{"title":"Beyond unities of identity in high modernity","authors":"Floya Anthias","doi":"10.1080/1070289X.1999.9962638","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores contemporary approaches to identity within modernity with reference to the influential recent work of Anthony Giddens (1991, 1994) and recent debates on hybridity and diaspora developed within what may be termed a postmodern framework. Unlike Giddens’ focus on the unitary self of high modernity, whose political project is self‐actualization, and unlike the focus on cultural social forms found in debates on diaspora and hybridity, I argue that social divisions lie at the heart of modern societies. The social divisions of gender, ethnicity, “race,” and class must therefore be prime concerns in sociology because they lie at the very heart of the modern social order. They are central in terms of constructions of identity and otherness and in terms of producing differentiated and complex social outcomes for individuals and groups (Anthias 1998a).","PeriodicalId":47227,"journal":{"name":"Identities-Global Studies in Culture and Power","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"1999-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"19","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Identities-Global Studies in Culture and Power","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.1999.9962638","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CULTURAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 19
Abstract
This paper explores contemporary approaches to identity within modernity with reference to the influential recent work of Anthony Giddens (1991, 1994) and recent debates on hybridity and diaspora developed within what may be termed a postmodern framework. Unlike Giddens’ focus on the unitary self of high modernity, whose political project is self‐actualization, and unlike the focus on cultural social forms found in debates on diaspora and hybridity, I argue that social divisions lie at the heart of modern societies. The social divisions of gender, ethnicity, “race,” and class must therefore be prime concerns in sociology because they lie at the very heart of the modern social order. They are central in terms of constructions of identity and otherness and in terms of producing differentiated and complex social outcomes for individuals and groups (Anthias 1998a).
期刊介绍:
Identities explores the relationship of racial, ethnic and national identities and power hierarchies within national and global arenas. It examines the collective representations of social, political, economic and cultural boundaries as aspects of processes of domination, struggle and resistance, and it probes the unidentified and unarticulated class structures and gender relations that remain integral to both maintaining and challenging subordination. Identities responds to the paradox of our time: the growth of a global economy and transnational movements of populations produce or perpetuate distinctive cultural practices and differentiated identities.