Since 1990s the concepts of identity and belonging has been used in many areas within the social sciences. Especially since last ten years it has been widely used by anthropology, sociology, psychology and social psychology extensively. The aim of this course is investigate the sociocultural and political implications of such an important concepts. For doing this we will start with the definitions and discourses used to use in the past as well as we will explore the contemporary sociological theories of identity and belonging. We will use various contemporary identity based social movements as well.

The power of identity, contemporary theories of identity (Giddens, Bauman, Castells); Collective identity, religious identity, cultural identity; Debates on ethnic identity; Debates on I and identity in modern and post-industrial societies; Relations with nation and nationalization; Network societies and identity; Identity and new social movements theories; Identity and religious movements.