Identity: Sociological Perspectives
"Finally, a readable and smart text on identity for students and faculty.Identityprovides 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