Sociology of Identity
Code: 101132 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2500262 Sociology | OT | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Esperanza Bielsa Mialet
- Email:
- esperanza.bielsa@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites.
Objectives and Contextualisation
This module offers a sociological perspective on identity and its paradoxes, examining the centrality of the concept in contemporary society as well as the main criticisms that have been made to its academic use. The module provides basic tools for relating identity to the social nature of human beings, on the one hand, and investigates the social construction of identity in its various manifestations, on the other. The module starts with an analysis of the link between individual and society through classical authors such as Mead, Goffman and Elias, to then focus on the notions of collective identity that emerge from the end of the decade of 1960 with identity politics. A third block analyses the main criticism of the concept of identity and the need to redefine it in the current context. Finally, a fourth block proposes as an alternative a reflection on non-identity centered on the figure of the stranger and the practice of translation.
Competences
- Analysing the problems arising from the implementation of public policies and conflict situations by recognising the complexity of the social phenomena and political decisions affecting democracy, human rights, social justice and sustainable development.
- Applying the concepts and approaches of the sociological theory, specially the explanations of social inequalities between classes, between genders and between ethnic groups, to the implementation of public policies and to the resolution of conflict situations.
- Demonstrating a comprehension of the approaches of the sociological theory in its different aspects, interpretations and historical context.
- Describing social phenomena in a theoretically relevant way, bearing in mind the complexity of the involved factors, its causes and its effects.
- Developing self-learning strategies.
- Generating innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
- Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Searching for documentary sources starting from concepts.
- Students must be capable of managing their own time, planning their own study, managing the relationship with their tutor or adviser, as well as setting and meeting deadlines for a work project.
Learning Outcomes
- Comparing the reading of cultural phenomena from several ideologies of the social reality of Spain and Catalonia.
- Defining the sociological concepts that interpret the cultural phenomena.
- Defining the underlying social phenomena of cultural policies and conflicts.
- Developing self-learning strategies.
- Distinguishing the explanations of cultural inequalities between classes, between genders and between ethnic groups that these actors take for granted.
- Distinguishing the sociological concepts about culture adopted by the actors involved in these policies and conflicts.
- Explaining the social interpretations of culture according to these approaches.
- Expressing the debates regarding these approaches, that refer to culture.
- Generating innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
- Relating the debates regarding these approaches, that refer to culture, with the historical context in which they emerged.
- Relating the explanations of cultural inequalities with general theoretical and methodological debates.
- Relating the theoretical approaches with debates about social order and action.
- Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Searching for documentary sources starting from concepts.
- Students must be capable of managing their own time, planning their own study, managing the relationship with their tutor or adviser, as well as setting and meeting deadlines for a work project.
Content
1. Introduction: Paradoxes of identity
2. Social being and self
Mead, socialization and self; Goffman, dramaturgy and negotiation of identity; Elias on identity: sociogenesis and psychogenesis; the body as a social instance.
3. Collective identity and identity politics
Politics of identity or politics of difference; multiculturalism and recognition; postcolonial perspectives on subalterm identities; trans identities.
4. Identity as a problem
Main criticisms of the concept of identity; postmodernism and the fragmentation of identities; flexible capitalism and identity; individualization and identity; hybrid identities; globalisation, mobility and identity; national and post-national identities.
5. Non-identity
The logic of identity; the stranger; translation.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures and seminars | 39 | 1.56 | 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 11, 13 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Individual or small group tutorials | 8 | 0.32 | 14, 4, 9, 15, 13 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Reading, essay writing, revising | 70 | 2.8 | 14, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 15, 10, 12, 11, 13 |
Lectures.
Seminars.
Individual and tutorials.
Reading and presentation of texts.
Essay writing on a chosen topic.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 35% | 20.5 | 0.82 | 14, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 15, 10, 12, 11, 13 |
| Presentation | 15% | 10 | 0.4 | 14, 2, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13 |
| Written examination | 50% | 2.5 | 0.1 | 14, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 15, 10, 12, 11, 13 |
The module will be assessed as follows:
1) Seminar presentation on a text. The organization and assessment criteria will be explained in class and publicized through the virtual campus. Individual. 15% of the final mark.
