Critical Issues

Identity and conflict

Monday November 15 2010

Lecture 11: Identity and Conflict

PS 2A03: Conflict Transformation

Dr Colin Salter, Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University

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 Outline

• Identity • Gender
• Stereotypes

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 Few of us recognise our own prejudices, and normally
we deny them, giving them what we deem valid reasons
for our feelings and behaviour.

Fisher et al (2000)

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 Essentialism
In philosophy, essentialism is the view that, for any
specific kind of entity, there is a set of characteristics or
properties all of which any entity of that kind must
possess.

Therefore all things can be precisely defined or

described. In this view, it follows that terms or words
should have a single definition and meaning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essentialism

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 Identity

For every ‘us’ there is a ‘them’.

The question is, in what shape will we imagine our

definitional others in the process of imagining our own
community?
Nancy Cockburn (1999)

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 Identity

...an individuals sense of self ‘[is] a production, which is

never complete, always in process’... The way they take
shape and change is relational.

Nancy Cockburn (1999) on Hall (1990)

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 Identity

...because a social formation has so many structured

differentiations, potential categories of exclusion,
belonging and alienation, the self is seen as very
complex, shaped through many attachments.
Nancy Cockburn (1999)

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 Precious

• Lee Daniels (2009)

• Sapphire (1996)

• Many challenging themes

and issues portrayed

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Monday, 15 November 2010 9
 Identity

• Various forms

• A source of conflict

• A source of
empowerment

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 Stereotypes

What do you see as an issue with the second image?

• the kangaroo? • the child drinking

alcohol

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 Stereotypes

Social construction An imposition

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 ...because a social formation has so many structured
differentiations, potential categories of exclusion,
belonging and alienation, the self is seen as very
complex, shaped through many attachments.
Nancy Cockburn (1999)

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 Gender

A social construction, not determined by biology/

physiology.

We can see it as directly linked to performativity

Masculine v feminism

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 People are born female or male, but learn to be girls
and boys who grow into men and women. They are
taught what the appropriate behaviour and attitudes,
roles and activities are for them, and how they should
relate to other people. This learned behaviour is what
makes up gender identity and determines gender roles.
Suzanne Williams, Jan Seed & Adelina Mwau (1994)

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 Intersex

“Intersex” is a general term used for a variety of

conditions in which a person is born with a
reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit
the typical definitions of female or male.

http://www.isna.org/faq/what_is_intersex

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 Summary

• Identity • Gender
• Stereotypes

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 Citations & further reading

Nancy Cockburn (1999) The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National
Identities in Conflict, Zed Books. pp. 211-230 (Chapter 8: Identity and Democracy).

Simon Fisher, Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, Jawed Ludin, Richard Smith, Steve Williams and
Sue Williams (2000) Working With Conflict: Skills and Strategies for Action, New York:
Zed Books

Hall, Stuart (1990), ‘Cultural Identity and Diaspora’ in Jonathan Rutherford (ed),
Identity, Community, Culture, Difference, Lawrence & Wishart Limited, London

Donna Haraway (1991) ‘A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-

Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, in Simians, Cyborgs and Women:The
Reinvention of Nature, New York: Routledge, pp.149-181. Available online at http://
www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html

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 Citations & further reading

Donna Haraway (1990) Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of
Modern Science, Routledge.

Suzanne Williams, Jan Seed & Adelina Mwau (1994) The Oxfam gender training manual,
UK and Ireland: Oxfam

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 Image sources
Dave Boldingers Cartoons & Stuff —
http://www.dbaldinger.com/opinion_cartoons/second_page/dear_world.html

James Garvin Ellis. Rodney Powell (standing) talks with other sit-in participants at Walgreens drugstore in Nashville,
Tennessee, Friday March 25, 1960 — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_sit-ins

Marc Riboud. Jan Rose Kasmir, protest against the Vietnam War outside the Pentagon, Arlington County,Virginia, Saturday,
21 October 21, 1967 — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Rose_Kasmir

Shaney Komulainen. Canadian soldier Patrick Cloutier and Saskatchewan Native Brad Laroque alias 'Freddy Kruger'
come face to face in a tense standoff at the Kahnesatake reserve in Oka, Quebec, Saturday September 1, 1990 —
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oka_Crisis

Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire [DVD cover image] — http://www.movienewz.com/precious/

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 Image sources
The Body Shop, “There are 3 billion women who don’t look like supermodels and only 8 who do“, March 9
2009, Jahsonic 2006 -2009 A vocabulary of culture, or wanting connections, we found connections — http://
jahsonic.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/barbie-50/

The Body Shop, “There are 3 billion women who don’t look like supermodels and only 8 who do“ [no date],
More than just Dolls — http://www.johnriviello.com/bodyimage/ruby.html

J. Howard Miller, We Can Do It, Westinghouse, 1942 — http://archive.ccm.edu/rosie/index.htm

Tim & Tegan, ‘Council Of Australians For Uneducated Americans’, The Two of Us [no date] — http://
www.johnsons.id.au/?p=54

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 Video sources
Sut Jhally (2010) Killing us softly 4: advertisings image of women — http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?
preadd=action&key=241

Lee Daniels (2009) Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire [trailer] — http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=b5FYahzVU44

Lee Daniels (2009) Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire — http://www.weareallprecious.com/

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