Politics Among Islanders: From Strategic Cooperation to Collective Identity Formation in "Lost".

This paper discusses how the presence of "common others" can contribute to accelerating processes of collective identity formation within initially anarchical structures. Using the TV-series "Lost" (2004-present) as a test-case, it suggests that popular culture can be used as "playpens" for increasing our understanding of these issues. "Lost", it is argued, illustrates how identity differences within multifaceted populations often diminish when faced with "common others". This, in turn, may contribute to constructing more concord social collectives that actively define themselves as different from these others. In "Lost", seemingly radical social differences between the individuals in the group of plane crash survivors become less relevant when the group is faced with the "merciless" Others. Not only do the survivors shift their survival strategy from self-help to cooperation, but they also seem to develop a stronger sense of "we-ness". At the same time, collective identities in "Lost" appear to be socially constructed rather than innate, meaning that the sets of meanings that the actors attribute to themselves must be expected to change, as must the criteria for inclusion and exclusion. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]