Cultivating Political and Public Identity

Using the concept of 'plumage' to describe a rich fabric of speech and language, dress, diet and the built environment, this book examines the performance of identity and its influence upon our public lives, our actions and the allegiances we make.

This bold and original study looks at the performance of identity in the public sphere, using the concept of 'plumage' to capture the countless elements that go together to make up a shared identity.

Throughout the twentieth century, everyone from Marxists to economic individualists assumed that social and political activity was driven by the rational pursuit of material gain. Today, the fundamental importance of the cultivation and preservation of identity is finally re-emerging. This book explores the rich fabric of speech, dress, diet and the built environment from which human identity is made. Synthesising methods and ideas from numerous disciplines – including history, political science, anthropology, law and sociology – it presents a picture of human life as more than just a collection of material interests. Its ultimate aim is to show that no human activity is trivial or meaningless, that everything counts and 'plumage' matters.

An electronic edition of this book, funded by the London School of Economics and Political Science, is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.