ABSTRACT
We all act and understand ourselves vis-à-vis the symbolic worlds we belong to. One’s gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, class, education, employment, health, friends, etc., all become meaningful against this background; they have a deep-seated impact on one’s sense of self and possibilities for action. On the one hand, social identifications constrain us from acting in certain ways – e.g. “girls don’t do x” – while on the other hand, they enable meaningful action – e.g. “I want to be a good Christian and help others.” Identifications are enacted and communicated in relationship to others, creating both closeness and distance to others in the social field. Spectators at a football game communicate their allegiance to their favored team by expressing outrage at referee calls against their team and joy at their team’s successes. Expressing political beliefs about the sources of poverty, unemployment, separation between church and state, etc., identifies one as Republican or Democrat in the USA. By praying five times a day and fasting over Ramadan, Muslims communicate their religious identity to themselves and others around them. We draw on the resources of our social world to meaningfully position others and ourselves, and to creatively (trans)form our own and others’ identities in positive, as well as negative, ways.
