Bringing together leading scholars to investigate trends in contemporary social life, this book examines the current patterning of identities based on class and community, gender and generation, 'race', faith and ethnicity, and derived from popular culture, exploring debates about social change, individualization and the re-making of social class.

'This important collection of original essays, using state-of-the-art quantitative and qualitative methods, offers fascinating insights into the complex ways that power relations inscribe contemporary social identities.' - Professor Mike Savage, the University of Manchester, UK

'This is an important book on multicultural Britain. It grounds theoretical debates in richly textured empirical analyses, and parts of the book read like a good novel, with real lives and histories unfolding in front of our eyes. Students and professional academics interested in the changing dynamics of social identities in contemporary societies especially culturally diverse societies such as the U.S, Brazil, South Africa, or India - should read this book. Humanists in particular will find this work done by their colleagues in the social sciences very illuminating, and it will suggest ways that humanists and social scientists can work together to explore topics of common interest. Social identity, the focus of this volume, is clearly one such topic.' - Satya P. Mohanty

Professor of English, Cornell University, and Director of the International Future of Minority Studies (FMS) Summer Institute (www.fmsproject.cornell.edu), USA

'...this edited collection delivers the greatest beneficial impact when read in themed sections; however, it is certainly flexible if the reader only wishes to focus on a specific research project. An essential read for all those interested in contemporary formations of identity in the 21st century.' - Michelle Addison, Newcastle University UK, Sociology

Autorentext
PHOEBE BEEDELL is Research Fellow at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK ANDREW BENGRY-HOWELL is Research Fellow based in the Psychology Department at the University of Bath, UK SIMON CLARKE is Professor of Psycho-Social Studies and Director of the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK ROSIE COX is Senior Lecturer in Geography and Gender Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, UK GILL CROZIER is Professor of Education and Assistant Dean Research at Roehampton University, UK JOHN CURTICE is Professor of Politics and Director of the Social Statistics Laboratory in the Department of Government at the University of Strathclyde, UK ROD EEARLE is Lecturer in Youth Justice at the Open University, UK GABRIELLA ELGENIUS is British Academy Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford University, UK STEVE GARNER is Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Languages and Social Science at Aston University, UK ROSIE GILMOUR is Research Fellow at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK CHRISTINE GRIFFIN is Professor of Social Psychology and Head of the Psychology Department at the University of Bath, UK CHRIS HACKLEY is Professor of Marketing at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK LUCY HADFIELD is Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the Open University, UK ROXY HARRIS is Senior Lecturer in Language in Education in the Department of Education and Professional Studiesat King's College London, UK ANTHONY HEATH is Professor of Sociology at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Nuffield College and a Fellow of the British Academy, UK SUMI HOLLINGWORTH is Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Education at London Metropolitan University, UK SUE JACKSON is Professor of Lifelong Learning and Gender at Birkbeck, University of London and Director of the Birkbeck Institute for Lifelong Learning, UK

Inhalt
Introduction - Negotiating Liveable Lives: Intelligibility and Identity in Contemporary Britain; M.Wetherell Part I: CLASS AND COMMUNITY Individualisation and the Decline of Class Identity; A.Heath, J.Curtice & G.Elgenius 'I Don't Want to be Classed, But We Are All Classed': Making Liveable Lives Across Generations; B.Rogaly & B.Taylor Steel, Identity, Community: Regenerating Identities in a South Wales Town; V.Walkerdine White Middle-Class Identity Work Through 'Against the Grain' School Choices; D.James, D.Reay, G.Crozier, F.Jamieson, P.Beedell, S.Hollingworth & K.Williams Part II: ETHNICITIES AND ENCOUNTERS Ethnicities Without Guarantees: An Empirical Approach; R.Harris & B.Rampton 'Con-Viviality' and Beyond: Identity Dynamics in a Young Men's Prison; R.Earle & C.Phillips Imagining the 'Other'/Figuring Encounter: White English Middle-Class and Working-Class Identifications; S.Clarke, S.Garner & R.Gilmour The Subjectivities of Young Somali: The Impact of Processes of Disidentification and Disavowal; G.Valentine & D.Sporton Living London: Women Negotiating Identities in a Post-Colonial City; R.Cox, S.Jackson, M.Khatwa & D.Kiwan Part III: Popular Culture and Relationality The Making of Modern Motherhoods: Storying an Emergent Identity; R.Thomson, M.J.Kehily, L.Hadfield & S.Sharpe The Allure of Belonging: Young People's Drinking Practices and Collective Identification; C.Griffin, A.Bengry-Howell, C.Hackley, W.Mistral & I.Szmigin The Transformation of Intimacy: Classed Identities in the Moral Economy of Reality Television; B.Skeggs & H.Wood