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This project examines whether there have been long-term changes in the incidence, sources and nature of traditional social identities such as those based on Britishness, religion, class and politics and whether these identities have been supplanted in any way by newer identities such as ones based on education, age, gender, consumerism or anti-capitalism. In so doing we aim to Test claims derived from modernisation theory about the changing nature of social group membership in post-industrial society.
To assess whether the character of traditional identities have changed we are paying particular attention to two sets of relationships. First, has the relationship between identity and current social position and/or parental identity weakened, suggesting that people have become freer to choose their own identities? Second, we explore whether the relationships between identity and values someone upholds have weakened, suggesting that traditional social identities have declined in influence.
We are currently preparing two journal articles for publication, one is evaluating class identities over time from a quantitative approach whereas the other article is based on qualitative research exploring the meaning and experience of ‘class’ in contemporary Britain.
This project is funded by the ESRC within the Identities and Social Action Programme.
Research Team: Professor Anthony Heath (Principal Investigator), Professor John Curtice (Strathclyde and National Centre for Social Research),Dr. Gabriella Elgenius (Research Fellow) and Ms. Jean Martin (Senior Research Fellow).
Recent Publications include:
Heath, Anthony, Martin, Jean & Elgenius, Gabriella (2007) “Who do we think we are? The decline of traditional social identities”. In Park, A., Curtice, J., Thomson, K., Phillips, M. and Johnson, M. (eds.), British Social Attitudes: the 23rd Report – Perspectives on a changing society. London: Sage. |