Innovations and Challenges in Identity Research

Block, David (2022). Innovations and Challenges in Identity Research. London: Routledge. 

Innovations and Challenges in Identity Research adopts a disciplinary transcendent approach, drawing on a range of social science, humanities and human science disciplines on the way to a detailed consideration of key issues and topics: the history of identity as a construct; the components of a poststructuralist/social constructivist approach to identity; the prospect of a Marxist political economy approach to identity; the interrelationship between structure and agency (and a model of structuring spheres capturing this relationship); an expanded version of positioning theory as a means to understanding how identity is discursively constructed; and the digital universe as the future of identity research. Throughout the book, the author provides a personal take on this key topic of study in applied linguistics, one which is both innovative and generative of challenges to researchers.