Identity Troubles An introduction [Hardcover]

In our turbulent world of global flows and digital transformations pervasive identity crises and self-reinvention have become increasingly central to everyday life. In this fascinating book, Anthony Elliott shows how global transformations  the new electronic economy, digital worlds, biotechnologies and artificial intelligence - generatesa metamorphosis across the force-field of identities today.

Identity Troublesdocuments various contemporary mutations of identity  from robotics to biomedicine, from cosmetic surgery to digital lives  and considers their broader social, cultural and political consequences.

Elliott offers a synthesis of the key conceptual innovations in identity studies in the context of recent social theory. He critically examines accounts of individualization , reflexivity , liquidization and new maladies of the soul  situating these in wider social and historical contexts, and drawing out critical themes. He follows with a series of chapters looking at how what is truly new in contemporary life is having profound consequences for identities, both private and public. This book will be essential reading for undergraduate students in sociology, cultural studies, political science, and human geography. It offers the first comprehensive overview of identity studies in the interdisciplinary field of social theory.

Introduction: Identity Troubles  Part I: Theories of Identity  1.Identity, Individualism, Individualization: Three versions of the self, with Charles Lemert  2. The Theory of New Individualism  3. Identity Weakened? The reinvention of imagination in the age of globalization  4. Experimental Worlds: On posthuman identity  Part II: Practices of Identity  5.Accelerated Identity: Five theses on the self, with Eric L. Hsu  6. Drastic PlalG