Cultural identity is one of Kennedy's main concerns, a theme that emerges in his account of how law shapes and is shaped by the racial, sexual, intellectual, economic, and national character of communities. The place of the radical intellectual in the American national identity; the culturally specific character of the black community as a basis for affirmative action; the impact of law on the distribution of power and welfare between workers and owners; and the role of sexual abuse and sexy dressing in preserving heterosexual identity: in each case, while allowing the importance of group identity, Kennedy contends that these identities are actually contingent and fluid, are, in effect, positions or situations within which people operate as free agents. He also seeks to undermine the notion of a larger identity - that of the West as a capitalist, patriarchal, white supremacist regime. By showing that the system exercises less central power than people generally think, his work extends the hope that small-scale resistance - from office politics to fashion choices - is possible, that individual action can make a difference, that identity might constantly be remade.