Identity: Sociological Perspectives - Softcover

"Finally, a readable and smart text on identity for students and faculty. Identity provides an overview of various approaches, from narrative and performative to class views of identity - along with rich empirical illustrations. This is a well written, thoughtful and challenging account of how to analyse identity as a key axis of social and political life today." Steven Seidman, University at Albany, State University of New York "Who are you? Who am I? At last a book that provides a comprehensive sociological understanding of the forms identity takes and why. Written in an engaging style that makes complex debates and concepts accessible and enjoyable, Steph Lawler takes us on a journey exploring the narratives that enable us to speak and perform identity, to develop 'self' projects and connect to others. This book is an essential read for anybody interested in how we come to know and experience our 'selves'." Ben Skeggs, Goldsmiths, University of London "In masterful fashion, Steph Lawler moves the reader through a range of sociological approaches to the study of identity, discussing some familiar erspectives in insightful ways. But Identity is also a book of surprises, for especially in her discussion of contemporary psychoanalysis and Erving Goffman and Judith Butler on self-masquerading, Lawler compels sociology to consider forms of knowledge that until now have often been regarded as off-limits. And all of it offered most engagingly." Jeffrey Prager, University of California

Questions about who we are, who we can be, and who is like and unlike us underpin a vast range of contemporary social issues. What makes our families so important to us? Why do we attach such significance to being ourselves? Why do so many television programmes promise to revolutionise our lives? Who are we really? In this highly readable new book, Steph Lawler examines a range of important debates about identity. Taking a sociological perspective, she shows how identity is produced and embedded in social relationships, and worked out in the practice of peoples everyday lives. She challenges the perception of identity as belonging within the person, arguing instead that it is produced and negotiated between persons. Chapter-by-chapter her book carefully explores topics such as the relationships between lives and life-stories, the continuing significance of kinship in the face of social change, and how taste works to define identity. For Lawler, without understanding identity, we can't adequately begin to understand the social world. This book will be essential reading on upper-level courses across the social sciences that focus on the compelling issues surrounding identity.