ABSTRACT
Social identity is a sense of belonging – to gender, generation (young, old, middleaged), workplace, family, neighbourhood, leisure associations, religion (for some) and politics. These are overlapping definitions. Consider, for example, young men or women, who may be married, divorced or living together, with or without children, perhaps unemployed or working part-time, enjoying variety shows on the television, watching football or earning enough to go on holidays in exotic places, and voting for the Socialists, the Greens or the RPR. In other words, each individual constructs from a combination of particular or local activities a social identity, for himself or herself, which is not fixed but varies according to time and place.
