Multiple hierarchies and the duplex nature of groups

This article examines the links between multiple hierarchies and a wide range of broad-based groups, in order to develop a theoretical framework capable of integrating group phenomena, social identities, and political mobilization. Various case-studies are used to illustrate how hierarchies between and within groups are obfuscated by discrepancies between the material and symbolic aspects of social reality. Yet such discrepancies, which are partly transparent, can generate contestation and the reconfiguration of groups. A duplexity model, which treats groups as a complex mix of embodied categories and observable attributes whose interconnections are contingent, can help unravel crosscutting social cleavages.