Names and naming in adoption: Birth heritage and family‐making

In this article, we consider the significance and practices of names and naming in adoption to develop understanding of the issue amongst scholars, policymakers, adoption practitioners, and adoption communities. Research on the topic of names and adoption is scarce and focused mostly on international and domestic adoptions in the United States. We draw on the research literature to critically explore names and naming in adoption through two recurrent and related themes. The first is “birth heritage,” where names, forenames especially, are shown to be important in the approach taken by adopters to their child's birth family and cultural identity. The second theme is “family‐making,” where namesaking and homogeneity of surname emerge, amongst others, as strategies to create, sustain, and display “family.” In gathering together for the first time an otherwise scattered, disparate body of research, our article showcases names and naming as illuminating distillations of key contemporary challenges experienced by families formed through adoption. We conclude our article by considering emergent gaps in existing knowledge and understanding about names, naming, and adoption that might usefully be addressed, to inform professional advice and familial decisions about names, and enhance outcomes for adoptees and their families.     

Orientalism and Russian speaking minority regions in Europe: representing Narva

ABSTRACT

This paper uses the concept of orientalism to propose a framework for understanding the relationship between international news media and individual representations of minority groups in Europe. Even though the case study focuses on Narva, Estonia, the model here provides a basis for comparing the identity formation practices, particularly of geographically separated Russian speaking minority groups in Europe. Narva’s large Russian speaking population and geographical proximity to Russia have been pinpointed as security concerns due to the convenient source of information and mass media sponsored by the Russian Federation causing a misrepresentation of Russian speaking minority groups in international media.     

符号学视野下体育与少数民族的国家认同构建

体育与少数民族国家认同问题是一个重要的研究课题，学界目前主要就体育现象本身进行对比或论证少数民族国家认同，而缺乏符号学这一简约方法的深层次解读。国家认同是各种象征符号的集合。体育是一种天然的符号，具有丰富的文化象征含义。因而从符号学视野探究体育与少数民族国家认同具有重要的理论与现实意义。少数民族的国家认同核心是政治认同与文化认同，体育的物源符号化、自然寓意、伴随文本意义、元语言解读、共同记忆塑造功能，有力促进现代国家少数民族国家认同。认清体育符号的标出性历史反转趋势，采取适当宽幅的文化选择，加强体育元语言的解读，充分利用体育符号媒介作用，增强少数民族文化自觉与自信、强化中华“多元一体”认识，厘清国家政治边界，从而有力促进少数民族国家认同的构建。     

Disabled or differently-enabled? Dyslexic identities in online forum postings

This study presents a novel exploration into how people with dyslexia construct personal identities within anonymous, unsolicited, postings to an online discussion forum. An interpretational phenomenological analysis suggested three key identities: learning-disabled, differently-enabled and societally-disabled. These are discussed in terms of the extent to which they draw differentially on a discourse of disability as opposed to one of individual difference. The identities are to an extent malleable and overlapping according to context. Postings suggested overall that while some contributors constructed themselves as differently-enabled and celebrated dyslexia-related abilities, others sensed themselves having a disabled identity imposed upon them. Dyslexia is perceived as negatively construed within a society which promotes literacy and cognitive acuity as essential aspects of educational and social competence and where learning differences are poorly tolerated. In addition, this study highlights the potential of online forum contributions in the study of social influences in under-researched groups.     

孤独个体与向死而生——多元文化社会中《凡人》的身份认同

美国犹太裔作家菲利普·罗斯的《凡人》讲述了一个关于失去与孤独、疾病与死亡的故事。主人公作为一个犹太裔美国人,因其身份的特殊性与美国主流文化格格不入,显得格外孤独与痛苦,这种孤独个体的特性也贯穿了其一生。与此同时,在他的一生中无时无刻不在与疾病和死亡作斗争,体现了向死而生的特点,即在绝望中蕴含着希望。在美国多元文化社会中,主人公追寻的身份认同正是当代美国人普遍的生存状况,表现了普遍的生存困境。     

Homosexual Discretion and Good Taste: Two Rules That Govern Homosexual Sociability Space in Santiago de Chile

Homosexual sociability space in Santiago is not socially homogenous. Beyond non-heterosexual identities segmentation (gay, lesbian, queer, BDSM, etc.), the present article proposes a reflection observing certain social distinctions or differences that come into play to create a hierarchy among gay and lesbian individuals within that space. Using a qualitative approximation, we analyze the discourse of homosexual men and women about ways to display homosexuality in different places in the city, as well as some sociability practices used in homosexual venues. The resulting social hierarchy is understood through two central subjective rules: discretion and good taste, dynamic mechanisms that perpetuate the distance among groups within the same sociability space, and to some extent reproduce the city’s class structure. Given that material means to privatize and sophisticate homosexual expression are unequally distributed in Santiago, the resulting differentiated social networks end up configuring the visibility strategies of homosexual identity played out in the city in the last years.     

