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In 2006 over three million experiments were performed on nonhuman animals. In making an argument against such experiments I contend that approval of nonhuman animal experimentation is rooted in acceptance of humans as having essential primacy over nonhuman animals and lies in the power relations associated with human primacy identity claims, To challenge essentialist notions of human identity and human primacy I utitize a performative conceptualization of identity. Discourses used by Pro-Test, a lobby group that promotes nonhuman animal experimentation, allows an exploration of justifications made for such experiments, In promoting these experiments Pro-Test is, I argue, engaging in a form of human primacy identity politics based in continued inequality and the sustained oppression of nonhuman animals, I conclude that discourses extolling scientific advancements for human benefits, made on the basis of experiments on nonhuman animals, reiterate an immoral human primacy identity that dissolutely exploits power relations to privilege the human. KEY WORDS animals / discourse / exploitation / human / identity / moral / 'other' / performative / politics / primacy

A renewed class analysis has shown the importance of culture, emotions and identity in conceptualizing and understanding how class is lived. However, proponents of the new sociology of class rarely explore these issues in an occupational setting, This article argues that the insights developed in the new cultural approaches to class can be used fruitfully to analyse contemporary experiences of work. Using a comparative study of women working in working-class and middle-class occupations, the article illustrates the implicit and emotional dimensions of the classed experience of work through a study of the women's aspirations and their class identities, Rather than equating class with economic resources and constraints, the article shows how class 'thinking and feelings' (Reay, 2005) also shape the experiences of work. KEY WORDS class analysis / class identities / women and paid work

Theoretical concepts of cosmopolitanism suggest new forms of societal and political organization. Yet these notions are overwhelmingly normative and hardly specify the ways in which cosmopolitanism is constructed from 'below'. To what extent are people cosmopolitan and who are they? In following the debate on cosmopolitanization we offer a case study of Europe in which we provide grounding for 'global' forms of identification. Using the recent Eurobarometer 64.2 (European Commission, 2005), 'global belonging' is juxtaposed with attitudes and perceptions of the European Union, describing theoretically claimed openness and recognition of difference. We find that a considerable proportion of Europeans see themselves as what could be called cosmopolitan. These views are, however, socially stratified and do not necessarily go hand in hand with open-mindedness. To conclude, the social reality of cosmopolitanism is ambiguous: substantive European cosmopolitanism exists next to more banal forms, but forms of non-cosmopolitanism should not be underestimated. KEY WORDS cosmopolitanism / Eurobarometer / Europe / identity

The acquisition of a sociological identity during the process of PhD supervision is reported, drawing on detailed analysis of selected observations of the supervision sessions, written communications and other aspects of interaction over the period of a single case study supervision which involved the authors as participants, The transition from an 'applied' identity (in nursing) to a 'pure' or 'professional' identity in sociology is documented, identifying the precise interactional mechanisms for encouraging and achieving this transition. These include 'bracketing' out of common-sense interpretations of behaviour that draw on the old identity and 'distancing' from the normative judgements of professionals inhabiting a dispreferred, non-sociological position. Taking place in a context of enthusiastic, directive and insistent exhortation and presenting a particular and somewhat locally determined version of adequate sociological work, the study shows both supervisor and student collaborating in the social construction of a sociologist. KEY WORDS collaboration / PhD supervision / professional socialization / sociological identity / teaching sociology

Urban sociologists are becoming increasingly interested in neighbourhood as a source of middle-class identity. Particular emphasis is currently being given to two types of middle-class neighbourhood; gentrified urban neighbourhoods of 'distinction' and inconspicuous 'suburban landscapes of privilege'. However, there has been a dearth of work on 'marginal' middle-class neighbourhoods that are similarly 'inconspicuous' rather than distinctive, but less exclusive, thus containing sources of 'spoiled identity'. This article draws on data gathered from two 'marginal' middle-class neighbourhoods that contained a particular source of 'spoiled identity': social renters. Urban sociological analyses of neighbour responses to these situations highlight a process of dis-identification with the maligned object, which exacerbates neighbour differences. Our analysis of data from the 'marginal' middle-class neighbourhoods suggests something entirely different and Goffmanesque. This entailed the management of spoiled identity, which emphasized similarities rather than differences between neighbours. KEY WORDS class / identity / neighbourhoods / ordinariness

