We are in crisis. As a society we have never been less connected.
The internet and globalisation fuel ignorance and anger, while the
disconnect between people's reality and perceived identities has
never been greater. Karl Marx outlined the idea of a material
'base' and politico-cultural 'superstructure'. According to this
formula, a material reality - wealth, income, occupation -
determined your politics, leisure habits, tastes, and how you made
sense of the world. Today, the importance of material deprivation,
in terms of threats to life, health and prosperity, are as acute as
ever. But the identities apparently generated by these realities
are increasingly detached from material circumstances. At the same
time, different identities are needlessly conflated through a
process of reeling off a list of -isms and -phobias, and are lumped
together, as though these groups all somehow have something in
common with one another. Th is process is not just inappropriate
but obscures the specific nature of problems being faced. In The
Identity Myth, David Swift covers the four different kinds of
identity most susceptible to this trend - class, race, sex and age.
He considers how the boundaries of identities are policed and how
diverse versions of the same identity can be deployed to different
ends. Ultimately, it is not that identities are simply more
'complex' than they appear but that there are more important
commonalities. In a powerful call to arms, Swift argues that we
must unite against these identity myths and embrace our differences
to beat inequality.
General
Imprint: |
Constable
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
March 2023 |
Authors: |
David Swift
|
Dimensions: |
196 x 126 x 28mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
320 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-349-13534-2 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-349-13534-7 |
Barcode: |
9780349135342 |
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