Introduction

The issue of whether a focus upon identities can help us to understand the social world is one that has generated considerable attention. If, as suggested in Chapter One, social identities are fluid and forever changing, so that the narratives that people tell about themselves will only ever be partial and contingent upon broader social, cultural, political and historical factors (Imtoual, 2006), then how valid is the notion of social identity as a tool through which to accumulate knowledge about social phenomena? Hall (1995: 66; 1996) conceptualises identities as sliding; however, at the same time he argues that identities are significant as these constitute the sites at which the social world is experienced and acted upon, regardless of how temporary these points of attachment are, being influenced by discursive practices underpinned by power relations.

Taking on board Hall's (1996) affirmation of the significance of social identity, this chapter will focus upon some of the epistemological, methodological and ethical dilemmas that arise when researching identities, with crime and criminal justice constituting the background context to the issues raised here. It will be argued that engaging with the notion of identity inevitably leads to the researcher having to confront a number of important issues. It seems that it is critical that researchers, whilst documenting specificity of experience, and acknowledging differences between people, do not lose sight of power relations that generate and reproduce inequalities and injustices. Inevitably, tensions will arise between researching diversities on the one hand and claiming broader unities of experiences on the other. Making any type of generalisation is always subject to the criticism that this conceals considerable differences between individuals and can serve to perpetuate any prejudices and stereotypes that are contained within any labels that purport to describe particular groupings of individuals. Nonetheless, discourses that claim no knowledge beyond that which is local and situated cannot challenge forms of social organisation that are unjust, and localisms do not produce discourses that are absent of mentions of power, as power is inherent to all knowledge claims, no matter how nomadic they may be (Fricker, 2000).

The wider environment in which the researcher operates also needs to be considered. The information collected by state institutions regarding social groupings is likely to be incomplete and rather generalistic, so that detailed and specific information about particular social identities is likely to be absent.