Whilst much research into alternative and complementary medicine use indicates that these practices enable experiences of control, agency and empowerment, few theoretically informed answers have been given to why and how consultations with alternative and complementary health practitioners facilitate experiences that are felt to be 'healing'. This article utilizes theories of recognition in order to reflect on the healing experiences of women seeking health and wellbeing through varied forms of alternative and complementary medicine. I analyse the empowering and agency-giving aspects of alternative and complementary medicines, in particular in relation to wider societal conceptualizations of the self. This article is based on qualitative interviews with both practitioners and clients of varying alternative and complementary medicines. KEY WORDS alternative medicines empowerment / identity / recognition / subjectivity

The article proposes a relational definition of poor people and poverty situations grounded in the Epistemology of the Known Subject and drawn from qualitative research data. I first examine the basic assumptions of such epistemology, which has arisen from the limitations of prior ways of knowing; that is, of what I call the epistemological paradigms of the Epistemology of the Knowing Subject. Then I discuss the features of an empirical study on extreme poverty in Buenos Aires city, as well as the data analysis and concept creation processes involved. This enables me to consider the characteristics of the relational definition of poor people and poverty situations. Finally, I explore the societal model and the type of social process underlying the usual notions of poverty, and the influence of both on social policy design. KEY WORDS deprivation processes / epistemology of the knowing subject / identity / meta-epistemology / poor people / poverty / resistance processes / theory creation

Because architecture provides a 'concrete' focus for many debates pertinent to collective identities, then the rebuilding of the Ground Zero site by architect Daniel Libeskind is hugely significant from the perspective of sociology. So-called 'starchitects' such as Libeskind are increasingly conscious of the complex identity discourses within which their work is situated, with competing identity claims evidenced not only in the actual form of buildings, but also in the abstract narratives architects use to situate their work in a way that avoids (symbolically) privileging one identity over another. The capacity of architects to position their buildings in this way provides the focus of this article, which argues that architects' discourses frequently reveal many tensions between culture, politics, power, and identity. The symbolic nationalization of the architecture at the Ground Zero site has, in part, been achieved by the narrative, highly symbolic links between the buildings there and an 'American' collective identity. KEY WORDS architecture / collective identities / culture

This article initially summarizes two dominant tropes in the sociology of identity in recent years, centred on the concepts of self-reflexivity and habitus, followed by an overview of extensive critical debate to which both have been subjected. It is claimed that the key criticisms of the extended reflexivity thesis gather around accusations of excessive voluntarism in accounting for contemporary identity, while critiques of Bourdieu's conceptualization of habitus deem it overly deterministic. In an attempt to move beyond the conceptual stalemate of two distinct approaches to identity, a number of hybridized accounts have emerged in social theory. The remainder of the article discusses a number of these accounts in relation to social change, and offers an initial consideration of their strengths and limitations. It is argued that the importance of post-reflexive choice must remain integral to any attempt at hybridization of these important terms, particularly in relation to the contemporary workings of social stratification. KEY WORDS habitus / identity / reflexivity / social change / stratification

The overall scope of this article is to examine how young British Asians experience and articulate recent transformations in popular notions of 'race', nation and culture. The context for the analysis is sport, which acts as a prominent arena in which these variables are contested and, indeed, embodies the complexities of national affiliations and identities. The article argues that despite continuing ethnically exclusive manifestations of 'Englishness'--both in football and in the wider society increasing numbers of young British Asians are expressing their support for the England football team. This is in direct contrast to cricket, where large numbers choose to follow a team from the Indian subcontinent. The article argues that these trends reflect the multifaceted, fragmented nature of diasporic identities, in that the diverse sporting affiliations of young British Asians enable them to emphasize both their cultural traditions and the permanency of South Asian settlement in Britain. KEY WORDS British Asians / diaspora / football / hybridity / identity /'race'/ sport

