ABSTRACT
In the opening chapters of this book, I argued that identity and identification are ubiquitous, generic aspects of human life that we need to understand in order to do sociology. They are also strategic concepts for the sociological project of understanding better the relationship between individuality and collectivity. I went on to propose that:
• the human world as we know it would be an impossible creation without a sophisticated and extensive ability to know and communicate who’s who and what’s what;
• identification and identity are thus nothing new; and • individual and collective concerns about identity and identification
aren’t definitively modern either: the increased volume of discourse about these aspects of what it is to be human are at least in part a reflection of increased global chatter in general.
