Institute of Sociology NASU

Identity construction and mechanisms of aggression

stmm. 2023 (2): 65-82

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2023.02.065

Full text: http://stmm.in.ua/archive/ukr/2023-2/5.pdf

VICTOR BURLACHUK, Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Leading Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology of Culture and Mass Communication, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (12, Shovkovychna St., Kyiv, 01021)

bourlatchouk@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6197-0356

Most of the work on the study of identity is characterized mainly by an academic approach, when the concept is considered as a kind of special tool created for the study of society and the individual. There are various definitions of identification and identity. Basically, they boil down to the fact that identity is understood as the integrity of the individual, the identity and continuity of its development, despite the changes that occur to it. It is understood as well as the identification of the individual with any social group or class, the acceptance of its goals and values. At the same time, the legitimacy of this concept, its social conditionality by existing relations of power, is not called into question. The criticism of the concept lies in the fact that it is seen as ideologically biased, as a concept involved in mobile relations of power. The concept of identity underlies the act of official nomination, by which someone is awarded a certain right or title, as a socially recognized qualification. According to P. Bourdieu, this is one of the typical manifestations of the monopoly of legitimate symbolic violence, which belongs to the state or its official representatives.

The construction means for us, the process of classification, when an individual tries to fit in or go beyond the boundaries of the nomination offered to him. In this case identity is not just a neutral concept but also a certain effect in the struggle for social dominance.

The assertion of identity is associated with a certain form of power that extends to immediate life, classifies individuals into categories, characterizes them through their own individuality, binds them to their identity and imposes on them the law of truth

Keywords: identity, power, construction, aggressiveness, interpellation, ideology

References

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Received 22.05.2023