Policy Press

Interpreting Identities

Dimensions of Power, Presence, and Belonging

Edited by Wayne Brekhus and Susie Scott

Published

Apr 22, 2025

Page count

272 pages

Browse the series

Interpretive Lenses in Sociology

ISBN

978-1529228144

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Apr 22, 2025

Page count

272 pages

Browse the series

Interpretive Lenses in Sociology

ISBN

978-1529228168

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press
Interpreting Identities

This edited collection brings together social scientists to interpret identity from a wide range of analytical perspectives. Drawing on multiple interpretive traditions from the last 100 years, the book explores how underlying social, cultural and psychological forces shape the dimensions of identity.

Chapters emphasize how identity forms and functions in relation to key sociological issues such as social power, social control and the production and reproduction of social inequalities. Contributors also explore the flexibility of identities, showcasing how different perspectives and analytical tools reveal the nuances of rejected, unrealized and aspirational identities. By navigating these dimensions, the book reveals the interplay between personal biography and broader social life.

Wayne Brekhus is Professor of Sociology at the University of Missouri.

Susie Scott is Professor of Sociology at the University of Sussex.

1. Introduction: Dimensions of Power, Presence and Belonging in Contemporary Social Identities - Wayne H. Brekhus and Susie Scott

Section 1: Interpreting Intersectional Identities: Unmarked Privilege and Marked Otherness

2. ”Way Down South in the Land of Cotton, Where Being White Is Not Forgotten”: White Southerners’ Negotiations of Identity and Advantage - Jt Thomas, Madeline Burden, and Erin Oakes

3. Trans Men Navigating Male Privilege and the Complexities of Intersectional Identities - Armani Beck

4. Expanding or Rejecting National Identities? Identity Work and Anti-racism among Racialized Minorities in Norway - Mette Andersson

5. Standing up to Power: Black Women, Resistance Capital, and Intersectional Identities on College Campuses - Veronica Newton

Section 2: Negative Negotiations: Reverse, Rejected, Unmarked, and Aspirational Identities

6. Are We What We (Don’t) Consume?: From Negative Possible Selves to Identity Refusal in Consumption Contexts - Emma Banister

7. Questions of Identity and Belonging among Hyper-Mobile Professionals - Patrizia Hoyer

8. Not Feeling Old but Looking Old? The Shaping of Identities and Non-identities among Older Adults during a Pandemic - Emilia Leinonen

9. No-Body Relations and Negative Negotiations: Self-Hood after Trauma Loss - Georgie Akehurst

10. Afterword: Interpreting Intersectional Identities and Negative Negotiations - Wayne H. Brekhus and Susie Scott