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Henri Tajfel HENRI TAJFEL This book offers a biographical account of Henri Tajfel, one of the most influential European social psychologists of the twentieth century, offering unique insights into his ground-breaking work in the areas of social perception, social identity, and intergroup relations. The author, Rupert Brown, paints a vivid and personal portrait of Tajfel’s life, his academic career and its significance to social psychology, and the key ideas he developed. It traces Tajfel’s life from his birth in Poland just after the end of World War I, his time as a prisoner- of- war in World War II, his work with Jewish orphans and other displaced persons after that war, and thence to his short but glittering academic career as a social psychologist. Based on a range of sources including interviews, archival material, correspond- ence, photographs, and scholarly output, Brown expertly weaves together Tajfel’s personal narrative with his evolving intellectual interests and major scientific dis- coveries. Following a chronological structure with each chapter dedicated to a sig- nificant transition period in Tajfel’s life, the book ends with an appraisal of two of his principal posthumous legacies: the European Association of Social Psychology, a project always close to Tajfel’s heart and for which he worked tirelessly; and the ‘social identity approach’ to social psychology initiated by Tajfel over forty years ago and now one of the discipline’s most important perspectives. This is fascinating reading for students, established scholars, and anyone interested in social psychology and the life and lasting contribution of this celebrated scholar. Rupert Brown is Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Sussex. He obtained his PhD under Tajfel in 1979 and has been an active researcher in the field of intergroup relations throughout his career. He was the recipient of the 2014 Tajfel medal, awarded by the European Association of Social Psychology for dis- tinguished lifetime achievement. He is the author of two widely used student texts (Group Processes and Prejudice) and over 180 scientific articles and book chapters. EUROPEAN MONOGRAPHS IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Affiliated with the European Association of Social Psychology Series Editors: Professor Batja Gomes de Mesquita (Leuven University, Belgium) and Professor Vincent Yzerbyt (University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium). The aim of this series is to publish and promote the highest quality of writing in European social psychology. The editors and the editorial board encourage publica- tions which approach social psychology from a wide range of theoretical perspectives and whose content may be applied, theoretical or empirical. The authors of books in this series should be affiliated to institutions that are located in countries which would qualify for membership of the Association. All books are published in English, and translations from other European languages are welcomed. Please submit ideas and proposals for books in the series to Batja Gomes de Mesquita or Vincent Yzerbyt. Published Stereotyping as Inductive Hypothesis Testing Klaus Fiedler and Eva Walther Intergroup Relations in States of the Former Soviet Union Louk Hagendoorn, Hub Linssen, and Sergei Tumanov The Social Psychology of Ethnic Identity Maykel Verkuyten Consumer Culture, Identity and Well-Being Helga Dittmar Judging Passions: Moral emotions in persons and groups Roger Giner-Sorolla The Psychology of Human Values Gregory Maio Morality and the Regulation of Social Behavior Naomi Ellemers The Social Psychology of Ethnic Identity: Second Edition Maykel Verkuyten HENRI TAJFEL Explorer of Identity and Difference Rupert Brown First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Rupert Brown The right of Rupert Brown to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 58980- 3 (hbk) ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 58981- 0 (pbk) ISBN: 978- 0- 429- 49138- 2 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Newgen Publishing UK This book is dedicated with love to my large (and still growing) family: my wife Lyn, my children Jon, Kirsten, and Amy, their spouses Alice, Heddy, and Colin, and my five grandchildren Rosa, Hannah, Issa, Celia, and Lily. CONTENTS Preface ix Acknowledgements xiii Abbreviations xv 1 Poland, 1919– 1936 1 2 France, Germany, and Austria, 1936– 1945 17 3 France, Belgium, and Germany, 1945– 1951 41 4 London and Durham, 1951– 1956 71 5 Oxford, 1956– 1966 90 6 Palo Alto and early years at Bristol, 1966– 1972 123 7 Bristol, 1972– 1982 164 8 The Tajfellian legacy 204 Appendix 1: Tajfel bibliography 234 Appendix 2: The Tajfel academic genealogy 241 References 260 Index 279 PREFACE This is a book about Henri Tajfel, one of the most influential European social psychologists of the twentieth century. During his lifetime, he made significant scientific contributions to our understanding of social perception, intergroup re- lations, and social identity, as well as helping to create a successful professional association for European social psychologists. Since his death, that already consid- erable impact grew enormously and is now visible far beyond the geographical and disciplinary boundaries within which he originally worked. His ideas have inspired subsequent generations of scholars who have extended them into several new areas of enquiry. Of his many intellectual achievements, the one for which he is most well- known is his Social Identity Theory. In this theory he sought to link his early work on social categorisation to many phenomena associated with people’s group memberships: ingroup loyalty and disaffection; ingroup favouritism and intergroup discrimination; social stereotypes; and motivations to bring about or resist social change. Two recurring ideas underlie his explanation of all these phenomena. The first is that to understand them one must recognise that there are fundamental differences between people’s behaviour when they are acting as group members – when their social identities are engaged – and their behaviour when they are acting as individuals – when only their personal identities are relevant. The second is the importance of always being aware of and taking account of the social contexts in which people find themselves. It was never sufficient, he believed, to construct theories of intergroup relations which use conceptions of people as asocial human ‘cognitive processors’ or biologically driven ‘organisms’. This book is not just about Tajfel the social scientist, it is also about Tajfel the man. Indeed, I believe it is impossible to do proper justice to his many scientific and professional contributions without appreciating his own personal life story. To x Preface gain that appreciation the same two phrases, social identity and social context, serve us well. Tajfel had a large repertoire of social identities – a Polish Jew, a French then British citizen, a social scientist, a multiple émigré – all of which provided him with several and sometimes conflicting vantage points from which to observe and interpret the world. And the social contexts in which he lived – interwar Poland (where anti- Semitism was rife), the Second World War (which he experienced as a prisoner- of- war of the Germans), immediate post- war Europe (in which he had to rebuild his life in the aftermath of the Holocaust), and Europe 1950– 1982 (a period dominated by the Cold War and political upheaval) – were all pivotal in shaping his intellectual passions throughout his life. Three themes will recur in the story of his life. One is the importance of his Jewish identity. Although he was a secular rather than a practising Jew, his Jewish background was always integral to his identity and provided the backdrop for all his work, which was ultimately to understand the psychological underpinnings of the Holocaust. A second theme is his geographical and cultural rootlessness. He was a man constantly on the move: he lived in at least seven different countries and had no fewer than three official nationalities in his life; his career was punctuated with several visiting fellowships to overseas research centres. And third is his boundless curiosity. This was clearly evident in all his own scholarly work but manifested itself early on with an enthusiastic interest in cultivating the intellectual endeavours of others. These themes, together with the brief snapshots of his life and work above, explain my chosen subtitle, ‘Explorer of Identity and Difference’. The two main pre- occupations of his academic career were people’s reliable tendency to exaggerate the differences they perceive between objects or people that fall into different cat- egories, and the extension of that phenomenon to social identity, where he argued that underlying people’s social identities is a basic need to see their group as posi- tively distinct from other groups. The subtitle, then, attempts to capture those two concerns in a literal sense. In addition, though, it is meant to convey something of his wider outlook. He was always an iconoclast, forever exploring and developing ideas that ran counter to the mainstream scientific thinking of the day. A word is in order about methodology and ethics.
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