reduced the time from production to consumption, is one of the trends that
represent the pressure regularly to reconstruct your identity in contemporary
society. The individual is given a seemingly endless choice, and yet the outcome
is conformity on a large scale. A fashion style quiz, such as ‘Quick Test to
Identify Your Clothing Personality’, helps you to find out what you want to
identify with and differentiate yourself from. The shrinking lifespan of fashion
items and the increased currency of the verb ‘to identify with’ are indicative of
current developments of social identity, more precisely, of those aspects of social
identity that are open to choice.
The dark side of identity
Sociologists widely agree on the importance of identity in contemporary society.
It comes to bear both on the level of society as a whole and on that of its
constituent groups, institutions, and associations. After the discussion so far, it is
perhaps plausible that a society’s identity is best understood as a project rather
than a state of affairs. Every society constructs its own identity and perpetuates
itself by maintaining and incessantly reconstructing it. Smaller units that
integrate individuals as their members partake in this process, creating and
recreating their identities that are in harmony or conflict with each other and the
overarching national identity. On both levels, identity is a relational process of
inclusion and exclusion.
A peaceful society is one in which the level of contestation of both is low, where
a fan club T-shirt is not more than that. It can be worn on a Saturday afternoon
and put aside after the match. Yet, insignia of collective identity are not always
so harmless. Membership as a pretext for pitting one identity against another is a
well-known phenomenon, outbursts of hooligan violence just being one
example. They alert us to the divisive potential of social identity assertion.
The great challenge of a society that rejects predetermined stations in life as the
principal means of giving orientation, security, and comfort is how to offer its
members a common purpose they can identify with without denigrating other
identities or denying their right to exist. As sociologist Erving Goffman has
shown, this is not easy; for collective identities are not just constructed on the
inside of a group, but may also be imposed on a group from the outside. A brand,
if we recall the origin of the expression, is not just what we want to protect as
our own, but also a sign of damnation.