"Le parole per dirlo". Contro la nozione di identità collettiva

The article focuses on a conceptual alternative advocated as being crucial for the contemporary political philosophy. Such alternative is the one between "group identity" and "collective identity" , analysed in the first section. By using the group as unity of reference alias modality of identity building, gravious misunderstandings can be avoided: firstly, those who refer to the "group" do so in order not to give for granted strong identities which are independent of individuals, unlike the concepts immediately evoked by the notion of "collective identity". Secondly, "group identity" implies the capacity of individuals to reflect and negotiate and compete according to specific intersubjective frame of meaning and behaviour. Intersubjective identities are therefore intersections between the subjective and objective aspect of a continous, unstable, conflictual process of re-elaboration of shared experiences, which are in need of vessels, icons, symbols, In the second session of the article, symbols are interpreted and summoned to a pervasive criticism in order to help citizens and institutions to prevent the most dangerous - racist and xenophobic -involutions in the everyday discourses and pragmatics about identity issues.