2) Writing of an original essay, based on a chosen topic from a proposed list. Individual. 35% of the final mark.
3) Written examination. A written exam will take place at the end of the module. Individual. 50% of the final mark.
To calculate the final mark, a minimum mark of 3 in each assessment component is required.
Please consider the following:
a) The nature of the module and the method of assessment make regular attendance of lectures and seminars essential.
b) The smooth functioning of the course will depend on students presenting their work and delivering their essays on the set date.
c) The mark of 'Not evaluable ' means not having been assessed in one or in any of the three components mentioned above.
d) Students that obtain a rating equal to or above3.5and lower than 5 are entitled to participate in a retake exam, to be held shortly after the publication of the marks. Students who take this exam and pass, will get a grade of 5. If the student does not pass the retake, the grade will remain unchanged.
Single evaluation
Single evaluation will take place through a written examination at the end of the course. It will be necessary to answer the six exam questions (in the modality of continuous evaluation only two of the six questions need to be answered). 100% of the final mark.
The retake exam follows the same system as in the case of continuous evaluation.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is using the work of others as if it were your own. All written work must be your own work. Whenever you make use of books, articles, internet pages or any other material, you must make this clear by the appropriate use of references and, wherea passage is cited word by word, by the use of quotation marks. Plagiarism is a serious offence and is regarded in the same light as cheating on examinations. Plagiarism will result in a mark of 0 for the essay and failing the course.
Bibliography
Supplementary bibliography
Introductions and general works
Bielsa, E. 2018 ‘Identity’, a O. Carbonell and S.A. Harding (eds), Routledge Handbook of Translation and Culture, 2018, pp. 48-60.
Brekhus, W.H. 2020 The Sociology of Identity, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Coulmas, F. 2019 Identity. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Elliott, A. (ed) 2011 Routledge Handbook of Identity Studies, London and New York: Routledge.
Elliott, A. 2016 Identity Troubles, London and New York: Routledge.
Hall, S. 1996 'Introduction: Who Needs ‘Identity’?' in S. Hall and P. Du Gay (eds) Questions of Cultural Identity, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage.
Jenkins, R. 2014 Social Identity, Fourth ed., London and New York: Routledge.
Moran, M. 2015 Identity and Capitalism, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage.
Social being and self
Elias, N. 1991 The Society of Individuals, New York and London: Continuum.
Elias, N. 2000 The Civilizing Process, Oxford: Blackwell.
Goffman, E. 1963 Stigma, London: Penguin.
Goffman, E. 1956 The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Edinburgh: The University of Edinburgh Press.
Mead, G.H. 1934 Mind, Self and Society, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Young, I.M. 2005 On Female Body Experience. ‘Throwing Like a Girl’ and Other Essays, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Collective identity and identity politics
Anderson, B. 2006 Imagined Communities, London and New York: Verso.
Baldwin, J. 1993 The Fire Next Time, New York: Vintage.
Brubaker, R. 2016 Trans, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Butler, J. 1999 Gender Trouble, London and New York: Routledge.
Currah, P. 2022 Sex Is as Sex Does. Governing Transgender Identity, New York: New York University Press.
Davies, E.B. 2018 Third Wave Feminism and Transgender, London and New York: Routledge.
Delanty, G. 2018 Community Third ed., London and New York: Routledge.
Fanon, F. 2008 Black Skin, White Masks, London: Pluto Press.
Fernández Retamar, R. 1995 Caliban, Lleida: Edicions de la Universitat de Lleida.
Fraser, N. and Honneth, A. 2003 Redistribution or Recognition?, London and New York: Verso.
Gellner, E. 1983 Nations and Nationalism, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Go, J. 2013 'Fanon’s Postcolonial Cosmopolitanism', European Journal of Social Theory16(2): p.208–225.
Hall, S. 1990 'Cultural Identity and Diaspora' in Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, London: Lawrence & Wishart.
