ABSTRACT
Identity is both multi-faceted and embedded in history and culture. 1 The interaction of personal subjectivity, of perceptions by others and of the lived experiences of skill, class, gender, race/caste, citizenship/legal standing/family status, religion, town/ region/nation and political ideology define the human identity of textile workers. All of these categories overlap and may be challenged, renewed, renegotiated and redefined or shattered during conflicts within the global textile industry. The complicated issues of identity require evidence on a level of experience often lacking to historians. Thus, many of the national overviews in this volume focus on economic analysis, but the explanatory power of social history, however devilish, is often in the details of the context. Likewise, any attempt to decide which elements of the overlapping categories of identity take precedence in a particular situation requires a detailed historic context and sensitive analysis.
