Book review of "Perplexities of Identification: anthropological studies in cultural differentiation and the use of resources" by Henk Driessen & Ton Otto(Eds) Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, Denmark

Abstract

[Extract] This volume brings together ten diverse chapters clustered around the dynamics of identity construction, practice and status and power, particularly the ways in which symbolic and material forms of capital may or may not be put to work as a critical component of identity formation. The chapters range from strongly grounded analyses of specific forms of identity practice (such as those by Ton Otto and Henk Driessen, Glenn Bowman, Poul Pedersen, Martijn van Beek, Ad Borsboom and Janneke Hulsker, Longina Jakubowska, Louise Thoonen and Hans Siebers), to more abstract discussions of the ways in which we think we understand globalisation, class, identity and the self (Jonathan Friedman), to solidly abstract and grounded essays combined (Otto and Driessen, Anton Blok and Siebers).