Exploring the registers of identity research
作为特刊引言，提出身份研究的三种语域（理论传统、层次、方法论），并基于特刊论文构建框架，帮助学者进入或扩展身份研究，促进语域间对话。
As the lead, introductory, contribution to this special issue 'exploring registers of identity research', this paper offers a view of three different "registers" that might be seen to characterize identity research and which feature, to a greater or lesser extent, in the selected papers. First, the paper offers a means to understand the different theoretical traditions used to explain what constitutes identity and how it might be known. Second, it considers the relationship between different levels of identityindividual, group, professional, organizational, and societal. Third, it reviews the methodologies used to understand identities and examines key theoretical assumptions which feature in academic debates, and in the selected papers, around identity theorizing. Drawing on the papers included in this special issue we offer a framework as a heuristic device that might guide scholars looking to enter the field of identity research and enable those already familiar with particular theoretical traditions, levels, or methods to explore possibilities for extending their research. As enticement to tackle the challenges extension across-registers can present, we again turn to the special issue articles to examine -through a series of 'gets'the different tactics authors might use to access the rich potential offered by crossfertilization between registers. Our contribution then lies in advancing the potential for dialogue between registers of identity research.