Steve Maguire

The constructing of identities-those processes through which actors in and around ogani-zations claim, accept, negotiate, affirm, stabilize, maintain, reproduce, challenge, disrupt, destabilize, repair, or otherwise relate to their sense of selves and others-has become a critically important topic in the study of organizations. This volume, the second in the Perspectives on Process Organization Studies series, attempts to amplify, and possibly refract, contemporary debates amongst identity scholars that question established notions of identity as "essence," "entity," or "thing." It calls for alternative approaches to understanding identity and its significance in contexts in and around organizations by conceptualizing it as "process"-that is, being continually under construction.
Based in diverse theoretical and philosophical traditions and contexts, contributions by leading scholars to this volume offer new perspectives on how individual and organizational identities evolve and come to be constructed through ongoing activities and interactions. PERSPECTIVES ON PROCESS ORGANIZATION STUDIES SERIES EDITORS : ANN LANGLEY AND HARIDIMOS TSOUKAS Perspectives on Process Organization Studies is an annual series, linked to the International Symposium on Process Organization Studies.
and is dedicated to the development of an understanding of organizations and organizing at large as processes in the making. This series brings together contributions from leading scholars, which focus on seeing dynamically evolving activities, interactions, and events as important aspects of organized action, rather than static structures and fixed templates.