Department of Sociology Annual 
Research Day 2004

(from left) Professor Tom Inglis, Professor Richard Jenkins, Professor Kathleen  Lynch, Dr. Diane Payne, Professor Chris Whelan, Dr. Martin Dowling (Back row)

There were also a number of guest speakers, including Dr. Colm Harmon, Director of the Institute of the Study of Social Change, Professor Chris Whelan from the Economic and Social Research Institute and Professor Kathleen Lynch from the Equality Studies Centre. Also present was Professor Patrick Clancy, Dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences.

The final presentation was delivered by Professor Richard Jenkins, from the University of Sheffield and this visit was co-hosted with the Identity, Diversity and Citizenship (IDC) Research Programme at ISSC. Dr. Martin Dowling (IDC) chaired this discussion. 

Professor Jenkins outlined the currently dominant 'difference paradigm' in the study of social identity, and argued that it is time to move on. He argued that to concentrate on difference makes it impossible to understand what identity is and how it works. He suggested that focusing on the concept of difference is to fly in the face of the observable realities of everyday human life and that a reliance the concept of difference makes it impossible to deal with the core questions of social theory, or even, perhaps, to engage in social theory at all. Professor Jenkins proposed that a model of identification, as simultaneously a matter of similarity and difference, is required if these criticisms are to be met.

23 April 2004