This article explores the use of focus groups as a method for investigating the construction of collective identity. Questions of collective identity are particularly pertinent to social movement theory and the methodologies developed by Touraine and Melucci for studying social movements are used as a starting point to inform the use of the focus group method. The research, conducted with members of the Women's Institute (WI), demonstrates how focus groups can be developed in a manner which overcomes the problems associated with Touraine and Melucci's methods. It involved rejecting generally held assumptions as to how this method should be used, and highlighting the crucial importance of analysing data generated by focus groups for both process and content. The article argues that the use of focus groups provides a robust and flexible method which possesses distinct characteristics that make it particularly suited to researching the construction of collective identity, and, consequently, for advancing the understanding of social movements. KEYWORDS collective identity / focus groups / process and content / social movements

This article reports a secondary analysis of the fieldnotes collected by Goldthorpe, Lockwood, Bechhofer and Platt as part of their studies of affluent workers in Luton in the early 1960s. I argue that the ideal type distinction between power, prestige and pecuniary images of society, elaborated by Lockwood, fails to recognize that money, power and status were often fused in the statements and attitudes of the workers they interviewed. I show that most respondents had a keen sense that dominant social classes existed. I go on to argue that the hesitations evident in the fieldnotes when respondents were asked about class were not due to defensiveness so much as fundamental differences in the way that the researchers and the workers thought about class. The central claim that respondents sought to elaborate was their ordinariness and individuality; findings which, when compared with recent research, suggest considerable continuities in popular identities. KEY WORDS affluent workers / class identities / individualism / ordinariness

This paper draws on data from a qualitative study of mothers' involvement in children's education in order to present a different perspective on gender and class from those embedded in contemporary dominant discourses on social class. It argues that class is a complicated mixture of the material, the discursive, psychological predispositions and sociological dispositions. As such, the ways in which class as a complex set of interrelated issues contributes to social inequalities are best understood by combining quantitative approaches to social class with more qualitative studies which attempt to explore how class, and the inequalities it generates, are lived in gendered and raced ways. Key words: class, discourses, gender, qualitative methods, social processes

This paper addresses some general issues concerning consumption that arise from the work of Bauman, Beck and Giddens. All maintain that biography is a reflexive project and that life-styles and consumption are critical to identity-formation and re-formation. Bauman, especially, maintains that this is a source of anxiety, the freedom implied by consumer choice entailing a commensurate degree of personal responsibility. He observes, for instance, that a function of advertising is to assuage the self-doubt that accompanies choice. I seek to argue that these accounts of the impact of reflexive modernisation on self-identity are misjudged. Consumption would be a much less pleasurable practice if it was both subject to ever-expanding free choice and the decisions made were fundamental components of a reflexive process of identity-formation. Indeed, the consequence might well be high and visible levels of distress among those individuals most deeply involved. That this is not apparent suggests that the relationships specified between the process of identity-formation and consumption is tendentious. Consumption may be anxiety-provoking for some groups; there is a real element of risk involved in choosing inappropriately. But there are many mechanisms that serve to compensate. I explore those mechanisms, suggesting that anxiety is avoided through certain processes of group identification and social regulation which the reflexive modernisation thesis claims have atrophied. I conclude that such considerations require that these theories about the relationship between consumption and self-identity be modified., Introduction This paper explores one sense in which consumption has been said to be a risky activity. I leave aside other claims: that personal consumption may constitute a risk for [...]

The continuing persistence of strong class identification is one of the findings highlighted by Marshall, Rose, Vogler and Newby in their recent (1988) enquiry into class processes in Britain. In this comment we examine critically the methodological techniques deployed by them in the elicitation of this information. We argue that the findings is questionable and the conclusions drawn from it are unwarranted. Data from our own survey of class processes in Australia suggests, in contrast, that the discursive salience of class for identity is almost minimal.