Against identity, a critical approach toward national identity and identity policies

These different explorations of ‘identity’ demonstrate how difficult a concept it is to pin down. Since identity is a virtual thing, it is impossible to define it empirically. Discussions of identity use the term with different meanings, from fundamental and abiding sameness, to fluidity, contingency, negotiated and so on. This study explores the concept of identity and its role in national policy debates. Although identity is commonly used by scientist in these debates but this word has not brought much to the discussion.