identity week 5

identity week 5 18/05

LAURENS STUDIO 17 LOTTE VAN HULST

The concept of being a local in multiple places instead of a national from an entire country is something Taiye Selasi first introduced me with. I very much identify with this concept. Before having listened to Selasi’s TED talk I would say that my mother is English and my father is Dutch. This of course, does not at all cover the totality of the identity experienced by my parents or of that which makes them different from each other.

After my mother moved to what her friends and family called the mainland , she became to share the local identity of my father; Amsterdam. My sister and I are locals of this same place; where we grew up, but also of the place where the rest of our family lives and where our mother is a local; London.

Finally the dynamic character of identity and what someone does or does not identify with are included in Selasi's concept. I wonder if you could apply something similar to other categorisations that feel awkwardly constrictive.

Systems and systemic structures form representations to which people refer their own experiences. Experiences are attributed identities by identifying them with help from representations. This is unavoidable but also problematic in several ways. Firstly, how are these representations formed that have such influence on us? In Identity and Differences (1997), Woodward poses the next question why some symbolic meanings of identity are preferred. What power is at play?

Globalization, as Kevin Robins points out in Woodwards (1997) book, has had an empowering effect on people finding their identity. The transnational exchange of representation, one could say, has impacted the possibilities of identification. The classificatory system is diversifying. This results in people being able to identify themselves with representations more easily because there is simply more to choose from. But as is touched upon in the text, this is a phenomenon that can be used or abusedas a powerful tool in marketing. This in turn can lead to cultural homogeneity, which dissociates identity from community or localness, in the way that Selasi refers to identity (Woodward, 1997).

‘The Other’: the undesired end of the dichotomous structure of identity

An important factor when defining identity is inclusion, exclusion, perceptions and position in society or culture that form perspectives (Woodward, 1997). The Otheroften refers to those excluded, feared or inferior to the default. Simone de Beauvoir talks about women being The Other, or as she calls it: the second sex (de Beauvoir, 1949). Here, men are the default. In the book Identity and Differences (1997), countries of Islamic origin are also seen as "the other". In comparison to the European identity as “desired” default. The use of the term Middle Eastis another example of western centrist perspective. This orientalist stance results in exotisation, fear, supremacy and importantly desired identities.Identities within the default are free and have agency in society, or even hegemony. Identities outside of the default do not. This is also evident in the example I discussed previously on Palestinians being oppressed by the Israeli government.

In addition, identities can have agency but individuals do not always have agency in their identity. Bourdieu talks about a field in which agents are assumed to seek ruling it. Only once this has been achieved one has acquired the position of determining the legitimacy of others (Bourdieu, 1980). However, these fields are based on rules, expectations and specific standards. If you do not meet these (unspoken) rules, it is not possible to master the field. Only when you possess the qualities or characteristics recognised as capital by the field do you receive the right to speak. The social or political context is what determines these rules and, in this case, therefore, who or what is a legitimate identity with agency. The Otherin this context is I think the agent in the field that does not achieve legitimacy.

One thing I do not like about the term the other is that it indulges in the classification of a subordinate grouping. An essentialist perspective that doesnt help individuals gain agency in their own identities. There are factors that undeniably do not hold advantage in most fields and that are often inherently 2-0 behind in contemporary society. Like being black, a woman, homosexual, of a lower class, or someone that lives outside the boundaries of sovereign states. The undesired ends of the dichotomy in the structure of identity.