Collective Identity

If individual identity can be seen as addressing the question “who am I?” then collective identity might be seen as engaging with the issue of “who are we?” The concept of collective identity is powerfully linked to an understanding of a social collectivity and identification with the group, although identity always carries elements of both individual inner worlds and the social worlds that each person necessarily inhabits. These worlds are brought closely together in the field of consumption, which demonstrates the tensions between the constraints of the social world and the aspirations and desires of the inner world that combine to create collective identities. The moment of deciding what to wear at the start of the day, as being not just a matter of what ...