Identity in a multidisciplinary context

Abstract

The review analyzes the encyclopedic publication Identity: The Individual, Society, and Politics, prepared by a large team of authors and devoted to the concept of identity and its use in modern academic and political discourses. The review notes the relevance, timeliness and importance of studying a complex  and multi-level identity in the modern world, when new global challenges contribute to the formation of virtual reality, replacing the natural identification space with artificial. As a result, new identification markers that transform the foundations of mentality and historical memory are formed. The purpose and objectives of the review are aimed at the comprehension of the academic work studying the complex phenomenon of identity. The critical analysis of the encyclopedia is based on its seven sections and shows that they combine theoretical understanding and methodological provisions of the concept under consideration, based on which the features of each section of the encyclopedia are revealed. The advantage of the reviewed work is multidisciplinary and multiparadigmatic character of the consideration of socio-political changes taking place in contemporary societies and their impact on the dynamics of identity. Considering the approaches to identity, the authors of the reviewed work focus on different methodological approaches applied in the book. In regard to the further study of identity, the authors  deem it appropriate and effective to use the methods of modern, post-non-classical science. For example, the synergetic approach with consideration of the peculiarities of complex socio-political systems is applicable to the analysis of society and identity subjects; to the detection of some principles of nonlinear control in the process of constructing different types of identity, etc. The paper makes a conclusion about new horizons in the study of identity as a resource of social development, outlined in the collective monograph. The authors conclude that the book provides a system of references for the Russian researcher of identity: for beginners, it is an intellectual source, a kind of guide, and for the faithful adepts of the "identity problem", it outlines the reference field for reflection and comparison. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17072/2218-1067-2018-3-175-182