Social (ethnic) identity
Anna Aluffi Pentini, Roma Tre University
Ugo Pace,  Kore University of Enna

Identity is defined on the existential level as the answer to the question “who am I?” and on the sociological research level to the question “who are you?” (Keupp & Höfer, 1997).
No definition of social identity should overlook the stages outlined by Erikson (1950/2008). He viewed the process of growth in terms of overcoming a state of “physiological deficiency” or crisis in human beings at different ages of life. For each age, therefore, he thus defined a way of responding to the environment and thus participating in society that is healthy by virtue of being adaptive and to a certain extent standard, a mode which consists in overcoming the evolutionary crisis of a given phase of growth. Today, the eight goals of autonomy corresponding to the various ages of growth occur later in life than they did in Erikson’s original model. Nonetheless, these goals still represent the building blocks of a healthy social identity understood as the result of a synergy of trust, autonomy, initiative, industry, contestation, solidarity, intimacy, generativity and, finally, the substantial integrity of the ego.
In fact, Taylor’s (1993) point about the link between identity and recognition is particularly significant and, specifically in the educational sphere, this link appears to be the foundation of the educational relationship.
Personal identity, which grants the person a strong sense of uniqueness, is the sum of what we are, our physical image, psychological characteristics, and strategies for achieving goals and facing life’s challenges. Social identity, on the other hand, is the result of an in-depth process of awareness that comes from belonging to a group, together with the emotional attributes that the person assigns to this belonging (i.e., what the group arouses in and represents for the person). Seeing as identity is the result of social engagement, therefore, it is a construct that is shaped continuously. It is transformed in part thanks to the mechanisms people use to achieve a positive image of themselves in relation to social groups, or to reduce cognitive dissonance (i.e., to develop a balance between the various opposing and divergent representations of the self and the world). Social identity, in other words, develops in terms of belonging to a cultural context characterized historically and geographically, and belonging to social groups (and sub-groups) with which individuals identify through their more entourages, while such groups in turn recognize and confirm their belonging.
Tajfel (1981) has drawn on precisely the concept of “social identity” to define ethnic identity as that part of the notion of self that derives from the peoples’ knowing that they are members of a social group, together with the value and emotional importance connected to that belonging. Moreover, Tajfel (1982) has highlighted the fact that identity is defined on the basis of multiple instances of belongings, including ethnic identity; that no specific identity (gender, ethnic, cultural) may be considered absolute, that people’s sense of identity is linked to their awareness of belonging; that belonging has a profound significance; and that forms of belonging are dynamic and vary over time in terms of awareness and meaning. In this sense and in light of this concept of belonging, educational and empowerment-building work consists in fostering students’ awareness of belonging and meaning.
Using Tajfel’s definition as the conceptual background for the RE-SERVES project’s work with young people and migrants or those risking exclusion gives us the opportunity to cultivate a dynamic vision of groups rather than falling into the trap of reducing them to rigid categories.

Selected references

Erikson, E. (2008). Infanzia e società. Armando. (Originariamente pubblicato nel 1950)

Keupp, H., & Höfer, R. (Cur.). (1997). Identitätsarbeit heute. Suhrkamp.

Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories: Studies in social psychology. Cup Archive.

Tajfel, H. (Cur.). (1982). Social identity and intergroup relations. Cambridge University Press.