I discuss struggles over identities, organized by social inequalities, nationalisms, and social movements. I also take up identities based on space, both geographic and virtual. I emphasize the social bases of identity, particularly identities based on ethnicity, race, sexuality, gender, class, age, and (dis)ability, both separately and as they intersect. In this chapter I review the social psychological underpinnings of identity, emphasizing social cognitive and symbolic interactionist perspectives and research, and I turn then to key themes of current work on identity-social psychological, sociological, and interdisciplinary.
I close with a look toward the future, suggesting trajectories aimed at synthesizing traditional and current concerns. This essay explores all such agenda as raised in key works published since 1980. Many works refocus attention from the individual to the collective others prioritize discourse over the systematic scrutiny of behavior some researchers approach identity as a source of mobilization rather than a product of it and the analysis of virtual identities now competes with research on identities established in the copresent world. Recent literature constitutes an antithesis to such concerns. Sociologists focused primarily on the formation of the "me," exploring the ways in which interpersonal interactions mold an individual's sense of self. Microsociological perspectives dominated work published through the 1970s. Introduced by the works of Cooley and Mead, identity studies have evolved and grown central to current sociological discourse. The study of identity forms a critical cornerstone within modern sociological thought.
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