Collective Identities as Emergent Causal Powers: Toward a Realist-Constructionist Theory of Identity

• In Event: 253 - Regular Session. Voice, Identity, and Vision: New Directions in Social Theory

Abstract

Over the last few decades, collective identity has come to occupy a prominent position in the literature on social movements and collective action. Yet despite valuable insights offered by social constructionist approaches to this concept, its definition remains elusive and theoretical framework incoherent. More importantly, compared to the construction and maintenance of identities, we know far less about their causal effects. The reasons for the lack of knowledge on causal effects of collective identities are due to both incoherent theoretical framework and social constructionist commitments of the subfield. However, any new conceptualization that simply attempts to discard the invaluable insights of decades of social constructionist work will do more harm than good. Instead, the paper argues for a new conceptualization that brings sound theoretical foundations to the concept of collective identity and liberate its causal potential, while also keeping the best of social constructionism: collective identities as emergent causal powers of social groups. It bases this conceptualization on compositional emergence developed in critical realism. The paper also discusses important theoretical and methodological implications of the emergentist conceptualization and how acts of social construction can be reformulated as generative causal mechanisms. It concludes with an initial discussion of a broader realist theory of identity which has the potential to make collective identities relevant for a wide range of social scientific studies.

Author

• Huseyin Arkin Rasit, Yale University