Politics and the Ends of Identity

First published in 1997, this volume responds to the issue that identity can no longer be taken for granted, and features contributions from experts in politics, history and social theory on the concepts of identity politics and selfhood in cultures around the world. Stemming from the work of Erik Erikson, on the concept of identity, these articles expand to include Islam, Japan, India and America, along with a contemplation of international ideas of national sovereignty. They argue as a whole against notions of a growing global homogeneity of identity and against an ‘end to history’.

1. Introduction: Politics and the Ends of Identity. Kathryn Dean. 2. Collective Forms in Modern Politics. Sudipta Kaviraj. 3. Transcending Identities in Modern India’s World. Ronald Inden. 4. Turkish Identity from Genesis to the Day of Judgement. Zafer F. Yörük. 5. Political Identity in Postwar Japan: the Hegelian Turn. 6. An ‘Islamic Economics’? Problems in the Imagined Reappropriation of Economic Life. Charles Tripp. 7. Tensions of Selfhood in Republican Political Theory. Luis Castro Leiva. 8. Beyond Satisfaction: Desire, Consumption, and the Future of Socialism. Robert Meister. 9. Postmodernism and the Politics of Identity. Noël O’ Sullivan. 10. The International Origins of National Sovereignity. Paul Hirst.

Dr Kathryn Dean is a member of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and is also aResearch Associate.