Who are We? – Collective Identity in Changing Landscapes

Who are we? – For a long time, the cornerstone of collective identity research has related to the classic question of group definition and community building. In this sense, the landscapes of peoples’ common sense of belonging were shaped by defining borders between in-group and out-group, justifying inside-outside-definitions, constructing ‘us’ and ‘them’, inventing strategies of inclusion and exclusion as well as modelling and stereotyping common characteristics that make a difference to significant ‘others’. However, this old question turns into a provocative and explosive new one when the landscapes of collective identity formation are shaken by a fundamental shift. As group borders become permeable or crumble in the wake of societal, technological, political and economic changes, conventional answers to the question of who we are come with the risk of being meaningless. What is more, social groups are challenged to invent themselves in new and different ways as soon as former outsiders successfully seek to become insiders and once members of the in-group lose their belief in the sharing of a common fate. Based on the scholarly network of the ECPR Standing Group ‘Identity’, the Section will focus on the conditions and consequences of group definition in changing landscapes by dealing with eight main areas. • Collective identity and societal heterogeneity • Collective identity and social turmoil • Collective identity and denationalization • Collective identity and cyberspace • Collective identity and migration diasporas • Collective identity and armed conflict • Pathologies of collective identity and the politics of fear • Collective identity and cultural hegemony Scholars are invited to propose both Panels and individual Papers which promise new insights and fresh ideas based on empirical as well as theoretically grounded research.