Rupert Brown

Tajfel had a large repertoire of social identities – a Polish Jew, a French then British citizen, a social scientist, a multiple émigré – all of which provided him with several and sometimes conflicting vantage points from which to observe and interpret the world. And the social contexts in which he lived – interwar Poland (where anti-Semitism was rife), the Second World War (which he experienced as a prisoner-of-war of the Germans), immediate post-war Europe (in which he had to rebuild his life in the aftermath of the Holocaust), and Europe 1950–1982 (a period dominated by the Cold War and political upheaval) – were all pivotal in shaping his intellectual passions throughout his life.

second theme is his geographical and cultural rootlessness. He was a man constantly on the move: he lived in at least seven different countries and had no fewer than three official nationalities in his life; his career was punctuated with several visiting fellowships to overseas research centres.