Practising Identities

NADIA JOANNE BRITTON Research Assistant, Department of Sociology, University of Manchester MALCOLM BROWN is writing a PhD thesis in the Department of Sociology, University of Glasgow BEN CARRINGTON Lecturer in Sociology, University of Brighton EMMA CLARENCE Research Assistant, Department of Public Policy, University of Central England IAN COOK Lecturer in Human Geography and Cultural Studies, University of Wales, Lampeter PHILIP CRANG Lecturer in Human Geography, University College London LORRAINE CULLEY Principal Lecturer and Head of Health SIMON DYSON Principal Lecturer in Health Studies, De Montfort University, Leicester SILVIA HAM-YING Principal Lecturer in Nursing, De Montfort University, Leicester JOSEPH MAGUIRE Reader in Sociology of Sport, Loughborough University LOUISE MANSFIELD Senior Lecturer in the Sport Science Department, Canterbury Christ Church College PAUL SWEETMAN Lecturer in Sociology, University of Durham SHIRLEY TATE Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Leeds Metropolitan University MARK THORPE Research Associate, University College London STEPHEN WHITEHEAD Lecturer in Postcompulsory Education, Keele University WENDY YOUNG formerly a Research Assistant, Department of Health, De Montfort University, Leicester

Practising Identities is a collection of papers about how identities - gender, bodily, racial, ethnic and national - are practised in the contemporary world.Practising Identities is a collection of papers about how identities - gender, bodily, racial, ethnic and national - are practised in the contemporary world. Identities are actively constructed, chosen, created and performed by people in their daily lives, and this book focuses on a variety of identity practices, in a range of different settings, from the gym and the piercing studio, to the further education college and the National Health Service. Drawing on detailed empirical studies and recent social and cultural theory about identity this book makes an important intervention in current debates about identity, reflexivity, and cultural difference.