This paper explores contemporary approaches to identity within modernity wi
th reference to the influential recent work of Anthony Giddens (1991, 1994)
and recent debates on hybridity and diaspora developed within what may be
termed a postmodern framework. Unlike Giddens' focus on the unitary self of
high modernity whose political project is self-actualization, and unlike t
he focus on cultural social forms found in debates on diaspora and hybridit
y, I argue that social divisions lie at the heart of modern societies. The
social divisions of gender, ethnicity, "race," and class must therefore be
prime concerns in sociology because they lie at the very heart of the moder
n social order. They are central in terms of constructions of identity and
otherness and in terms of producing differentiated and complex social outco
mes for individuals and groups (Anthias 1998a).