Widdicombe summarizes various constructivist positions, beginning with the definition of "identity" as something "available for use: something that people do which is embedded in some other social activity, and not something they 'are'" and the statement that "the important analytic question is not...whether someone can be described in a particular way, but to show that and how this identity is made relevant or ascribed to self or others" (p. 191). She also notes that "in social identity, 'the collective and the individual occupy the same space'" (p. 192). The questions that must be asked, therefore, are "what identities people have, what criteria distinguish identities from each other, and what part identity plays in the maintenance of society and in enabling the functioning of social structures and institutions" (p. 194).

Widdicombe explains how identity is used in self-categorization theory to formulate "the psychological processes underlying the transformation of individuals into group members who act in terms of a particular identity" and "as an explanation of social phenomena...as a criterion of the distribution of resources, including power and status" (p. 193). A second social constructivist approach holds that "identities are symbolic or cultural resources, but...is more concerned with particular identities and how they are constructed through historical, political and cultural processes" (p. 198). For instance, in the poststructuralism of Foucault, identity and individual-social relations are seen as "socially produced, via available resources" through discourse or "power-knowledge" that is the substance of ideological processes that "produce particular kinds of subjectivities" (pp. 199-200). Foucault's analysis, Widdicombe says, had the "political [aim] of uncovering the operation of power and liberating the oppressed" (p. 200).

According to Widdicombe, "The notion of positioning and how it constructs persons has its roots in Althusser [whose] central thesis was that ideology 'interpellates' or 'hails' individuals into particular positions so that they come to have the kinds of identity which are necessary for social practices. As a result, "people are subjected and trained to recognize themselves in particular ways, and they are thereby produced as particular kinds of being predisposed to certain kinds of activity which fit with the demands of society," which results in the "illusion that we have freely chosen our way of life" (p. 200).

Widdicombe sums up the collective constructive approach in her statement that social identities "exist and are acquired, claimed and allocated within power relations" (p. 201), and that "it is through discourse that material power is exercised and power relations are established and perpetuated. She argues that, "Since identity and subjectivity are constituted through a person's positions in different discourses, which are related to different positions of power, they are by implication thoroughly political. Thus it is argued that to understand identity and subjectivity, we need first to identify the relevant discourses and the position they make available (p. 201). More specifically, she says, "the ascription of a social identity is a form of social control" (p. 53).

One problem Widdicombe notes with the constructivist approach is that attempts "to replace the unitary self with the idea of a 'fragmented self' who is always in flux" have been unsuccessful, giving rise to the question, "Are we merely constructed through discourses or other resources? And, if so, what does the positioning?"(p. 202).

While the methodologies employed by these authors may appear to the novice to be somewhat arcane, and at times it is difficult to see how the authors draw particular conclusions from the scraps of conversation presented (the conversations are not given in toto), there is sufficient material in this book to recommend it to student and researcher alike.