Clarke - Culture and Identity
Clarke, S. (2008). Culture and Identity. In Bennett, T., & Frow, J. (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Cultural Analysis (pp. 510–529). London: Sage Publications. ISBN 9780761942290; eISBN:9781848608443
Cultural identities are marked by a number of factors – ‘race’, ethnicity, gender and class to name but a few; the very real locus of these factors, however, is the notion of difference. The question of difference is emotive; we start to hear ideas about ‘us’ and ‘them’, friend and foe, belonging and not belonging, in-groups and out-groups, which define ‘us’ in relation to others, or the Other. From this we get ideas about communities, even imagined communities (Anderson, 1983) and ethno-national boundaries. The questions addressed in this chapter are: who ascribes a cultural identity, to whom, and for what reason? Do we choose our identity, or is it beyond our control? Is identity a social construction, part of a psychodynamic process, or a complex amalgam of both of these? The chapter offers a good introduction to these and related topics.
Simon Clarke “Culture and Identity”