Collective identity: characteristics of this social phenomenon

Our family, our group of friends, the town where we were born, the political party we belong to, or the job we we perform are factors that influence our individual identity and, in turn, create a more extensive one: the identity collective.

In every human group, whatever its size, there is a thought of seeing oneself as one, a group that has its defining traits and characteristics that make it stand out from the rest.

Next we will look more deeply at the idea of ​​collective identity, what are the elements that can cause it to arise, why it is a somewhat controversial concept and how it could have arisen throughout the history of evolution.

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What is collective identity?

To a lesser or greater extent, each person is part of a community. These communities can be of different sizes, levels and categories, being able to be in several simultaneously.

We are part of our family, our group of friends, town or city, region of birth, professional category and many more. The sense of belonging to each of these forms part of our identity, an identity highly influenced by social aspects.

Collective identity is defined as the feeling of belonging to a certain community. It arises from the cultural and affective ties that occur within the community, since they are human environments in which that a series of visions or ideals are shared and defended, which impregnate the individual identity of each member of the cluster. Thus, as they all share, to a greater or lesser extent, the same traits and feel linked to them, they have a common feeling of belonging.

Collective identity implies the self-perception of a “we” (ingroup), a group of people who share a series of traits, in contrast to the "others" (outgroup), who have traits different. The importance given to one's own traits and those of the outgroup is highly subjective.In addition to being subjective, the way in which certain symbols or features are selected that define the identity of the group, such as race, nationality, language, religion, ideology...

Although each author differs in terms of the exact definition of collective identity, the following four aspects that define what this idea is can be highlighted:

• It is a subjective construction of the subjects themselves.
• It is expressed in terms of “we” vs. "others"
• It is delimited by the traits or cultural elements selected by the group.
• These traits or elements constitute their culture.

Elements of collective identity

The most notable element of any collective identity is the idea of ​​culture.. It should be said that the term "culture" should not be understood solely as a synonym for an ethnic group or geographic culture, such as French, Argentine, Jewish, Gypsy, Kurdish or any culture other.

The idea of ​​culture must be understood as a set of sociocultural characteristics that define a certain group, and that directly influences their collective identity.

We can find collective identity in professions, social movements, sports teams and many more social groups. For example, there is a collective identity among doctors, not only because they have studied medicine, but also because share a series of typical experiences with your profession in addition to influencing your work on your personal life and your value as person.

In sports teams and social movements the idea of ​​collective identity is much more appreciable. In the case of sports teams, whether professional or amateur, the idea of ​​belonging to the team is necessary, given that it is going to compete with other teams and it is necessary that there is a good dynamic within the team to achieve gain.

This same idea can be transferred to social movements, such as “Black Lives Matter”, the LGTB+ collective and the feminist. To get their demands met, it is necessary for all the activists to coordinate to apply group pressure.

All these examples are proof that there are different types of elements that can make the collective identity emerge. These elements can be several or just one, varying depending on the type of community and the intensity of the degree of collective identity. Even between communities of the same type (professional, ethnic, ideological...) there are differences in what has defined and strengthened its collective identity, both in type of elements and in their quantity.

For example, the idea of ​​being part of French culture depends not only on speaking French, but also on being born there, defending the unity of the Republic and even sharing the same stereotypes towards other countries Europeans. On the other hand, in the Jewish community the main element that defines it is to process Judaism, without the need to speak Hebrew, have been born in Israel or be in favor of the existence of a Jewish state.

• Related article: "Group Psychology: definition, functions and main authors"

A controversial concept

Although the expression “collective identity” is used very frequently, on many occasions it is used as a synonym for ethnic culture and seen as something that must be professed yes or yes.

For example, there are not a few people with nationalist ideologies who defend that the individual identity of each person does not matter, what important is the fact of being born in a certain place and, therefore, you have the obligation to feel part of its culture of birth. Otherwise, he is seen as a traitor or a supporter of the extinction of that culture..

Also in this misuse of the idea of ​​collective identity, xenophobic visions are defended. There are not a few who consider that anyone born outside the place where they live are people who will never be part of their culture, since they do not have what it takes to do so. On many occasions, this “what to have” implies aspects that cannot be chosen, such as race, mother tongue or culture of origin.

Not everyone has or wants to feel part of a collective identity, especially in its aspect related to geographic culture. There are those who prefer to feel like citizens of the world or cosmopolitans, not to be part of social movements or not to be part of a community.

Each person has a unique and different individual identity, and in that identity there may be as a trait the rejection of collective thought, sometimes very harmful as has been occurred on several occasions throughout history, such as Nazism, terrorism and sects religious.

evolutionary function

The idea that collective identity has been the product of evolution in the human species has been raised. According to this theory, throughout evolutionary history, hominids and early Homo sapiens they have needed the collective identity to guarantee the physical survival of the species.

Hominids are weak and slow primates, which makes them easy prey if left alone with a predator. That is why in the most critical moments of survival, a group response was necessary of the hominids against the threat, in order to disperse it or avoid as much damage as possible. This would explain why when someone close to them is threatened, on many occasions we prepare to fight, ignoring pain and fear, and even having cases of self-sacrifice to get them to survive others.

It has also been suggested that collective identity played an important role in creating the first human rites. Among these rituals would be dancing for hours, collectively entering states of ecstasy, singing in harmony or deworming the young as a group. All these behaviors would be carried out synchronously, promoting the idea that the group is one and allowing this synchronization to be put into practice when hunting or defending themselves from predators or other human groups.

Bibliographic references:

• Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. c. (1986): «The social identity theory of intergroup behaviour». Psychology of intergroup relations. Nelson-Hall.
• Melucci, A. (1989) Nomads of the Present: Social Movements and Individual Needs in Contemporary Society. eds. John Keane and Paul Mier, Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
• Touraine, A. (1985). An Introduction to the Study of Social Movements. social research
• Maldonado, Asael & Oliva, Alejandrina. (2010). The process of construction of collective identity. Convergence. 17.