Identity and Participation in Culturally Diverse Societies: A Multidisciplinary Perspective

"Azzi, Chryssochoou, Klandermans and Simon have produced a topical, interesting and highly commendable edited volume concerned with identity and participation in culturally diverse socities, which will serve both established researchers and newcomers to the field." (Social Psychological Review, 2011)

"This new collection uses an innovative blend of sociology, psychology and political science to outline current academic thinking about belonging and political action. Sweeping through discussions about how identity is formed, how it links to political participation, and when and why groups choose to integrate or radicalise, this book outlines the life-course of European political life." Runny Meade Bulletin, Autumn 2011

‘This is a timely, incisive, and groundbreaking book on participation amidst societal change. Its fascinating chapters discuss a set of related topics – identity, intergroup relations, inequality, and migration – providing rich insight into dynamics of inclusion and exclusion. It is a great read that capably charts the course for future research on complex and global social issues.’
— Professor Susan Opotow, City University of New York, US

‘This is really a remarkable book on an important, complicated and challenging topic. It is a brilliant example of the fruitfulness of true interdisciplinarity, which is not interested in just being right, but in solving a problem with the serious and open use of contributions from different sources. And it shows that a strictly analytic perspective is not only possible in these soft fields of identity and political engagement, but also the only chance to find a way out of the various traps of more or less open discourses or casual descriptions that we are mostly used to seeing in these fields.’
— Professor Hartmut Esser, University of Mannheim, Germany

‘Multi-disciplinarity is extolled by many, but practiced by very few.  This international team of contributors moves across levels of analysis, disciplines, and contexts with real intellectual verve. The volume impresses with its genuine and serious attempt to examine identity as a rich latticework of society and subjectivity. The esteemed team of editors – learned scholars all – provide what may prove to be the new social science of identity in society. I am excited by the possibilities.’
— Professor Colin Wayne Leach, Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, US

‘Bridging psychology and sociology, this book demonstrates the importance of self and identity for analyzing and understanding social movements in diverse societies. With essays by some of the most eminent scholars, this volume is a must-read for scholars interested in how identity influences social movement recruitment, activism, and maintenance.’
—Professor Verta Taylor, University of California Santa Barbara, US

‘This volume represents a turning point in the study of cultural diversity. Migrations in a globalised world have rendered the question of identity within diversity such a complex matter that it requires the coordinated effort of several disciplines in the social and human sciences. Identity and Participation in Culturally Diverse Societies achieves this coordination through the scientific rigour of an outstanding group of international scholars with the insight derived from the added value of genuine interdisciplinarity.’
— Professor Fabrizio Butera, University of Lausanne, Switzerland