Education research has seen a phenomenal growth in studies that explore the multiple, fluid, and changing complexities of culture and identity work. The nuanced, contradictory, and process-oriented nature of identity and identification has meant that the studies in education are largely, and appropriately, qualitative and ethnographic. However, because qualitative studies are marked by their focus on the particular, it has been difficult to discern exactly what these studies contribute to identity theory collectively. In Cultural Constructions of Identity, a set of meta-ethnographic syntheses of qualitative studies addressing identity become the vehicle to speak across single studies to address cultural identity theory. Meta-Ethnography, first developed by Noblit and Hare in 1988, incorporates a translation theory of interpretation so that the unique aspects of studies are preserved to the degree possible while also revealing the analogies between these studies. While the studies in this book examine the various intersections of race and ethnicity with respect to gender, age, class, and sexuality, Cultural Constructions of Identity turns its primary focus on what these studies reveal about identity and identification theory itself.

The British have been involved in numerous wars since the Middle Ages. Many, if not all, of these wars have been re-constructed in historical accounts, in the media and in the arts, and have thus kept the nation's cultural memory of its wars alive. Wars have influenced the cultural construction and reconstruction not only of national identities in Britain; personal, communal, gender and ethnic identities have also been established, shaped, reinterpreted and questioned in times of war and through its representations. Coming from Literary, Film and Cultural Studies, History and Art History, the contributions in this multidisciplinary volume explore how different cultural communities in the British Isles have envisaged war and its significance for various aspects of identity-formation, from the Middle Ages through to the 20th century.

A variety of theoretical approaches to the study of culture have emphasised the significance of the creation, maintenance, and the transgression of boundaries to identities – be they social, cultural, national or personal. The essays collected in this book, first published in 1997, explore the creation of identities in American culture through analysis of the boundaries within and across which American identity is negotiated. The dissemination of cultural identity and the creation of national identity through this process has had a crucial impact on the shape of social life in post-war American culture. The contributors to this volume offer a variety of perspectives on this richly complicated process.

Cultural identity is a key area of debate in contemporary Europe. Despite widespread use of the past in the construction of ethnic, national and European identity, theories of cultural identity have been neglected in archaeology. Focusing on the interrelationships between concepts of cultural identity today and the interpretation of past cultural groups, Cultural Identity and Archaeology offers proactive archaeological perspectives in the debate surrounding European identities. This fascinating and thought-provoking book covers three key areas. It considers how material remains are used in the interpretation of cultural identities, for example 'pan-Celtic culture' and 'Bronze Age Europe'. Finally, it looks at archaeological evidence for the construction of cultural identities in the European past. The authors are critical of monolithic constructions of Europe, and also of the ethnic and national groups within it. in place of such exclusive cultural, political and territorial entities the book argues for a consideration of the diverse, hybrid and multiple nature of European cultural identities.

Over the course of the 20th century, there have been three primary narratives of American national identity: the melting pot, Anglo-Protestantism, and cultural pluralism/multi-culturalism. This book offers a social and historical perspective on what shaped each of these imaginings, when each came to the fore, and which appear especially relevant early in the 21st century. These issues are addressed by looking at the United States and elite notions of the meaning of America across the 20th century, centering on the work of Horace Kallen, Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Samuel P. Huntington. Four structural areas are examined in each period: the economy, involvement in foreign affairs, social movements, and immigration. What emerges is a narrative arc whereby immigration plays a clear and crucial role in shaping cultural stories of national identity as written by elite scholars. These stories are represented in writings throughout all three periods, and in such work we see the intellectual development and specification of the dominant narratives, along with challenges to each. Important conclusions include a keen reminder that identities are often formed along borders both external and internal, that structure and culture operate dialectically, and that national identity is hardly a monolithic, static formation.

Language is central to our existence and it happens to be the most sophisticated product of the human mind. It is inconceivable to think of ourselves, our societies, our ideas, cultures or identities without language. It is the primary means of socialization, and whatever we know is a result of it. It is the primary medium of construction and dissemination of knowledge, and structures our thought processes in important ways that constitute our identity. In very complex ways, it interacts with the social, political and economic power structures that remain significant in defining the identities of individuals and societies. The essays in this volume create an awareness and understanding about the role of linguistic context in negotiating identity. The book explains identity and the complex relations between language and several aspects of our society. It explores identity through text and context, and will serve to trigger a novel discourse around the centrality of identity in contemporary society.

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Communications - Intercultural Communication, grade: 1.7, Charles Darwin University, language: English, abstract: What is Identity? Identity as an abstracted and immaterial term or construct has been taken on by different academics. The philosophy, for instance delves into identity on a personal level and asked for “Who am I?”, “Where do we come from?” and “How do we think?” (Hoffmann:2010:70). The psychobiology assumes that some parts of our identity are pre-determent by our RNA, a part of our identity would therefore be a mixture of our parentʼs ones (Barkhaus:1996:31-38). Academics of pedagogic and education are interested in the process of selfdiscovery within the puberty (Osterloh:2010: 31-36). There are many more schools which are dealing with identity, all of them intersect and influence each other. The perspective of the Culture Studies1offers in matters of identity multiple approaches as it is an interdisciplinary field in which perspectives from different disciplines can be selectively chosen to observe the relation of culture and identity (Baker:2005:7). The term identity emerged during the 90s as the central theme into the cultural studies and raised the question “What is identity?” (Backer:2005:219), in order to explain the “...consciousness of self found in the western world ...” (Longhurst/Smith/Bagnall/Crawnford/ Ogborn: 2008:142). Purpose of this paper is to use the approach of the culture studies to find out how we, as human, constructed identity. Therefore it is imported to include and analyse elements which make up identity and to embrace how we exhibit oneʼs own identity.