Kymlicka, W. 1995 Multicultural Citizenship, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Kymlicka, W. 2001 Politics in the Vernacular. Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Citizenship, Oxford i New York: Oxford University Press.
Lloyd, M. 2005 Beyond Identity Politics, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage.
Marty, É. 2022 El sexo de los Modernos. Traducción de H. Pons. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Manantial.
Missé, M. 2018 A la conquista del cuerpo equivocado. Barcelona, Madrid: Egalés.
Modood, T., A. Triandafyllidou, i R. Zapata-barrero. 2006. Multiculturalism , Muslims and Citizenship. London i New York: Routledge.
Modood, T. 2013. Multiculturalism. Second edi.Cambridge: Polity Press.
Nicholson, L. 2008 Identity Before Identity Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stryker, S. 2017 Transgender History, Revised ed, New York: Seal Press.
Taylor, C. 1994 'The Politics of Recognition' a A. Gutmann (ed) Multiculturalism. Examining the Politics of Recognition, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Young, I.M. 1990 Justice and the Politics of Difference, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Identity as a problem
Aguilera, A. 2015 ' Insuficiencias del reconocimiento para una apertura cosmopolita al otro', Papers. 100 (3): P. 325 – 344.
Balibar, E. 2004 We, the People of Europe? Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Bauman, Z. 1996 'From Pilgrim to Tourist - or a Short History of Identity' a S. Hall i P. du Gay (eds) Questions of Cultural Identity, London: Sage.
Bauman, Z. 2009 'Identity in the Globalizing World' in A. Elliott and P. du Gay (eds) Identity in Question, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi: Sage.
Beck, U. 2006, The Cosmopolitan Vision, Cambridge: Polity.
Beck, U. and Grande E. 2007, Cosmopolitan Europe, Cambridge: Polity.
Beck, U. 2013, German Europe, Cambridge: Polity.
Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. 2002 Individualization, London: Sage.
Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. 2014 Distant Love, Cambridge: Polity.
Benhabib, S. 2002 The Claims of Culture, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Boatcă, M. 2021 ‘Thinking Europe Otherwise: Lessons from the Caribbean’, Current Sociology, 69(3), pp. 389–414.
Brubaker, R. and Cooper, F.2000 'Beyond ‘ identity ’', Theory and Society29(1): p.1–47.
Delanty, G. 2003. “Is There a European Identity?” Global Dialogue; Summer5(34).
Delanty, G. 2006. “The Cosmopolitan Imagination: Critical Cosmopolitanism and Social Theory.” The British Journal of Sociology51(1):25–47.
Delanty, G. 2018 The European Heritage, London and New York: Routledge.
Delanty, G. and C. Rumford. 2005. Rethinking Europe: Social Theory and the Implications of Europeanization. London and New York: Routledge.
Elliott, A. and du Gay, P. (eds) 2009 Identity in Question, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage.
Glissant, É. 2020 Introduction to a Poetics of Diversity. Translated by C. Britton. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Habermas, J. 1998 The Inclusion of the Other, Cambridge Mass: MIT Press.
Habermas, J, 2001 The Postnational Constellation, Cambridge Mass: MIT Press. (Part II)
Habermas, J, 2009 Europe. The Faltering Project, Cambridge: Polity.
Illouz, E. 2021 The End of Love. A Sociology of Negative Relations. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Kymlicka, W. 2010 'The rise and fall of multiculturalism? New debates on inclusion and accommodation in diverse societies', International Social Science Journal199: p.97–112.
McRobbie, A. 2009 The Aftermath of Feminism. London: Sage.
McRobbie, A. 2020 Feminism and the Politics Of ‘Resilience’. Cambridge: Polity.
Nussbaum, M. 2002 For Love of Country?, Boston: Beacon Press.
Papastergiadis, N. 2010 'Understanding Hybrid Identities: From Mechanical Models to Complex Systems', World Futures66: p.243–265.
Schiller, N.G., Darieva, T. and Gruner-Domic, S. 2011 'Defining cosmopolitan sociability in a transnational age. An introduction', Ethnic and Racial Studies34(3): p.399–418.
