Identity & Identification - Couverture souple

Identity and Identification is a comprehensive exploration of the different social, historical and scientific elements that shape our hotly-debated ideas on identity and identification. Whilst contemporary society shines a relentless spotlight on the self and has given birth to a me generation, social structures and scientific innovations have reduced the idea of the self to a mere statistic through the use of DNA profiling, identity cards and PIN numbers. New technologies have also shifted the idea of the self by enabling us to lead alternative existences and create virtual selves. Identity and Identification presents a captivating array of historical and contemporary, scientific, philosophical and social ideas about the self and personal identity. It investigates both the intrinsic perspective of the self, examining who we are and how we know who we are, and the extraneous perspective, looking at how others perceive, identify and categorise us, often with controversial repercussions. A diverse range of perspectives are presented, including historical case studies to interviews exploring the more immediate social, cultural and political pressures shaping contemporary identity issues. Interviewees include singer, songwriter and political campaigner Billy Bragg, Independent columnist and Who Do We Think We Are? author Yasmin Alibhai, Paul Brooks, neuroscientist and author of Into The Silent Land, and Roz Kaveney, critic and writer, who was "born male but got over it". Historical sources are also brought into the arena for investigation; including the infamously honest diary of Samuel Pepys, an exploration of Alec Jeffrey s genetics research and DNA profiling and case studies such as that of French peasant Martin Guerre, a 16th century victim of identity theft. Generously illustrated and visually provocative the book is infused throughout with the paraphernalia of identity, such as diary extracts, fingerprint collections, artworks, photographs and death masks, bringing a strong visual component to this subject area.