Somebody Else’s Problem as a Practice in the Identity Discourse

Abstract

The article presents the characteristics of various types of collective identities: hard, programmatic, soft, pluralistic, and proposes an outline of the concept of reflective identity as essential for democratic public discourse. Moreover, the practice of invalidation in the public discourse has been analyzed. Articulated invalidation and silent invalidation have been articulated as two communicative practices and their characteristics. The article presents the social and psychological reasons for invalidation as a practice of public discourse.

Keywords

• identity
• reflective identity
• discourse
• somebody else’s problem
• invalidation