Sennett, R. 1970 The Uses of Disorder, London and New York: Norton.
Sennett, R. 1998 The Corrosion of Character, New York: Norton.
Young, I.M. 2000 Inclusion and Democracy, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cap 3.
Vertovec, S. 2010 'Towards Post-multiculturalism? Changing Communities, Conditions and Contexts of Diversity', International Social Science Journal199: p.83–95.
Vertovec, S. 2007 'Super-diversity and its implications', Ethnic and Racial Studies30(6): p.1024–1054.
Non-identity
Agier, Michel. 2016. Borderlands. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Balibar, É. 2006. “Strangers as Enemies : Further Reflections on the Aporias of Transnational Citizenship.” Globalization Working Papers. Université de Paris-X Nanterre and University of California, Irvine (06/4).
Balibar,E. 2010 'At the Borders of Citizenship: A Democracy in Translation?', European Journal of Social Theory13(3): p.315–322.
Beck, U. 1998. “How Neighbours Become Jews: The Political Construction of the Stranger in the Age of Reflexive Modernity.” Pp. 122–40 in Democracy Without Enemies, edited by U. Beck. Cambridge: Polity.
Bielsa, E. 2016 Cosmopolitanism and Translation. Investigations into the Experience of the Foreign, London i New York: Routledge. Cap. 2 i 3
Bielsa, E. 2023 A Translational Sociology. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Politics and Society. London and New York: Routledge.
Bielsa, E. and Aguilera A. 2017. “Politics of Translation: A Cosmopolitan Approach.” European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology 4(1):7–24.
Caneda, M.T. 2008 'Polyglot Voices, Hybrid Selves and Foreign Identities: Translation as a Paradigm of Thought for Modernism', Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies 30(June): p.53–67.
Cronin, M. 2006 Translation and Identity, London and New York: Routledge.
Derrida, J. 1992 El otro cabo, Madrid: Ediciones del Serbal.
Espluga, J.2005 Planeta Franja, Lleida: Pagès editors.
Ivekovic, R. 2005 'Transborder Translating', Eurozine: p.1–10. Available at: www.eurozine.com.
Leal, A. 2021 English and Translation in the European Union, London and New York: Routledge.
Mezzadra, S. i Brett N. 2013. Border as Method, Or, the Multiplication of Labor. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Mignolo, W. 2000 ‘The Many Faces of Cosmo-polis: Border Thinking and Critical Cosmopolitanism’, Public Culture, 12(3), pp. 721–748.
Mignolo, W.D. and Schiwy, F. 2003 ‘Double Translation: Transculturation and the Colonial Difference’, in Maranhâo, T. and Streck, B. (eds) Translation and Ethnography, Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 3–29.
Mignolo, W.D. and Tlostanova, M. V. 2006 ‘Theorizing from the borders: Shifting to geo- and body-politics of knowledge’, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 41(3), pp. 205–221.
Rumford, C. 2014. Cosmopolitan Borders. Palgrave Macmillan.
Rumford, C. 2008. Cosmopolitan Spaces. London and New York: Routledge.
Saito, N. 2009 'Beyond Monolingualism: Philosophy as Translation and the Understanding of other cultures', Ethics and Education4(2): p.131–139.
Sakai, N. 2006 'Translation', Theory, Culture & Society23(2-3): p.71–78.
Sakai, N. 1997 Translation and Subjectivity, Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
Sennett, R. 2011 The Foreigner. Two Essays on Exile, London: Notting Hill Editions.
Simmel, G., Schütz, A. Elias, N. 2012 The Foreigner. Sociology of the Strange, Madrid: Ediciones Sequitur.
Simon, S. 1996 Gender in Translation, London and New York: Routledge.
Snell-Hornby, M. 2000 'Communicating in the Global Village: On Language, Translation and Cultural Identity' in C. Schäffner (ed) Translation in the Global Village, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Software
None.
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 51 | Catalan | first semester | afternoon |
| (TE) Theory | 51 | Catalan | first semester | afternoon |