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Identity Construction (identity + construction)
Selected AbstractsMandala of the Self: Embodiment, Practice, and Identity Construction in the Cakrasamvara TraditionJOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, Issue 3 2006DAVID B. GRAY Tantric traditions have often been ignored by scholars studying Asian social history, in part because the structure of traditions, and hence their social impact, have been poorly understood. This paper seeks to remedy this lacuna by exploring in some depth a particular tradition, that centring around the Cakrasamvara Tantra, an Indian Buddhist scripture that became the basis of a popular practice tradition in Nepal and Tibet. Following Charles Taylor and the Comaroffs, I will argue that the Cakrasamvara practice tradition encourages a construction of self-identity based on a rather different set of assumptions than those common in the West, i.e., assumptions concerning the limits and constitution of the self. I will explore the nature of this considerably more expansive and fluid sense of self and its social and historical ramifications, both in the pre-modern and contemporary manifestations of this tradition. [source] Gender and National Identity Constructions in the Cross-Border Merger ContextGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 3 2005Janne Tienari In this article we explore ways in which vertical gender inequality is accomplished in discourse in the context of a recent chain of cross-border mergers and acquisitions that resulted in the formation of a multinational Nordic company. We analyse social interactions of ,doing' gender in interviews with male senior executives from Denmark, Finland and Sweden. We argue that their explanations for the absence of women in the top echelons of the company serve to distance vertical gender inequality. The main contribution of the article is an analysis of how national identities are discursively (re)constructed in such distancing. New insights are offered to studying gender in multinationals with a cross-cultural team of researchers. Our study sheds light on how gender intersects with nationality in shaping the multinational organization and the identities of male executives in globalizing business. [source] Watching the Nation, Singing the Nation: London-Based Filipino Migrants' Identity Constructions in News and Karaoke PracticesCOMMUNICATION, CULTURE & CRITIQUE, Issue 2 2009Jonathan Corpus Ong This study explores the identity construction of London-based Filipinos across the media of news and karaoke. In bridging the "public knowledge project" with the "popular culture project," I argue that the seemingly innocent social practice of singing involves raising and erasing of symbolic boundaries. As national identities are constantly flagged in everyday life, I examine how Filipino audiences negotiate multiple attachments in both media practices. From participant observation and qualitative interviews, I discover that news reception generally enables both banal nationalism and banal transnationalism, whereas karaoke functions more as a homeland-directed "high holiday." I demonstrate how audiences weave in and out of their loyalties to British and Filipino publics across the media of British news, Filipino news, as well as karaoke. [source] Citizenship and Female Catholic Militancy in 1920s SpainGENDER & HISTORY, Issue 3 2007Inmaculada Blasco Herranz The aim of this article is to offer a new interpretation of the role of women in the Catholic movement in 1920s Spain. It responds to historical analyses that view this mobilisation as the product of clerical manipulation and that consider its feminist aspects to be flawed. The new interpretation presented here is based on a notion of citizenship understood as both a process and as a form of identity construction, and which was configured historically as a result of the incorporation of modern ideas of women, the nation and religion. As a result, this analysis examines the relationship between Catholicism and modernity in greater complexity than the dichotomous views frequently encountered in Spanish historiography. [source] The Micro-politics of Gendering in NetworkingGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 2 2009Yvonne Benschop Networking processes contribute to the perpetuation of gender inequalities in everyday practices in organizations. This article examines the implications of the conceptualization of gender as practice for social network theory. The three central elements of this critical feminist approach to networking are the study of agency, identity construction and the micro-political processes of networking and gendering. To illustrate that networking practices are gendering practices, that there are various manifestations of those practices, and the way in which networking and gendering are intertwined, the networking practices of four white, Dutch female and male account managers are discussed. This micro-political analysis suggests