Defining Common Goals without Speaking the Same Language: Social Identity and Social Action in Wales

Abstract

Any consideration of the relationship between social identity and social action begs a rather basic question: what is social about social identity? What is implied by the epithet ‘social’ that differentiates it from personal, or non-social, aspects of identity? In the sense that we use the term, there are several aspects to the sociality of social identity. These follow from a basic definition of social identity as ‘the individual’s knowledge that he [or she] belongs to certain social groups together with some emotional and value significance to him [or her] of this group membership’ (Tajfel, 1972: 32). As such, social (as opposed to personal) identity is the psychological basis of intergroup behaviour, so that rather than subverting identity (c.f. Le Bon, 1897; Zimbardo, 1969), acting in terms of one’s membership of a social group entails acting in terms of a different, equally valid and meaningful aspect of one’s self-concept.KeywordsSocial IdentityNational IdentityIntergroup RelationNational CategoryNational AutonomyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.