Identity and Marginality

Studying identities, the processes of their formation and the ways in which they are both shaped by and help to shape wider social and cultural contexts is a key preoccupation in many disciplines of the arts, humanities and social sciences. These fields of academic inquiry are principally concerned with human beings, their thoughts and beliefs, the ways in which they interact with one another and the structures and systems within which these interactions take place. Identities are intricately bound up in each of these concerns. As Stephen Mennell has pointed out identities are multifaceted and layered. They range from the intimately personal and unique to the broadly collective and binding. Identities are a way of making sense of who we are and as such may be the result of a very individual process of reflection and choice and an empowering expression of beliefs, tastes and values. However, identities are also socially constructed and determined by wider social, cultural, political and economic contexts. They may be reinterpreted or even imposed upon certain groups or individuals by others, often as a result of inequalities of power and authority. In this case identities may be divisive and repressive or even rebellious and subversive. Norbert Elias’ 1965 study of established-outsider relations between the residents of the ‘village’ and the ‘estate’ in a working class community in the English Midlands provides a clear example of the complexities of identity and inequality and their relevance to the establishment and maintenance of uneven relationships of power and authority. In this study the power of representation and the normative values produced by dominant discourses about the self and the other come to the fore: the ‘villagers’ are