Scholars from various disciplines have used key concepts to grasp mobilities, but as of yet, a working vocabulary of these has not been fully developed. Given this context and inspired in part by Raymond Williams’ Keywords (1976), this... more
Scholars from various disciplines have used key concepts to grasp mobilities, but as of yet, a working vocabulary of these has not been fully developed. Given this context and inspired in part by Raymond Williams’ Keywords (1976), this edited volume presents contributions that critically analyze mobility-related keywords: capital, cosmopolitanism, freedom, gender, immobility, infrastructure, motility, and regime. Each chapter provides an historical context, a critical analysis of how the keyword has been used in relation to mobility, and a conclusion that proposes future usage or research.
This paper discusses and defends the analytical usefulness of the concept of identity which has been pervasively criticized by authors like Richard Handler or Rogers Brubaker and Frederic Cooper. Starting with reviewing the problematic of... more
This paper discusses and defends the analytical usefulness of the concept of identity which has been pervasively criticized by authors like Richard Handler or Rogers Brubaker and Frederic Cooper. Starting with reviewing the problematic of concepts in social anthropology and continuing with discussing the rise of identity discourse, it is argued that concepts in social and cultural sciences are always suspended between their employment in scientific and nonsicentific discourse. This dual hermeneutics of concepts is, however, not a shortcoming which has to be overcome but a productive element that contributes to their refinement. it is argued that in the case of identity dual hermeneutics leads to a reconceptualization of identity as qualified by the conditions of difference, multiplicity, and intersectionality. In the final part of the paper, implications of this reconceptualization of identity for a concept of self are explored.
