Hand out - Castells and Brother

Brother (film) and Manuel Castells


By identity I understand the process of construction of meaning on the basis of cultural attribute, or a related set of cultural attributes, that is given priority over other sources of meaning. (p.6 Castells)

The construction of identities uses building materials from history, from geography, from biology, from productive reproductive institutions, from collective memory and from personal fantasies, from power apparatuses and religious revelations. But individuals, social groups, and societies process all these material and rearrange their meaning, according to social determinations and cultural projects that are rooted in their social structure, and in their time/space framework. (p.7)

According to Castells in our contemporary world (Network Society) identity construction (here we talk about group identity) could be defined as resistance identity.

Resistance identity: generated by those groups who are in positions/conditions devalued and/or stigmatized by the logic of domination, thus building trenches of resistance and survival on the basis of principles different from, or opposed to, those permeating the institutions of society. (p.8)
This type of identity (resistance identity) leads to the formation of communes, or communities. That is, the building of defensive identity in the value judgment while reinforcing the boundary. (p.9)
So, as Castells claims, it is possible that from such communes, new subject – that is, collective agents of social transformation – may emerge, thus constructing new meaning around project identity. Project identity is when social actors, on the basis of whatever cultural materials are available to them, build a new identity that redefines their positions in society and, by so doing, seek the transformation of overall social structure. (p.8)
This is the case, for instance, when feminism moves out of trenches of resistance of women’s identity and women’s rights, to challenge patriarchalism, thus the patriarchal family, and thus the entire structure of production, reproduction, sexuality, and personality on which societies have been historically based (p.7), or in a very different perspective, the final reconciliation of all human beings as believers, brother and sisters, under guidance of God’s law, be it Allah or Jesus, as a result of the religious conversion of godless, anti-family, materialist societies, otherwise unable to fulfill human needs and God’s design. (p.10)

Source:
Castells, Manuel. 2004. The power of identity. 2nd ed. Blackwell Publishers, Malden