Overcoming Old in Age-Friendliness

In this article, we explore views on an age-friendly space in the Netherlands by analysing the responses of older individuals (N = 54) in focus groups and by examining the perspectives around an age-friendly zone in the Netherlands, Parkstad Limburg. We found that a central issue in the wishes for living at a later age are adjustments to envisioned physical limitations that come with the ageing process; this includes adjustments to ensure safety, accessibility and mobility, in order to facilitate older individuals' efforts to stay engaged with the world around them. In their wishes, the older participants constructed ideal dwelling places that closely resembled a senior home, but at the same time they rejected wishing to live in a place that was identified as a senior home. We explain this paradox by the representation of such a space as being for old people, i.e. needy older individuals, which was not how the older participants wished to be identified. We conclude that the conception of age-friendly environments will have to face the difficult challenge of overcoming the association with old age, while simultaneously taking into account adjustments that signify and relate to the ageing process and that seem inescapably tied to oldness.     

Identity Dilemmas: Toward a More Situated Understanding

When are identity dilemmas—when people possess identities that conflict with one another and both are potentially stigmatizing—most likely to occur? Are they the result of generic social processes? A review of some of the extant research on “identity work” suggests that historical “misalignments” of culture and stratification, which we refer to as “lag,” create the greatest potential for stigma and the reproduction of inequalities. Lag is exacerbated by complex, intersecting axes of hierarchy, and amplified as symbolic environments globalize and subcultures multiply. Articulating culture and structure reveals how power plays out in interaction, and highlights the omnipresence of struggles for treatment as “fully human.” We consider whether “alignment” is even possible when multiple dimensions of social location intertwine, compete, and collide. Following Schwalbe and Mason‐Schrock (1996), we argue that “subcultural” or collective identity work that brings new meanings into dominant cultural narratives may offer the greatest hope, but in the interim all coping strategies are costly.     

集体行动视角下的制度逻辑演化机制研究

通过对我国专车服务市场制度变革过程的纵向案例研究，探讨了组织场域中的集体行动如何推动制度逻辑演化的内在机制问题。研究发现：制度逻辑的演化过程主要经历了分离、冲突和共存三种状态，不同的制度逻辑的演化是由行动主体能动性策略和资源利用所构建的集体行动模式差异性驱动的。制度变革机会的涌现促使场域中的行动主体采用协调性的集体行动模式，促成了新制度逻辑的生成，并导致了新、旧两种制度逻辑的分离；在制度变革机会变得模糊的场域中，行动主体非协调的集体行动促使新、旧两种制度逻辑之间的激烈冲突；而在制度变革机会沉没的情境下，行动主体再协调性的集体行动最终促成了新、旧两种制度逻辑的共存。研究结论对我国当前复杂制度环境下新兴业态的发展以及传统业态的协同治理提供了重要的借鉴和启示。     

LGBTQ Women,Appearance Negotiations,and Workplace Dress Codes

The purpose of this study was to explore LGBTQ women’s experiences with unwritten or formal dress codes at work. I asked: What are LGBTQ women’s experiences in the workplace with appearance management, and what are LGBTQ women’s experiences navigating the written and unwritten dress codes in the workplace? To answer the research question, interviews were conducted with 24 self-identifying LGBTQ women. Six key themes emerged from the data. Themes included (1) expressed sexual identity in appearance, (2) unwritten dress codes in work environments did not always allow for expression of sexual identity in appearance, (3) motivations for pressure or desire to conceal expression of sexual identity in appearance at work, (4) negotiations of revealing or concealing sexual identity in appearance in the workplace impacted levels of comfort and confidence, (5) verbal and nonverbal negative experiences related to appearance at work, and (6) received compliments about appearance at work.