that networking does not necessarily reinforce gender inequality, which opens up the possibility of examining which combinations of networking and gendering contribute to changing the gender order. [source] (RE)PRODUCING A "PERIPHERAL" REGION , NORTHERN SWEDEN IN THE NEWSGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2008Madeleine Eriksson ABSTRACT. Building on theories of internal orientalism, the objective of this study is to show how intra-national differences are reproduced through influential media representations. By abstracting news representations of Norrland, a large, sparsely populated region in the northernmost part of Sweden, new modes of "internal othering" within Western modernity are put on view. Real and imagined social and economical differences between the "rural North" and the "urban South" are explained in terms of "cultural differences" and "lifestyle" choices. The concept of Norrland is used as an abstract essentialized geographical category and becomes a metonym for a backward and traditional rural space in contrast to equally essentialized urban areas with favoured modern ideals. Specific traits of parts of the region become one with the entire region and the problems of the region become the problems of the people living in the region. I argue that the news representations play a part in the reproduction of a "space of exception", in that one region is constructed as a traditional and undeveloped space in contrast to an otherwise modern nation. A central argument of this study is that research on identity construction and representations of place is needed to come to grips with issues of uneven regional development within western nations. [source] Lives in limbo: Temporary Protected Status and immigrant identitiesGLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 4 2002Alison Mountz The United States formulates much of its immigration and refugee policy to match economic and political circumstances. We interpret these policy shifts as a set of graduated positions on immigration and refugee flows that attempts to discipline the lives of newcomers and, in so doing, shapes immigrant identities. In this article, we analyse the interplay between the US government and Salvadoran asylum applicants negotiating procedures that grant only temporary relief from deportation via the policy of Temporary Protected Status (TPS). We find that each policy shift results in the strategic renegotiation of asylum applicants' identities so as to achieve the best opportunity for a successful outcome. Based on Foucault's ideas of governmentality and Ong's concept of flexible citizenship, we argue that what appears more superficially as a patchwork strategy of immigration laws and asylum practices may be theorized more deeply as a set of flexible responses by the state that turn on identity construction at different scales, and that aim to mediate transnational relations. [source] The Importance of Role Models and Demographic Context for Senior Women's Work Identity DevelopmentINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 3 2010Ruth H.V. Sealy The lack of senior female role models continues to be cited as a key barrier to women's career success. Yet there is little academic research into the gendered aspects of role modelling in organizations, or the utility of role models at a senior level. The paper starts with a review of papers examining the construction of role models in organizational settings. This leads to the inclusion of two related areas , organizational demographics as the contextual factor affecting the availability of role models and how they are perceived, and work identity formation as a possible key explanatory factor behind the link between the lack of senior female role models and the lack of career progression to top organizational levels. The literature looking at social theories of identity formation is then considered from a gender perspective. The key gaps identified are that while the behavioural value of role models has been well documented, a better understanding is needed of how gender and organizational demography influence the role modelling process. Importantly, the symbolic value and possibly other values of female role models in the identity construction of senior women require further in-depth investigation. Finally, this review calls for a more integrated approach to the study of role models and work identity formation, pulling together literatures on organizational demography, the cognitive construal of role models and their importance for successful work identity formation in senior women. [source] ,Real Italians and wogs': The discursive construction of Italian identity among first generation Italian immigrants in Western AustraliaJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2010Emanuela Sala Abstract We explore the discursive construction of Italian identity among a bilingual sample of Italian-born Western Australians. Focus groups were held with two groups: Italians who had migrated