Studies on the Social Construction of Identity and Authenticity

"This impressive book has much to offer, not only for scholars and students interested in these social-psychological processes or the recent developments in the symbolic interactionist tradition, but also for anyone broadly interested in questions of theory, culture, and society...when the chapters are read together, in various ways they investigate the deep structures of emerging social forms-forms that carry a complex dynamic of cultural transformations in multiple sites of globalized social life.While it seems to be a collection of interactionist research, this book also has the shape of a "multi-sited ethnography" or "global ethnography." It goes beyond the site of humans to explore the world of robots; it looks into how nation states constructively work to create futuristic identities by re-identifying their national identity and history. It pays attention to social actors who create authentic identities for competitive economic contexts, which often include a rejection of commercialized purposes or at least careful work to differentiate such purposes. Collectively, the chapters bring out the complexity and dilemmaswhich pervade the social-psychological dynamics of people haunted by late-modern social conditions."

Gordon C. Chang, Associate Professor of Sociology, Western Illinois University