ABSTRACT
This chapter unloads the concept of identity to ascertain how individuals and groups perceive themselves in the first place within different arenas of societal contestation. It problematizes the definition of identity, including what identity as a variable is supposed to explain. It further highlights how different identities, each carrying historical and emotional baggage, are not always expressed uniformly, and in fact can be malleable and sometimes instrumentalized. Given the sheer number of different identity categories – tribalism, religion, ethnonationalism, refugees, expatriates, youth, and women – the analysis explores how claims made on basis of identity, such as assertions of authority or demands for resources, can produce divergent results; sometimes clashes and conflicts erupt, whereas in other contexts identity contestation fades into the background. In sum, the region contains a multiplicity of collective affiliations that orients how individuals and groups locate themselves versus others.
