Book excerpt: Innovations and Challenges in Identity Research examines established and emergent issues within identity research. This innovative book adopts a disciplinary transcendent approach, drawing on a range of social science, humanities and human science disciplines on the way to a detailed consideration of: the history of identity as a construct the components of a poststructuralist/social constructivist approach to identity the prospect of a Marxist political economy approach to identity the interrelationship between structure and agency and a model of structuring spheres an expanded version of positioning theory the digital universe as the future of identity research. Leading researcher David Block provides a personal take on this key topic of study in applied linguistics and explains why and how discourse analysis is still a useful means through which we can understand identity today. The book is essential reading for students and academics studying and researching within the area of language and identity.