Summary IDI
Woodward:
We present ourselves to others through everyday interactions, marking ourselves as the
same as those with whom we share an identity and different from those with whom we do
not.
Symbols and representations are important in the marking of difference and in both
presenting ourselves to others and in visualizing or imagining who we are.
We use symbols in order to make sense of ourselves in relation to the world we inhabit.
This world is characterized by structures which may limit our choices, but which may also
provide more opportunities.
Identity involves:
- A link between the personal and the social
- Some active engagement by those who take up identities
- Being the same as some people(similarity) and different from other(difference), as
indicated by symbols and representations
- A tension between how much control I have in constructing my identities and how
much control or constraint is exercised over me.
- There are single and multiple identities
- Identities can be seen as fixed or fluid and changing
Symbolizing: making one object word or image stand for or signify another. For example,
a red light at traffic lights symbolizes ‘stop’ and green means ‘go’
Agency Strucure
Mead Visualization, We have to use existing
symbolization, imagination language and symbols.
of individuals. We have
autonomy in imagining
ourselves
Goffman Negotiation of roles; we The parts or scripts have
can interpret the parts we already been written for
play the roles we play (we give
off information which we do
not quite intend)
Freud Individuals can come to Social forces can operate
understand their childhood through the unconscious,
experience and shape their which shapes our identities.
own identities. Identities
are never completely fixed.
Roles: The society into which we are born presents us with a series of roles, which are
patterns of behaviour, routines and responses, like parts in a play.
Unconscious: The unconscious mind is the repository of repressed feelings and desires—
often from childhood. These feelings can emerge, for example, in dreams. They can
influence the choices we make in later life.
Freudian slips: when the word we actually say is not the word we intended, which reveals
something about our hidden desires.
Identification: The psychological process of association between oneself and something
else (originally someone else)
, Interpellation: A process whereby people recognize themselves in a particular identity
and think ‘that’s me’.
Interpellation links the individual to the social, it may work consciously or unconsciously
Class: a large grouping of people who share common economic interests, experiences
and lifestyles. (the unequal distribution of material resources is a key feature of class
division.)
Gender: systematic structuring of certain behaviour and practices which are associated
with women or with men in particular societies.
Culture: the culture of a society is its shared meanings, values and practices. Culture
provides us with some of the categories and means of organizing ideas through which we
make sense of our lives.
Change is characterized by uncertainties and insecurities as well as by diversity and
opportunities for the formation of new identities.
Difference: Difference is relational. It has to be defined in relation to something else.
Difference often involves oppositions which are unequal.
Through collective action and through individual projects people resist dominant cultural
representations of identity
Hoskin:
Cooper:
Intersectionality is not an account of personal identity but one of power
Intersectionality investigates how intersecting power relations influence social relations
across diverse societies as well as individual experiences in everyday life.
As an analytic tool, intersectionality views categories of race, class, gender, sexuality,
nation, ability, ethnicity, and age – among others – as interrelated and mutually shaping
one another.
Intersectionality is a way of understanding and explaining complexity in the world, in
people, and in human experiences
This working definition describes intersectionality’s core insight: namely, that in a given
society at a given time, power relations of race, class, and gender, for example, are not
discrete and mutually exclusive entities, but rather build on each other and work
together; and that, while often invisible, these intersecting power relations affect all
aspects of the social world.
The “intersectional experience, is greater than the sum of racism and sexism”
Key takeaways about intersectionality:
- Race, class, and gender (as systems of power) are interdependent
- Intersecting power relations produce complex social inequalities
- Intersecting power relations shape individual and group experiences
- Solving social problems requires intersectional analyses
-
Single-axis frameworks: frameworks that only take into account one system of power at a
time.
