“identity” refer to either a social category, defined by membership rules and (alleged) characteristic attributes or expected behaviors, or socially distinguishing features that a person takes a special pride in or views as unchangeable but socially consequential at once.
The paper undertakes an ordinary language analysis of the current meanings of “iden- tity,” a complicated and unclear concept that nonetheless plays a central role in ongoing debates in every subfield of political science (for example, debates about national, ethnic, gender, and state identities).
wiki answer: Identity (philosophy), also called sameness, is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable.