Psychology and the end of history: A critique and a proposal for the psychology of social categorization

Stephen Reicher, Nick Hopkins

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    148 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This paper suggests that self-categories provide the basis for political action, that those, who wish to organize political activity do so through the ways in which they construct self-categories, and that political domination mn? be achieved through reifying social categories and therefore denying alternative wats of social being. Hence, the way in which social psychology approaches the matter of self-categorization provides a touchstone for its politics. To the extent that we too take categories for granted, we are in danger of supporting conservative and undemocratic politics. The only way to eschew tendencies toward reification within social psychology is to add a historical dimension to our own analysis of self-categorical processes.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)383-407
    Number of pages25
    JournalPolitical Psychology
    Volume22
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Sept 2001

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