The Theoretical Framework for Social Identity

The concept of identity has a broad range of applications in defining and categorizing various elements of our lives, making it an essential aspect of many contexts. Over time, it has become a topic of interest among scholars, and today, it is one of the primary concerns in social sciences. Various disciplines, primarily sociology, psychology, social psychology, philosophy, and anthropology, have developed different definitions, approaches, and theories to study identity. Scholars hold varying opinions on when and how studies on identity gained ground in social sciences. According to Bauman, identity was not a central concern for the “founding fathers of sociology” and it only became “an object of philosophical mediation” a few decades earlier (2004: 17). On the other hand, Jenkins argues that the literature on identity was already well-established in the early twentieth century, with contributions from several prominent figures such as William James, Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead, and Georg Simmel (2004: 11). Brubaker and Cooper (2000: 2–3) contend that interest in individual-based identity studies peaked in the United States during the 1960s due to the “mass society” problem following World War II. The Black Power Movement in the late 1960s also impacted research on group-based identities, with a peak in research on ethnicity and class-based identities.