to Australia as children and a group who had migrated as adults. We found intra- and inter-individual differences in identity construction, with much discourse devoted to demonstrating Italian authenticity and negotiating ethnic category boundaries. Shared markers of authenticity included language, heritage and food. The groups varied in their selection of referent groups to make authenticity claims, with the child migrants drawing upon the shared Australian stereotype of ,wogs' to construct and authenticate their Italian-ness. In contrast, adult migrants constructed Italian identity through comparisons with the dominant Australian ethnic group and in relation to a broader ,migrant' identity. The findings highlight the fluid and complex nature of ethnic identity and the need for further exploration of how it is constructed in talk. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Prosodic cues of identity construction: Intensity in Greek young women's conversational narratives1JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 5 2008Argiris Archakis The present paper examines the discourse functions of intensity in the context of narrative direct speech quotations. We argue that differentiation in intensity functions as a contextualization cue signalling involvement as well as power negotiation. Intensity, therefore, seems to be an ambivalent signal acquiring its meaning in interaction with other contextual parameters. More specifically, we argue that a louder voice is preferred in in-group talk representations as a contextualization cue of a high involvement style in conversations between intimate young peers. Lower intensity, on the other hand, is used by young female narrators in the representation of talk with authority-out-group figures, as a means of reducing the authority of the adult voices represented in their narratives. The qualitative analysis of our data is further supported by quantitative analysis. We conclude that intensity differentiation in the direct speech quotations of young female narrators functions as a contextualization cue signalling, on the one hand, their independence from adult authority and, on the other, their in-group bonds. [source] What do lesbians do in the daytime?JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2000Recover This paper examines a narrative taken from an ethnographic interview, for the speaker's conversational construction of lesbian and other identities along with ideologized personal history. To tell her story, Marge shifts to the discourse style used in the meetings of addiction recovery groups. She prioritizes the recovery (twelve-step) program's coherence system, structuring her life story in conformity with its terms while narrating a complexly queered identity. Four analyses are given, beginning with a Labovian formal examination and proceeding with a consideration of three types of discourse echoing: interdiscursivity, intratextuality, and manifest intertextuality. This study demonstrates the analytical linking of nonpublic linguistic discourse to social discourses; individual identity construction to social construction (and its coherence systems); and personal history to historical eras. The paper adds the concept of a metalevel complicating action to narrative theory and develops a means of examining intratextuality for critical discourse analysis. It presents a revised view of essentialism for the sociolinguistic study of gender and sexuality. [source] The criterion of consistency: Women's self-presentation at Yarmouk University, JordanAMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 3 2010LAURA PEARL KAYA ABSTRACT In the late 20th century, for the first time, higher education became an attainable goal for Jordanian women of all backgrounds, and Jordanian universities became vibrant, coed public spaces. The first-generation-female college students who enter these spaces take relational traditions of female identity construction that developed in intimate settings and adapt them for use in large-scale, anonymous environments. Identities based on relationships are reified for exchange in a public sphere, and imperatives that had seemed to keep women in a "private" realm are transformed as women move in "public" space. After exploring the meanings of women's dress at Yarmouk University in Irbid, Jordan, I conclude with remarks on the implications of my study for the headscarf debate in France. [source] Science success, narrative theories of personality, and race self complexity: Is pace represented in the identity construction of African American adolescents?NEW DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD & ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT, Issue 106 2004Cynthia E. Winston Narrative theories of personality help elucidate the complexity of success. [source] ,With a rope around their neck': grant researchers living in suspended timeNEW TECHNOLOGY, WORK AND EMPLOYMENT, Issue 3 2009Emília Rodrigues AraújoArticle first published online: 20 OCT 200 This