Reconsidering identity

The paper discusses and defends the analytical usefulness of the concept of identity which has been pervasively criticized by authors like Richard Han dier or Rogers Brubaker and Frederick Cooper. Starting with reviewing the p roblematic of concepts in social anthropology and continuing with discussin g the rise of identity discourse, it is argued that concepts in social and cultural sciences are always suspended between their employment in scientif ic and in nonscientific discourse. This dual hermeneutics of concepts is, h owever, not a shortcoming which has to be overcome but a productive element that contributes to their refinement. It is argued that in the case of ide ntity dual hermeneutics leads to a reconceptualization of identity as quali fied by the conditions of difference, multiplicity, and intersectionality. In the final parts of the paper, implications of this reconceptualization o f identity for a concept of self are explored.