A seriality is a social construct which differs from a mere group of individuals. Serialities take the form of labels which are either imposed onto persons or voluntarily adopted by them. A seriality can be "unbound" and self-identified, for example workers, patriots, or anarchists, or "bound" and identified by authority census and elections, such as Asian-Americans or Tutsis.

Benedict Anderson describes bound seriality as an insidious power grab by political authority. When a state gains an interest in power they may serialize their citizens in order to identify them, for example, forcing citizens to adopt a family name or (more recently) a national identification number.