ABSTRACT
At the risk of slight exaggeration, one might propose that the orientating concept of identity signifies, for the 1990s, a similar role for social theory and research as that played by social class in the 1960s/1970s and by gender in the 1970s/1980s. Ali Rattansi and Ann Phoenix seem to imply that sociological perspectives, as long as these are sensitive to ethno-graphical methods and biographical accounts, provide perhaps the most appropriate social scientific approaches in the attempt to produce synthetic knowledge capable of combining the analytic potential of the key concepts of class, gender, ethnicity and identity. The demonstration that there is no longer much to be gained by studying youth exclusively in terms of discrete disciplinary perspectives - whether in developmental psychology, social psychology, education or whatever - must count as a considerable achievement on the part of the writers. Studying relationships between gender, culture, class and identities in modern times and settings demands an array of new methods.
