Questions of Cultural Identity

Why and how do contemporary questions of culture so readily become highly charged questions of identity? The question of cultural identity lies at the heart of current debates in cultural studies and social theory. At issue is whether those identities which defined the social and cultural world of modern societies for so long - distinctive identities of gender, sexuality, race, class and nationality - are in decline, giving rise to new forms of identification and fragmenting the modern individual as a unified subject.

Questions of Cultural Identity offers a wide-ranging exploration of this issue. Stuart Hall firstly outlines the reasons why the question of identity is so compelling and yet so problematic. The cast of outstanding contributors then interrogate different dimensions of the crisis of identity; in so doing, they provide both theoretical and substantive insights into different approaches to understanding identity.

Inhalt

Introduction - Stuart Hall
Who Needs `Identity'?
From Pilgrim to Tourist - or a Short History of Identity - Zygmunt Bauman
Enabling Identity? - Marilyn Strathern
Biology, Choice and the New Reproductive Technologies
Culture's In-Between - Homi K Bhabha
Interrupting Identities - Kevin Robins
Turkey/Europe
Identity and Cultural Studies - Is That All There Is? - Lawrence Grossberg
Music and Identity - Simon Frith
Identity, Genealogy, History - Nikolas Rose
Organizing Identity - Paul du Gay
Entrepreneurial Governance and Public Management
The Citizen and the Man about Town - James Donald