The Cambridge Handbook of Identity

This book theorizes identity on key themes, explores their methodological implications, and provides examples from several applied domains.

Michael Bamberg (Edited by), Carolin Demuth (Edited by), Meike Watzlawik (Edited by)

9781108719117, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 November 2021

800 pages
24.5 x 16.9 x 3.4 cm, 1.14 kg

'This handbook takes a multidimensional and cross-disciplinary view of identity studies. A truly international project, this is an authoritative and accomplished handbook. It is sure to be an invaluable resource for social scientists for many years to come.' Cristian Tileaga, Reader in Social Psychology, Loughborough University, UK

While 'identity' is a key concept in psychology and the social sciences, researchers have used and understood this concept in diverse and often contradictory ways. The Cambridge Handbook of Identity presents the lively, multidisciplinary field of identity research as working around three central themes: (i) difference and sameness between people; (ii) people's agency in the world; and (iii) how identities can change or remain stable over time. The chapters in this collection explore approaches behind these themes, followed by a close look at their methodological implications, while examples from a number of applied domains demonstrate how identity research follows concrete analytical procedures. Featuring an international team of contributors who enrich psychological research with historical, cultural, and political perspectives, the handbook also explores contemporary issues of identity politics, diversity, intersectionality, and inclusion. It is an essential resource for all scholars and students working on identity theory and research.

1. Identity – with or without you? Perspectives and choices guiding this handbook Meike Watzlawik, Carolin Demuth and Michael Bamberg
Part I. The origin and development of the concept of identity: 2. Decentering histories of identity Michael Bamberg and Martin Dege
3. Challenges in research on self-identity Sue Widdicombe and Cristina Marinho
4. The mystery of identity: fundamental questions, elusive answers Mark Freeman
Part II. New perspectives and challenges: 5. A moral perspective: Identity as self-interpretation Svend Brinkmann
6. Researching identities as affective discursive practices Octavia Calder-Dawe and Maree Martinussen
7. The negotiation of continuity and change of Mapuche women weavers in Chile and its implication for (non-eurocentric) identity research Ramiro Gonzalez Rial and Danilo Silva Guimarães
8. Identity and voices – a language dialogical take Marie-Cécile Bertau
9. Psychoanalytic perspectives on identity: From ego to life narrative Tilmann Habermas and Nina Kemper
10. Erikson, the identity statuses and beyond Jane Kroger and James E. Marcia
Part III. Methodological approaches: 11. A narrative practice approach to identities: Small stories and positioning analysis in digital contexts Korna Giaxoglou and Alexandra Georgakopoulou
12. Conversation analysis and ethnomethodology: Identity at stake in a kinship carers' support group Julie Wilkes and Susan A. Speer
13. Foucauldian-informed discourse analysis Sarah Riley, Martine Robson and Adrienne Evans
14. A methodology to examine identity: Multimodal (inter)action analysis Sigrid Norris and Tui Matelau-Doherty
15. Autoethnography Keith Berry
16. A sociocultural approach to identity through diary studies Tania Zittoun and Alex Gillespie
17. Positioning microanalysis: A method for the study of dynamics in the dialogical self and identity Tania Zittoun and Alex Gillespie
18. Synthesized or confused field? A Critical analysis of the state-of-the-art in identity status research methods Oana Negru-Subtirica and Theo Klimstra
19. Criminals' narrative identity Donna Youngs, David Rowlands and David Cante
20. Experimentation within the social identity approach: History, highlights, and hurdles Lucas B. Mazur
Part IV.Current domains: 21. Clinical psychology: Autistic identities Alessandra Fasulo
22. Gerontopsychology: Dementia and identity Lars-Christer Hydén
23. The study of identity in health psychology Abigail Locke and Jane Montague
24. Identity scholarship in educational psychology: Towards a complex dynamic systems perspective Avi Kaplan, Hanoch Flum, Ishwar Bridgelal and Joanna K. Garner
25. Political psychology: Identity development in a traumatic environment David Becker
26. Organisational psychology: When, why and how is identity work (less) important in organisational life? Stefan Sveningsson, Susann Gjerde and Mats Alvesson
27. Conceptualizing the multiple levels of identity and intersectionality Leoandra Onnie Rogers and Moin Syed
Part V. Conclusion: 28. Where is identity? Reflections on identity conceptualizations, dimensions, and implications Carolin Demuth and Meike Watzlawik.

Subject Areas: The self, ego, identity, personality [JMS], Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Anthropology [JHM], Sociology [JHB]