Politics and Identity

The more we seek to understand the causes and consequences of social change for politics, the more the dual character of identity as both an individual and collective phenomenon has proven to open up new perspectives in political science research. Based on the scholarly network of the ECPR Standing Group ‘Identity’, the section will focus on the significance of social and political identities in eight main areas: * Collective identity as a variable for political science research – problems of conceptualisation and measuring * Political identity as a key factor in state formation and state failure * Political identity as a relevant variable for international cooperation and regional integration * The (missing) link between collective identity and the persistence of political systems * The relevance of collective identities for institutional change and shifting political behaviour * The rise of new ‘identity questions’ due to social and political change from within and outside individual nation-states (e.g. the internationalisation and globalisation of economy, politics and culture, the technological progress, the diffusion of the internet and spread of mass communication, the demographic clash and transformation of labour) * Identity building and identity conflicts: comparisons of different collective identities including ethnic, religious and post-national identities * Identity politics of the present – identity politics of the past Scholars are invited to propose papers which promise new insights and fresh ideas based on empirical as well as theoretically grounded research.