Studying Continuity and Change in South African Political Identity

Abstract

One of the aphorisms from the last decade or so of increased interest in political identity is that identity is fluid. This focus on changeability has the potential for hinting that problems of identity are somehow superstructural or false. Ethnic conflicts, for example, may seem quickly resolvable simply by inventing and/or empowering alternate structures of identity that tap into different sets of interests and behavioral patterns. The misuse of the terminology of constructivism has contributed to this sense of utopianism by providing justifications for treating identity as an object of human control. This simplistic understanding of constructivism has made it difficult to legitimate both constructivism as a meta-theoretical foundation and identity research more generally. Political identity is both more complex and resilient than much of the contemporary literature suggests.