paper identifies the relevance of developing further studies of academic/scientific identities at work. Qualitative analysis of interviews with junior researchers and contextual statistical data are used to examine the processes of identity construction in the pursuit of establishing both recognised status in scientific and research systems and a more rewarding and stable professional life path. [source] Qualitative research from a feminist perspective in the postmodern era: methodological, ethical and reflexive concernsNURSING INQUIRY, Issue 3 2000Carmel SeiboldArticle first published online: 25 DEC 200 Qualitative research from a feminist perspective in the postmodern era: methodological, ethical and reflexive concerns Developing methodology is an ongoing process in certain types of qualitative research. This paper describes the process in a study of single midlife women, detailing reflexive concerns on the ethics of data collection and dissemination of research findings from a feminist postmodern perspective, as well as the way in which modification of techniques of analysis occurred as the study progressed. Beginning research questions were concerned with identifying the impact of menopausal symptoms, and the debate surrounding HRT on the lives and decision-making processes of single midlife women. Initial analysis of data, using grounded theory techniques, indicated a need to place greater emphasis on the way the women constructed or talked about the self, including the embodied self. This led to an exploration of the literature relating to reflexivity, identity construction and embodiment, including feminist poststructuralist interpretations of the discursive and embodied construction of self, and informed both the theoretical framework and the method. The way in which a type of analysis fitting under the broad rubric of discourse analysis, that is one that gave added emphasis to gendered subjectivity, directed further analysis is discussed, as well as the influence on the women of social and scientific discourses in circulation. [source] (Un)Necessary Toughness?: Those "Loud Black Girls" and Those "Quiet Asian Boys"ANTHROPOLOGY & EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2003Assistant Professor Joy L LeiArticle first published online: 8 JAN 200 This article examines the process of identity construction and its relationship to discursive and representational acts in producing students as academic and social beings. Drawing on Judith Butler's work on gender performativity, I focus on two student populations,black females and Southeast Asian American males,and analyze the symbolic and material effects of the production of them as racialized, gendered Other through the repeated stylization of their bodies and behavior. The materialization of the students as "loud black girls" and "quiet Asian boys," however, opens up the potential for disrupting the hegemonicfbrces of regulatory norms. [source] A Discursive Approach to Skillful ActivityCOMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 4 2008J. Kevin Barge We propose a discursive approach for exploring how practitioners intelligently respond and create a sense of coherence in their linguistic practice. A discursive approach to skillful activity is able to account for the role of meaning making in conversation, address how communication constructs the context in which skillful activity originates, and recognize the co-created flavor of skillful practice. We offer an account of skillful linguistic performance that turns on practitioners acting with sensibility by paying close attention to the reflexive relationships among: (a) moral,aesthetic commitments; (b) conversational abilities in the form of utterances, methods, and techniques; (c) practical reasoning and the process of invention; and (d) context. We conclude by exploring the implications of a discursive approach for meaning making, identity construction, and managing the tensions emerging from different traditions or communities of practice. Résumé Une approche discursive pour l'étude d'une activité habile Nous proposons une approche discursive pour l'exploration de la manière dont les praticiens réagissent intelligemment et créent un sens de cohérence dans leurs pratiques linguistiques. Une approche discursive pour l'étude de l'activité habile est en mesure de tenir compte du rôle de la construction de sens dans la conversation, d'aborder la façon dont la communication construit le contexte dont origine l'activité habile ainsi que de reconnaître la nature coconstruite de la pratique habile. Nous expliquons l'exercice linguistique habile des praticiens agissant avec sensibilité en portant une attention particulière aux relations réflexives entre : a) les engagements moraux-esthétiques, b) les capacités conversationnelles sous forme d'énoncés, de méthodes et de techniques, c) le raisonnement pratique et le processus d'invention et d) le contexte. Nous concluons en explorant les implications d'une approche discursive pour la