Identity and the Amplifier

Identity, in Max-Neef's taxonomy, is the synthesis of all the other needs. A person's identity is constituted by the specific configuration of satisfiers through which her needs are met. The farmer whose subsistence is met through working the land, whose affection is met through kinship, whose participation is met through communal governance — this person's identity is inseparable from the satisfier ecology she is embedded in. Change the satisfiers, and identity destabilizes. Not because identity is fragile, but because identity is relational. It exists in the connection between the person and the practices through which she meets her needs.