Beyond the ethno-national divide: intersecting identity transformations during conflict

This article examines intersecting processes of boundary formation and change during periods of conflict in Chiapas and Northern Ireland in a comparative fashion. It provides new approaches to the studies of boundaries, of intersectionality and of identity change. Looking at female activists’ collective identity narratives reveals the interrelation of different processes of identity change and solidarity formation during ethno-national conflict. Those processes are determined by differences in female activists’ perceptions of and positioning towards different levels of society and by spaces for bridging those boundaries. In order to enhance our understanding of ethno-national conflicts, we need to examine intersecting identity categories in relation to social change and highlight underlying and interacting processes at different levels of society that obscure and deny the existence of the gender category.