturalism, cultural identities, and curriculum is intended to benefit educators, university faculty, and interested members of the public. It is written for those who have the desire to learn and apply diverse approaches for engaging with cultural identities through lived experience and its sociopolitical interpretation.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Our world is an increasingly unstable place, but current changes offer new opportunities as well as new challenges. This key volume provides an accessible exploration of identity as a contemporary concern in everyday life and as a key concept in social science. Drawing on work from a range of disciplines and focusing on the key social divisions of gender, class and nation, it shows how these challenges and opportunities work out in practice. What is really happening when people either individually or in groups identify with particular definitions of themselves or strike out to take up new identities? Do gender, class and ethnicity offer some stability and even certainty about who we are, or are they to be seen as limitations on our freedom to choose our own identities? Are we in the end bound by the social constraints and inequalities with which we started out? This key text is essential reading for all students starting out in the social sciences and for anyone with an interest in the dilemmas of identity-making in contemporary society.

"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.