Analysis of the Article Social Identity, Class Identity and Political Perspectives - Book Report/Review Example

SOCIAL IDENTITY, AND RACE I. Fiona Devine's 'Social Identities, Identity and Political Perspectives:' A Review Devine (1992), in her article titled 'Social Identities, Class Identity and Political Perspectives,' states that the notion of class as a salient social identity and the importance of other social identities have met considerable controversy. This controversy is divided into two opposing camps in which one claims that class and social identities play an important role in political perspectives and thus, there have been claims that class identity remains a relevant frame of reference in the daily lives of people. The other camp claims otherwise, arguing that class and social identity have no relevant influence in people's lives and perception. It is also argued in the article that class and identity are social constructs that are not at all that strong matched with the importance of other social identities. There are also claims that the relevance of social identities is dependent to the context in which they are found, a subject which cannot be possibly explored by highly-structured interviews. Based on data gathered from a qualitative restudy of the Affluent Workers Series, it is inferred that many different identities govern the lives of people, such as a strong class identity coexisting at the same time. Laying these arguments, the article suggests that people's class identity remains the most important influence on how political perspectives are formed. Devine, along with the Essex Team which, is cited in the article concurs with this finding. Devine furthers that the subjective dimensions of class vis--vis class consciousness allows for members of a class to be aware of their collective interests who may be mobilized according to their class-based interests. However, there has been a decline in the interest in the subject of class in recent years in which a movement away from the theories of the founding theorists emerged, away from the nature of social class processes and class-based identities. The article thus presents varying points of view related to the notions of social and class identities, in which one believes that such is crucial to social functioning while the other despises the idea. The author supports and substantiates her key arguments by stating that it is only through a thorough study of social class and social identity that political formation may be analysed, a subject which is gauged according to one's social and class identity. Critical Assessment of Devine's Article The arguments presented by Devine are compelling in that one poses the notion of class and social identity as decisive in creating a social human life and the corresponding conflicts and clashes found therein while another critics such claim as untrue. The latter seems to present a death of class along with a minimalist view of class identity. However, sociological theories and models prove the centrality of class identity as a product of social and economic environment, which consequently shapes the consciousness of people. The argument that says of class as a non-salient element in society seems to forgo the analytical framework of class analysis and abandons the idea of distinct class identities or groups in its attempt to focus on individualized hierarchical differentiation (Bottero 2004). However, it is apparent that there are problems in viewing the construct of class in this fashion in that it only remains evident that the wider implications of inequality viewed as having to deal with individualized hierarchy rather than with 'class' is not yet fully explored (Bottero 2004). Devine and Waters (2004) state that there had been debates about whether working-class consciousness has been on a decline in the midst of economic, political, and social change. There is likewise a popular perceptions of the class structure in which people are placed in class category following the question as to whether these class categories mold their social and political penchant. Devine and Waters post a query relating to people's willingness to place themselves in social categories, which is beset as to whether they indeed see the world primarily in class terms and whether they understand their own lives through the specs of class. These questions are vital in posing one's position in the integration of class to one's identity or the denial of this idea, just like the other camp in Devine's 'Social Identities, Class Identity and Political Perspectives' posits. However, if it would only be the sole basis for traditionalists to claim the non-salient existence of class is superficial. In this view, we may infer that the author has been successful in substantiating the points in her article in that there might be minimalist positions in the subject of class and social identity, but her claim of social and scientific relevance of the concept allows for it not to be easily debunked. If only the usage of highly-structured questionnaire would doubt the reality of class in the existence of social human life, Devine was able to articulate that such questionnaire is inappropriate and unsuitable in studying social class continuum. An understanding of 'class' as a salient feature of societal construction is supportive of the interest in explaining social inequality, which was central to the work of sociological theorists of the 19th century who analysed the nature of inequality in industrialized society (Taylor and Spencer 2004). In today's post-industrialized period in which issues in production setting have been more or less resolved, inequalities still exists not only within the realm of a working-class condition but also in the general patterns of human life. Karl Marx has initially discussed the notion of class inequality and class straggle in a capitalist state in which a growing class conflict exists between the proletariat class and the bourgeois class. He stressed that the manipulation of the means of production is decisive to the existence of ruling class and ruled class, in which the former holds such manipulation and puts the latter in the lower class due to their non-possession of any means of production caused by the manipulation (Levine 1998). An understanding of class is hence best incorporated in an attempt to explain social inequalities. Without such position, non-pursuers of the concept of class would not be able to explain social inequalities systematically. Fiona Devine's 'Social Identities, Class Identity and Political Perspectives is a well-written piece that allows critics to analyse which of the two camps warrants a better position in viewing how relevant social class and social identity are. II. Guillaumin's 'The Changing