Objectives

After completing this class, you will be able to:

• Compare and contrast how different theroetical perspectives treat the concept of group and individual identity;
• Assess the role of identity in defining, maintaining, and restructuring contemporary communities;
• Examine how standpoint informs identity and experiences of power, voice, exchange, and meaning; and
• Identify and assess ways of using identity to inform community-based organizations, programs, and processes.

Allan

Pp. 471-518 1st Ed., pp. 516-532 2nd Ed.

Blackshaw

Pp. 112-129, Community & Identity

Other Readings

Gallagher, J. (2010) Potential and problems in urban agriculture. Pp. 39-72 in Reimagining Detroit. Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI.

Pothukuchi, K. (2011) Building sustainable, just food systems in Detroit. Sustainability 4(4), 193-198.

Additional Materials

Bayman, J.M. & Sullivan, A.P. (2008). Property, identity and macroeconomy in the prehispanic Southwest. American Anthropologist, 110(1), 6-20.

Bell, A. (2009). Dilemmas of settler belonging: Roots, routes and redemption in New Zealand national identity claims. Sociological Review 57 (1), 145-162.

Bernardini, W. (2005). Reconsidering spatial and temporal aspects of prehistoric cultural identity: A case study from the American Southwest. American Antiquity, 70(1), 31-55.

Bobel, C. (2007). "I'm not an activist, though I've done a lot of it": Doing activism, being activist and the "perfect standard" in a contemporary movement. Social Movement Studies 6(2), 147-159.

Cohen, J.L. (1985). Strategy or identity: New theoretical paradigms and contemporary social movements. Social Research 52(4), 663-714.

Gallardo, J.H. & Stein, T.V. (2007). Participation, power and racial representation: Negotiating nature-based and heritage tourism development in the rural South. Society & Natural Resources 20(7), 597-611.

Griffin, L.J. & McFarland, K. (2007). "In my heart, I'm an American." Southern Cultures, 13(4), 119-137.

Irlbeck, D. (2008). Latino police officers: Patterns of ethnic self-identity and Latino community attachment. Police Quarterly, 11(4), 468-495.

Mana, A. & Orr, E. (2009). An integrated acculturation model of immigrants' social identity. The Journal of Social Psychology 149(4), 450-473.

Mendez, M.L. (2008). Middle class identities in a neoliberal age: Tensions between contested authenticities. Sociological Review 56(2), 220-237.

Olson, B.D. (2002). Applied social and community interventions for crisis in times of national and international conflict. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 2(1), 119-129.

Peralta, R.L. & Steele, J.L. (2009). Structural determinants of alcohol use behavior. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse. 8(2), 146-162.

Rocha, R.R. & Hawes, D.P. (2009). Racial diversity, representative bureaucracy and equity in multiracial school districts. Social Science Quarterly, 90(2), 326-344.

Satchell, C. & Foth, M. (2008). The re-creation of identity in digital environments and the potential benefits for non-profit and community organizations. 3CMedia: Journal of Community, Citizen's & Third Sector Media & Communication 4, 16-27.

Saunders, C. (2008). Double-edged swords? Collective identity and solidarity in the environmental movement. British Journal of Sociology 59(2), 227-253.

Simon Rosser, B.R., West, W. & Weinmeyer, R. (2008). Are gay communities dying or just in transition? Results from an international consultation examining possible structural change in gay communities. AIDS Care, 20(5), 588-595.

Smith, B.E. & Winders, J. (2008). "We're here to stay": Economic restructuring, latino migration and place-making in the U.S. South. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 33(1), 60-72.

Werbner, P. (2005). The translocation of culture: "Community cohesion" and the force of multiculturalism in history. 53(4), 745-768

Yu, F.T. & Kwan, D.S.M. (2008). Social construction of national identity: Taiwanese versus Chinese consciousness. Social Identities 14(1), 33-52.