IDENTIFICATION WITH LARGE SCALE SOCIAL CATEGORIES: A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY PERSPECTIVE

This paper reviews social psychology approach to the study of the group identities based on social identity and the self-categorization theories. These are discussed with respect to multiple category memberships and identification with the large scale social categories such as nation and Europe. The assumption about hierarchical relations between the nested categories is criticised and it is argued that the perceptualist approach to social categorization should be combined with the approaches taking into account the role of language and discourse in the processes of identification. Finally, some methodological implications are outlined.