Anxiety and Identity Change: The Emotional Drivers and Socio-Psychological Underpinnings of Identity Change

Abstract

This panel focuses on anxiety as a psychological outcome of socio-political transformation and explores its impact on identity change at the individual and societal level. Migration, climate change, terrorism, and referenda on critical decisions such as secession or exit from the EU are, among others, key issues in contemporary politics that are generating anxiety. The impact of anxiety on identity change is currently manifest especially in the turn toward nationalism and authoritarianism. We welcome papers that explore the relationship between socio-political transformation, anxiety, and identity change at the individual and/or collective level conceptually as well as empirically, using different methodologies (experiments, in-depth interviews, ethnographies).