Interaction and Identity

Book excerpt: Scholarly interest in issues of self-identity has exploded across disciplines within the humanities and social sciences in recent years. Common to these concerns are the assumptions that self-identity is not an a priori, not given or fixed, but created in the process of communication. This also assumes that social institutions and values are produced and reproduced by individuals in interaction. To capture the essential characteristics of a person requires analysis of how the social and psychological intersect in moments of communication. Interaction and Identity contributes, theoretically and empirically, to contemporary scholarly interest in issues of identity. Chapters and contributors to this stand alone volume include: "Part/Whole Discovery: Stages of Inquiry" by Thomas Scheff; "Communication" by Gregory Bateson; "Internal Muzak: An Examination of Intrapersonal Relationships" by Linda Lederman; "The Constitution of Identity as Gendered in Psychoanalytic Therapy: Ideology and Interaction" by Margaret Carr; and "The (Reconstruction and Negotiation of Cultural Identities in the Age of Globalization" by Getinet Belay. The multiple disciplines of social research with contemporary interest in identity are ably reflected in Interaction and Identity. The authors are drawn from eight disciplines: anthropology, communication, information science, linguistics, philosophy, psychoanalysis, psychology, and sociology. This book will be invaluable to scholars in all these areas—above all in communication research as such.