The concerns and the focus of chapters in this volume have varied, although all in their different ways have explored identity in the context of personal change. However, it is hardly a new observation that, within wider interests around desistance, the question of identity – and reshaping, rediscovering or finding a new sense of self – has proved tricky for researchers. Maruna et al, for example, note that

As our chapters have shown, identity itself, and identity change (or, in our terms, transformation) can be conceptualised in different ways. This reflects the breadth and diversity of thinking across the desistance and recovery literatures. The emphases fall on internal cognitive processes or emotions in some quarters (see Giordano et al, 2002; 2007; Vaughan, 2007; Paternoster and Bushway, 2009), external relations and validations in others (Maruna et al, 2004 or, in a different vein, Best et al, 2015) and narratives of self in yet others (Maruna's (2001) Making good being the most prominent example). These present different perspectives on, and understandings of, agency, motivations and mechanisms enabling the process of change. In this final chapter I begin with some closing thoughts on the nature of identity, what spurs individuals on towards change, and the relationships and generative activities that enable them to sustain it over time. I then review promising research approaches that might provide valuable insights into personal change, as a complement to large-scale studies. I draw on empirical studies elsewhere, but focus significantly on the exemplars within this book to illustrate the benefits (and also the limitations) of these methods and what their findings may tell us.

So what do we mean by self and identity? And what about personal change?

Across the varying perspectives on identity, there is a general consensus that identities are not fixed and are subject to change and (re)negotiation over time.