WHY DEPOPULATION SHOULD NOT (NECESSARILY) BE TAKEN PERSONALLY - A COMMENTARY ON REPOPULATING THE DEPOPULATED PAGES OF SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGY

Whilst the positive political intent behind Michael Billig's project i s to be applauded, his analysis can be contested on practical, pragmat ic, psychological, epistemological, but also on political grounds. It is argued that privileging individuals and their experience in account s of research raises the twin spectres of individualism and humanism, and threatens to underprivilege other levels of 'reality' and explanat ion beyond the realm of consciousness and individual identity. Althoug h depersonalization can denote a dehumanizing practice, it can also be used to reference the positive aspects of collective identity, unders tanding and action. Finally, while it is acknowledged that the experim ental method may 'depersonalize' and 'dehumanize' by subjecting indivi duals to panoptic power, attempts to free subjects in practice or pres entation may, respectively undermine the method or deceive us about it . It is argued that honesty about the function of power in experimenta l research may be a better policy than repopulation per se.