Identity is perpetually in formation, never a completed essence.

Evidence

It makes us aware that identities are never completed, never finished, that they are always, as subjectivity itself is, in process. That itself is a pretty difficult task. Though we have always known it a little bit, we have always thought about ourselves as getting more like ourselves every day. But that is a sort of Hegelian notion, of going forward to meet that which we always were. I want to open that process up considerably. Identity is always in the process of formation. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 203

Categorization

• XREF: Identity-as-process (vs. identity-as-arrival at a pre-existing self) is a core building block for how Islamophobia scholarship treats Muslim identity as constructed rather than fixed and given. — connects to: Identity is positional and processual, never reducible to one fixed position; Human identity is constructed and occasionally invented, not natural and stable — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 839; Political identities are always historically constructed and positional, never fixed (+12 more)
• DEFINE: Establishes the foundational definition of identity as process rather than essence.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 203

Broader Connections

• Human identity is constructed and occasionally invented, not natural and stable #corroborates (0.95) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 839
• Political identities are always historically constructed and positional, never fixed #corroborates (0.90)
• Identity is a contradictory, multi-discursive, non-closed totality #expands (0.90)
• Identity is both a source of agency and increasingly constructed rather than given #corroborates (0.85)
• Identity is constructed through opposition to a continuously reinterpreted other #expands (0.85)
• Identity is constituted through exclusion of what it is not #expands (0.80)
• No political outcome is guaranteed by any identity position #expands (0.75) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 255