Spooky liberty: the art of avoiding identification process — an object for social sciences

Abstract

Social sciences, caught in binarism and embedded in moral considerations for a short but founding period, stressed sets of dual oppositions in which one party was right and the other wrong. When, for instance, institutions are considered in opposition to individuals, identity and belonging appear either to be enforced or to enforce, but in all events to carry the compulsion to `fit in'. This bias leads to using identification categories to qualify processes of avoiding identification. Alternatively, the authors consider clandestine tactics and strategies as a theory of attitudes, most of which are invisible, aimed at defying the identification process. We argue for an `aggiornamento', not so as to build a meta-theory, but in order to grasp an underestimated aspect of reality: the avoidance of belonging and preset identity as a mere enactment of natural-born liberty.