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Social Selves
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Social Selves
Theories of Self and Society

Second Edition


June 2008 | 216 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
This new, completely revised version builds on the popular success of the First Edition. It seeks to answer the basic social question of 'who am I?' by developing an understanding of self-identity as formed in social relations and social activity. Comprehensive, jargon-free and authoritative, it will be required reading on courses in self and society, identity, and personality formation.

Praise for the First Edition:

"A masterpiece of scholarly analysis and a book that should be read by anyone interested in either personality or social behavior."
—Contemporary Psychology

"Burkitt deserves praise for the clarity with which he presents his overview of the relevant theories, for the cogency which he offers his own critiques of these theories, and for his commitment to thinking dialectically about the self."
—Theory & Psychology

"A very valuable contribution to its field."
—Sociology

"Burkitt offers a discerning discussion. . . the volume is essential reading for anyone concerned with this challenging problem."
—Choice

 
Society and the Self
 
Dialogue and the Social Self
 
Ethics, Self and Performativity
 
Power, Knowledge and the Self
 
Gender, Sexuality and Identity
 
Social Relations, Social Class and the Self
 
Self in Contemporary Society
 
Conclusion

Ian Burkitt's book has been included on my PhD student reading list because it is one of the few scholarly studies about self and social indentities. Notions of identity of self and society stretch back to ancient times with Plato's republic but the emphasis on self and society came to prominence with George Herbert Mead's seminal work in the 1930s when he connected the mind, self and society as an embodied conceptualisation of social being. There are many challenges facing scholars of indentity and significantly different disciplinary approaches in doing so, with their differences in emphasis on social or psychological conceptions of identity and the construction of identities of self together with the difficulties of bridging the self with social identities constructed by the self and others. In this very accessible text Burkitt manages to achieve a synthesis of social selves by examining complex issues of self and society and their interlationship using specific themes to do so. The themes offer different perspectives on the complexities involved in constructing identity through dialogue, performance, power, gender, sexuality, social class and as a member of contemporary society. This is an inspirational text for anyone with an interest in identity. As a marketing professor identity is clearly an important construct for conceptualising markets and relation in those markets between individuals and society and Burkitt's scholarly work offers many insightful explanations of these complexities.

Professor Tony Hines
Dept of Retail Management, Manchester Metropolitan University
October 19, 2009
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Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter One PDF


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