construction de sens et d'identité ainsi que pour la gestion des tensions qui émergent de différentes traditions ou communautés de pratiques. Abstract Ein diskursiver Ansatz kundigen Handelns Für die Erforschung, wie Praktiker intelligent reagieren und einen Sinn von Kohärenz in der linguistischen Praxis kreieren, schlagen wir einen diskursiven Ansatz vor. Ein diskursiver Ansatz kundigen Handelns macht es möglich, die Rolle von Bedeutungsfindung in Gesprächen zu erklären, außerdem anzusprechen, wie Kommunikation den Kontext bestimmt aus dem kundiges Handeln hervorgeht und gleichzeitig die fachkundige Praxis berücksichtigt. Wir bieten eine Darstellung von kundigem linguistischen Verhalten, welches sensibel agierende Praktiker betrifft, wenn sie ihre Aufmerksamkeit auf die reflexiven Beziehungen lenken zwischen: (a) moral-ästhetische Verpflichtungen; (b) dialogorientierte Fähigkeiten in Form von Äußerungen, Methoden und Techniken; (c) praktische Argumentation und den Prozess der Erfindung; und (d) Kontext. Wir schließen, indem wir die Implikationen eines diskursiven Ansatzes für die Bedeutungskonstruktion, Identitätskonstruktion und dem Umgang mit Spannungen, die aus verschiedenen Traditionen oder Praxisgemeinschaften entstehen, untersuchen. Resumen Un Enfoque Discursivo de la Actividad Habilidosa Proponemos un enfoque discursivo para explorar cómo los profesionales responden inteligentemente y crean un sentido de coherencia en su práctica lingüística. Una aproximación discursiva de la actividad habilidosa es capaz de explicar el rol de la construcción de sentido en la conversación, de explicar cómo la comunicación construye el contexto donde la actividad habilidosa se origina, y reconoce el sabor co-creado de la práctica habilidosa. Ofrecemos una explicación del desempeño lingüístico habilidoso que genera interés por parte de los profesionales para actuar con sensibilidad prestando atención a las relaciones reflexivas entre: (a) los compromisos morales-estéticos; (b) las habilidades conversacionales en la forma de palabras, métodos, y técnicas; (c) el razonamiento práctico y el proceso de invención; y (d) el contexto. Concluimos con una exploración de las implicaciones del enfoque discursivo sobre la construcción de sentido, la construcción de la identidad, y el manejo de las tensiones que emergen de tradiciones diferentes ó de comunidades de práctica. ZhaiYao Yo yak [source] Watching the Nation, Singing the Nation: London-Based Filipino Migrants' Identity Constructions in News and Karaoke PracticesCOMMUNICATION, CULTURE & CRITIQUE, Issue 2 2009Jonathan Corpus Ong This study explores the identity construction of London-based Filipinos across the media of news and karaoke. In bridging the "public knowledge project" with the "popular culture project," I argue that the seemingly innocent social practice of singing involves raising and erasing of symbolic boundaries. As national identities are constantly flagged in everyday life, I examine how Filipino audiences negotiate multiple attachments in both media practices. From participant observation and qualitative interviews, I discover that news reception generally enables both banal nationalism and banal transnationalism, whereas karaoke functions more as a homeland-directed "high holiday." I demonstrate how audiences weave in and out of their loyalties to British and Filipino publics across the media of British news, Filipino news, as well as karaoke. [source] The Discursive Origins of a DoctrineFOREIGN POLICY ANALYSIS, Issue 3 2007George W. Bush, Identity, Norms, Securitization under Harry S. Truman Previous research on the Bush Doctrine has tended to largely focus on its contents, more or less automatically assuming 9/11 to be the sole factor for the doctrine coming into existence. This article argues, on the contrary, that such a focus gives us an insufficient understanding of U.S. foreign policy since it underproblematizes how a doctrine comes into existence and why it takes a particular form. Instead, this article analyzes the political and societal discourses that are inextricably interlinked to doctrines, exploring how actors' views both are reflections of discourses and also serve to reinforce them. Focusing on specific discursive mechanisms,securitization process, settled norms, and identity constructions,facilitates the explanation of both the origins of a doctrine and its contents. This article analyzes the discourses of the 3-month time period preceding the Bush and the Truman Doctrines. Comparing the Bush Doctrine with the Truman Doctrine, this article finds that the discourses of these two cases are very similar. In both cases the same central mechanisms are prominent, constructing a certain discursive linkage between the two. Finally, this article argues that a constructivist approach that employs a structured design is able to present more persuasive arguments than the traditional inductive-style narrative favored by many constructivist studies. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||