Catching the Slippery Fish – A Theorization of the Concept of Identity and Identity Conflicts

Managing identity conflicts requires the conceptualization of what identity is all about. The conceptualization of identity delivers insights into the nature of the conflict: how it is created, maintained and protracted, how conflicting actors formulate decisions and how structures determine behaviors. Relating power to violence uses identity as an analytical tool to understand social relations. This chapter briefly reviews some of the debate surrounding the elusive identity concept – the construction, nature and functionality of identity, how collective identity is determined by a group-building process and the point at which identity is translated into conflict cleavages. Such a conceptualization of identity conflict allows an analysis of thw factors that trigger the outburst of violent confrontations. Violence is not per se a necessary implication of identity conflicts.