Imposed Identities—What Damage Do They Cause?

Dear Colleagues,

We seek to understand others through processes of identification and social categorization. Some social groupings attract admiration and respect, whereas others incite fear, hatred and/or disgust.  Kellezi et al. (2019) have used the term ‘social curse’ to describe the harmful impact of being perceived as part of such a group. The notion of a social curse, in which certain groups are tainted by societal assumptions and presumptions, relates to earlier work by Erving Goffman. Writing almost 60 years ago, Goffman outlined the historical description of stigma as visible signs on a person’s body that were designed to denote that “the bearer was a slave, a criminal, or a traitor—a blemished person, ritually polluted, to be avoided, especially in public places” (Goffman, 1963, p. 1). He goes on to postulate that the term stigma has increasingly become “applied more to the disgrace itself than to the bodily evidence of it. Furthermore, shifts have occurred in the kinds of disgrace that arouse concern” (ibid).

The social cursing or stigma of various groups leads to a number of questions: Which groups have a (negative) identity imposed or projected upon them? Why? What impact does this have upon them? What function does social cursing appear to serve for society? What harm does it cause? 

Considering these questions and the associated possibilities, in this Topical Collection, we wish to examine the current knowledge and understanding of this topic. To that end, we invite authors to consider numerous possible concerns, and pose other questions that they believe will shed further light on the overall issue. 

Possible questions include (but are not limited to) the following: 

• Which groups are currently most at risk of having identities, particularly unwelcome ones, imposed upon them? Why? What is the impact of this for the individuals, their families, other relevant groups, policy and practice, and for society generally? 
• How do imposed identities help or harm people? How do they help or harm society? For example, how does an imposed identity benefit or damage people who have suffered criminal harm? Or those who have committed a criminal act? 
• Who suffers from courtesy stigma? Why? How and to what extent does this affect them?
• What is the role of the media in imposing identities? How does this impact policy and practice?  
• What ethnic or religious groups have particular challenges with imposed identities? 
• How do tainted identities affect the health and wellbeing of the LGBTQ+ community? And how can they use their collective identity to overcome these harmful effects?
• How do people overcome a tainted identity?
• How are imposed identities relative or relational? 

To address these questions, we welcome original empirical research, as well as works that compile and synthesize the existing literature with an emphasis on the most current research. While the starting point for this special collection was the consideration of people with a criminal conviction, we welcome submissions regarding imposed identities in any social science field. 

References

• Kellezi, Blerina, Mhairi Bowe, Juliet R.H. Wakefield, Niamh McNamara, and Mary Bosworth. 2019. Understanding and coping with immigration detention: Social identity as cure and curse. European Journal of Social Psychology 49(2): 333–351.
• Goffman, Erving. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. London: Penguin Books.

Prof. Dr. Belinda Winder
Dr. Rahmanara Chowdhury
Dr. Blerina Kellezi
Dr. Iram Shah
Dr. Beth Jones
Collection Editors

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• tainted identity
• deviance
• courtesy stigma
• stigma
• social curse
• labelling
• spoiled identity