Research in this axis studies situations of identity construction in diverse contexts. The situations concern social change (migration, exile, war, national construction, neo-patrimonialism, the reinterpretation of urban spaces), or contexts of domination, competition and conflict between groups (ethnic, racial and/or religious categorisation and discriminations, stigmatisation, the resistance to deprecation and contempt, struggles for recognition).
The approach links construction of identity with construction of otherness in the analysis of internal and external boundaries. This analysis is attentive to phenomena involving the transformation, borrowing, re-appropriation, deviation and even the invention of aspects considered central to the processes of identification. The term identity is considered too ambiguous as an analytical category to satisfy the demands of sociological analysis. We do however highlight the multifaceted usages of this notion which may assist in understanding the remembrance efforts and the symbolic processes through which characteristics qualified as “cultural†become visible. Also highlighted are the social and political stakes of these reformulations, including invisibility, visibility, ritualisation of spaces, new religious figures or competition of victims.
We grant particular attention to the logic of denial which, for some minorities and migratory groups that have been victims of State violence, lead to processes of recognition and compensation.
