Analysis of dynamics of politicized collective identity in post-Dergue Ethiopia: A sociological and social-psychological analysis

Abstract

The identity issues in post-Dergue Ethiopia deserve empirical and analytical considerations that may provide insights about how to deal with identity-based contestations and violence. This paper makes a sociological and social-psychological analysis of various dynamics of politicized collective identity in post-Dergue Ethiopia. It assesses the social-psychological meanings of the political and social processes, practices and structures that give rise to reconstruction and re-negotiation of identity and identity-based contestations. It focuses on the political, social and psychological dimensions of identity and identification processes. The paper draws on various research outcomes and theories of identity construction to explain the dynamics of identity processes and their implication for inter-group relationships mainly in the geographical margins of the country where such groups share natural resources and socio-cultural communalities. The paper critiques also the conceptual and ontological limitations of academic writings that participate in the objectification of ethnicity in their effort to forge the political, social, cultural and ethnic modalities predisposed to define the essence of identity groups.