Theory of Group Identity Fabrication: A Communication Ecology Design with Social Theoretical Implications

To date, there has been no comprehensive and coherent approach to determining the communicative and precommunicative processes involved in the construction of group identities. The present study fills this gap by developing a unified theoretical foundation that can be used to capture empirical construction processes. Moreover, it contributes to the domain of group communication research. It creates a basic theoretical riverbed that provides a conceptual foundation for the conception of inter- and intra-group communication, which does not take its starting point from ’objective’ categories, but from de facto socialization processes. In addition, the architecture of an innovative social theory is presented using the example of the construction of group identity, which satisfies the demands of epistemological interests in communication studies and possibly also in other disciplines.

PD Dr. Robin Kurilla is a member of the academic staff at the Institute for Communication Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen.