 In this video, we are going to discuss identity as fluid, mobile and constructed. The first thing to say is that identity is not only about a presentation of self to self, or in other words it's not just about a sense of feeling secure in knowing who one is. In terms of the social, identity is just as much about the presentation of self to others. Theorists talk about this concept in various approaches. For example, Pierre Bourdieu put forth the theory of cultural capital, which works a bit like financial capital, in that you can accumulate cultural capital and use it as a kind of social currency. Bourdieu suggested that cultural capital is accumulated through the collection of cultural knowledge, through exposure to things like art, education and even taste. However, as you can probably guess, cultural capital is very much tied to financial capital, because being exposed to fine arts, education and culture is often predicated on how much money one has to spend on those kinds of activities. Another theorist, Sarah Thornton, suggests that subcultures, particularly those invested in by youth, like punk culture or skate culture, as just two examples, work in very similar ways. Subcultures work through exclusivity. Knowledge about the subculture is the secret handshake allowing entry into the club. It is the authentication process of shared interests, and individual merits belongingness by accessing knowledge about taste and classification. For example, when a metal fan goes to a metal gig, they are less likely to wear a Justin Bieber t-shirt, as they would say, a Metallica t-shirt, because one suggests membership to the taste community and the other does not. In Sarah Thornton's adaptation of Bodger's work, she offers the analogy that, just as cultural capital is personified in good manners and witty conversation, so subcultural capital is embodied in the form of being in the know. In a broader sense, as Stuart Hall writes, we must also understand identity as constructed within, not outside, discourse. This means that our identity, the idea we have of our cohesive self, is made up from the different institutions that govern our lives from the day we are born. And even before that, Hall is saying here that identities are not entities that lay outside of the complex social structures that surround us. Hall also writes that identity must be understood as it is produced in specific historical and institutional sites within specific discursive formations and practices. He is saying here that, to truly understand the way that identity is constructed, we need to place that identity within its time and place. This means that an identity can only be fashioned according to the limits and rules that govern any specific time and place. Hall is also saying that discursive formations, that is the many languages of power that meet unto the sight of a person, shape that person's behaviour and beliefs. One of the most distinct aspects of Hall's work, however, was his focus on the way identity is constructed in order to exclude some identities while privileging others, particularly in regards to race. On this, he writes that, identities are the product of the marking of difference and exclusion. Hall is looking at the politics of identity markers here, such as the way we assign different politics to different bodies based on the fact of their difference from dominant governing ideals. Based on the demarcations of difference then, some bodies are institutionally excluded from participating in certain ways, or in other words, they are marginalised. For example, being an acceptable person can only come about if the social contract creates strict rules about what and who is not acceptable. Further, the way these differentiations come about can, again, only be useful if some identities are always already marked as different. Take the identity of the Caucasian male. Throughout history, this identity has been constructed as the ideal, the locus of personhood, against which other identities are compared and constructed. While we might think that this notion is becoming superseded by shifts to multicultural societies, the legacy and imprint of this is still ubiquitous, but it is so naturalised that it is invisible. Hall's work sought to make visible this imbalance. In summary, identities are not stable, permanent, nor natural entities that form cohesive and essential parts of the human self. Clearly then, they can be manipulated, constructed, marginalised and stigmatised, based on very superficial ideas and ideals. Thank you for watching.