Workshop: We-identity and its social and political implications

Co-organized by AMIS and Center for Subjectivity Research

Political discourse is currently imbued with expressions that presuppose communal awareness and the ability of individuals to think of others as one of us. ‘We’ are the people who have inherited a shared body of values and perspectives on the world, setting the boundaries of the group and what is acceptable for its members as opposed to those who do not belong. However, it is currently a hotly debated topic, both academically and politically, how such a notion of ‘we-ness’ or ‘we-identity’ is established, stabilized and mobilized. In the workshop, questions such as the following will be addressed, drawing on resources from philosophy, social psychology and political science: what is the link between group affiliation and social exclusion? How is the coherence and unity of the we influenced by the combined process of identifying with and dissociating from others? In what ways are group identities mobilized politically, how do conflicts over the content of e.g. national identities play out, and how do such identities impact social goods such as various aspects of social cohesion?

Programme