Journal
HUMAN RELATIONS
Volume 75, Issue 7, Pages 1205-1237Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0018726721993910
Keywords
identity; identity work; identity work perspective; review; self
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Identities are multiple, fluid, constructed within power relations, and not easily described as positive or authentic; the emergent identity work perspective serves as a counterbalance to tendencies that may lead to narrow research and fragmentation.
There is an emergent identity work perspective that draws on multiple intertwined streams of established identities theorizing and identities-related research. This perspective is characterized loosely by five broad sets of assumptions: (i) selves are reflexive and identities actively worked on, both in soliloquy and social interaction; (ii) identities are multiple, fluid and rarely fully coherent; (iii) identities are constructed within relations of power; (iv) identities are not helpfully described as either positive or authentic; and (v) identities are both interesting per se and integral to processes of organizing. Recognition of an emergent identity work perspective is valuable in part because this may act as a counterbalance to centrifugal tendencies - fed by myopia, insularity and ethnocentrism - which might otherwise lead to blinkered research and fragmentation. The contribution of this article is to provide a baseline for identity work scholars, and to promote collective critical reflection on identities in and around organizations.
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