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Brubaker And Cooper Concepts Of Identity

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Brubaker and Cooper (2000) provided a discussion of the contemporary uses of identity:
1. Identity as basis for socio-political action – either “particularistic categorical attributes” (gender or sexual orientation, race, ethnic origin) or “universalistically conceived social structure” (occupational structure, economic status); identity as “self-understanding” rather than “self-interest;”
2. Identity as collaborative phenomenon – finding similarity with members of a group and having the same dispositions and behavior;
3. Identity as concept of “selfhood” – the deep, fundamental essence of social being that an individual cultivates and preserves;
4. Identity as product of socio-political action – identity as a result of processes that molded …show more content…

It is simply not an aggregate of memories accumulated over time but a “working theory about who one is, was, and will become” (Oyserman and James, 2011). It is a fluid, not static, characteristic of an individual (Hatoss, 2012). It is also an accumulation of “positively and negatively valenced cognitions of physical settings” (Prohansky, et al. as cited by Manzo, 2005). Thus, identity also comprises the negative or unwanted side of a person.
Identity changes through time – as one learn through the course of her life, she drops off her old identity and acquire a new one that can either suit in her character or be accepted by the society. Identity grows and transforms through experience. The notion about identity abandons its archaic, essentialist view.
Thus, identity is a product of socialization. It cannot be autonomous or foreign to the social world. The individual aspect of self can never be detached from the self in relationship (with the environment and others). As DeLamater and Myers (2011) said, identity is the totality of meanings attached by the self and others to oneself. Meanwhile, Drzewiecka and Nakayama (2009) said that relationships between various independent yet ever-changing social entities transact identity. Identity is also the result of continuous interaction of individuals while performing their social roles – as cultural entities and members of communities (Littlejohn and Foss, 2008). At the same time, those entities who are placed in respective social stratification have varied “investments” on identity of people they interact

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