Face of Race:' A Review Colette Guillaumin posits that the idea of race is both contradictory and violent in its existence in the present world. Its prevalence has not prompted anyone to ask about it and has been explosive only in the last few decades. As the world becomes more and more centralised and technologically efficient, race has been transformed into a concept that serves as a means for states to pursue their goals of domination, exploitation, and extermination. The term race is argued by the author as not a neutral idea like what most people think of it. Rather, there is in its notion a corresponding relevance to how shamefully it is used. Race is a precursor of discrimination, a discriminator itself of some socially or politically motivated system of classification and categorization. The notion of race is a matter of politics rather than of objective reality and that this fact is known by the very users of such distinction. Guillaumin states that we have been in a crucial stage in understanding the development of the notion of race in which a number of individuals have raised their opposing views on the subject and claim that 'race' does not exist. Although these individuals and groups are not numerous, their importance is however considerable. There is an attempt to destroy the very notion itself, which is an extremely important point to consider. There are a number of researchers who significantly claim that race is shelved away among other notions, since it already belongs to the past, if to refer to the history of natural science. They further that 'race' is not a fact but is rather a concept, signifying the non-truth value of the notion, and one that is subject only to mere opinionated stance which can either be accepted or not. Guillaumin argues that 'race' has become coloured by misuse which may be seen in the realm of linguistic and religious differences, in which it is deliberately abused by racialists. Upon failure in finding a new world that would express the same meaning of a biologically differentiated group, 'race' has been agreed upon as a word to be used for anthropological classification of groups that show definite combinations of physical and physiological traits. It is argued that there has been a consistent mistake in not using 'race' in different groups of people such as Americans, Frenchmen, Germans, Moslems, Jews, British, et al. Guillaumin posts that it is wrong not to regard these as not a 'race.' The author supports and substantiates her arguments by stating that 'race' is a subject for debate where it came to represent what is peculiar or different about each human group, thus not limiting the concept in the biological and anthropological aspects. This idea of 'difference' is the one that breaks down the neutrality of 'race.' Critical Assessment of Guillaumin's Article Guillaumin presented a rather compelling argument on the notion of 'race,' making us rethink about its importance in the existence of social human lives apart from its anthropological usage. This compulsion is grounded on the basis that there remains social ascriptions based on social differences such as gender, age, and race in which people base their interaction. This existing notion of 'differences' and peculiarity towards groups not belonging to one's own is one that sets 'race' as a fact and not just a mere concept. Regardless of whether the differences between the black and white people are measurable, it is much important to consider that people interact with each other on the level that perceived racial differences are apparent makes up this reality of 'race' (Cashmore and Jennings 2001). Slavery was a phenomenon that predates the emergence of racism, in which 'whiteness' assumed a rather durable position (Goldberg 2002). As there is a shift in labour needs, there is a corresponding transformation of racial conceptions alongside how capital formation and modes of accumulation are altered and how moral dispositions and cultural conceptions turn, in which the state racial design is reconceived (Goldberg 2002). This argument supports that of Guillaumin's position on the notion that race is not neutral. Goldberg even strengthens this by his articulation of 'race' as achieving a state racial design. Osborne and Sanford (2002) state that race is a concept possessing disreputable past which continues to trouble the present politically and intellectually. It is significant for its capacity for hierarchical differentiation and exclusion, resting on the fundamental realm of social division. Its lack of objective validity as a principle for classifying human differences does not make it classified alone as a concept and not a fact troubling even the post-modern day. However, it has a character of illusion restoring unto itself a quality of reality which critics are loathe accepting (Osborne and Sanford 2002). The social existence of race as a non-neutral term which haunts even the present is manifested by how ethnicity is construed in parallelism to it. The differences that set out a country from another and a group (race) of people from another group is seen in their essential connection to social functioning. The increase in human feeling among the Negroes, for example has slavery as the occasion (Gilroy 1993). Indeed, there is no such thing as non-neutrality in subjects such as race and even ethnicity when these very notions are products of differences and similarity. Ethnicity is itself referred to as cultural differentiation, just like 'race,' in which it must be considered that identity is always a dialect' The Changing Face of Race' is well-written and was able to be supported by lucid claims due to its clarity. References Bottero, Wendy, 2004. Class identities and the identity of class. Sociology. Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 985-1001. Cashmore, Ellis and Jennings, James, 2001. Racism: essential readings. Sage Publications, Ltd. Devine, Fiona, 1992. Social identities, class identity and political perspectives, Sociological Review, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 229-252. Devine, Fiona and Waters, Mary C., 2004. Social inequalities in comparative perspective. Blackwell Publishing. Goldberg, David Theo, 2002. The racial state. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Gilroy, Paul, 1993. The black Atlantic. Verso. Jenkins, Richard, 1997. Rethinking ethnicity; arguments and explorations. Sage Publications, Ltd. Levine, Rhonda F., 1998. Social class and stratification: classic statements and theoretical debates. Rowman and Littlefield. Osborne, Peter and Sanford, Stella, 2002. Philosophies of race and ethnicity. Continuum International Publishing Group. Taylor, Gary and Spencer, Steve (eds), 2004. Social identities: multidisciplinary approaches. Routledge. Read More