The research pendulum: multiple roles and responsibilities as a researcher

Qualitative research on sexual identities has highlighted the use of oral narratives to understand the lives of lesbians and gay men. Feminist ethnographers, sociologists and queer theorists have further posed methodological inquiries to the issues of insider/outsider, the possibilities of an erotic subject and the matter of representation. Using interview data with Hong Kong lesbians, this paper discusses a researcher's multiple positionalities and its effects on both the researched and the researcher. Being self-reflexive requires a researcher to test her or his own boundaries and to take up social responsibilities as the interpreter of texts. This paper calls for further dialogue between a researcher's subject positions, research processes and the final presentation of findings. doi:10.1300/J155v10n03_02.     

Constructing border ethnic identities along the frontier of Central and Eastern Europe

The analysis is based on an empirical sociological study (interplay of European, National and Regional Identities: nations between states along the new eastern borders of the European Union Project) aimed at exploring the various aspects of people’s diaspora affiliations and their ethnic and national identity on the Eastern borderland of Europe. We surveyed ethnic minority groups in eight countries along the frontier of Central Eastern Europe. With the ethnic minorities having a similar ethnic status along the border, we demonstrated how ethnic minorities ‘deal’ with their minority status in their ‘host’ country. The analysis reconstructs the image of the ethnic minority at the societal level. We model personal and collective ethnic identities as a stock of knowledge based on cognitive and affective components, and test them along the different ethnic dyads. The paper shows how successive generations are able to transfer the pattern of ethnic identity within the family, and also how language use practices and personal networks play a role in preserving personal ethnic identity.     

Positioning,strategizing, and charming: how students with autism construct identities in relation to disability

Contrary to views that young people with the label of autism are incapable of engaging in collective cultural practice, this article examines how they construct identities through social interactions to belong, compete, and participate. In a multi-sited ethnography of high school students with disabilities, we focused on two students as they move across contexts of school, debate team, and home. Over two years of interviews and participant observation, these students demonstrated nuanced efforts to distance themselves from the ‘autistic’ label. These acts of positioning illuminated how they negotiate identities with the knowledge their interactions shape how people perceive their participation in different contexts. By following them across informal and formal environments, we could see how they transition across multiple social worlds and appreciate the combined power these contexts have on youth identity.     

‘The Tortoise under the couch’: an African woman’s reflections on negotiating insider- outsider positionalities and issues of serendipity on conducting a qualitative research project in Cape Town,South Africa§

Issues of positionality of Black African researchers researching African issues is seldom discussed in methodological literature. In this article, I reflect from an African perspective on issues of insider/outsider positionalities and of serendipity and unexpectedness during my fieldwork which are areas often dominated by writing from the global north and by writers and researchers who do not identify as African people of color and hope that my article will contribute to fill this gap. I share my background, identity, gender and age, and how these might have influenced my approach and interpretation during the process. My qualitative study explored perspectives and subjective experiences of Xhosa speaking adults with epilepsy and their carers in an urban Black township in Cape Town, South Africa. I conclude with the tortoise metaphor to show the cultural relevance thereof, the importance of curiosity and of embracing events of unexpectedness in fieldwork.     

Reflections on conducting research on the ‘war on terror’: religious identity,subjectivity and emotions

In recent years there has been an increase in literature which has explored the insider/outsider position through ethnic identities. However, there remains a neglect of religious identities, even though it could be argued that religious identities have become increasingly important through being prominent in international issues such as the ‘war on terror’ and the Middle East conflict. Through drawing on the concept of subjectivity, I reflect on research I conducted on the impact of the ‘war on terror’ on British Muslims. I explore the space between the insider/outsider position demonstrating how my various subjectivities – the ‘non-Islamic appearance I’, the ‘Muslim I’, the ‘personal I’, the ‘exploring I’, the ‘Kashmiri I’ or the ‘Pakistani I’, the ‘status I’ and the ‘outsider I’ – assisted in establishing trust, openness and commonality. I conclude by demonstrating how the ‘emotional I’ allowed me to manage my own emotions and participants emotions.     

The negotiation of minority ethnic identities in virtually all-white communities: research with children and their families in the South Wales valleys

This paper draws on qualitative interviews with 19 children and nine of their parents or carers in the South Wales valleys to discuss the effect on the social identities of minority ethnic children of living in virtually all-white communities. There is discussion of minority ethnic identities, local identities and Welshness, and the paper concludes with consideration of the theoretical and policy implications of the research. Interviews with the children showed them to be using a variety of creative strategies to negotiate their identities in a challenging and highly racialised context. Diverse individual histories and family relationships interact with available minority cultural identities and local and national cultural influences. The children have to construct their own identities in the context of dominant discourses of ‘Wales’ and ‘Welshness’ and also class-based notions of what it means to come from this particular region. Some maintain minority ethnic identities with pride and for others the maintenance of a minority ethnic identity is put under extreme pressure.     

Body,dress and cultural exclusion: Experiences of Pakistani women in ‘global’ Hong Kong

Underneath a veneer of racial harmony and acceptance, racial discrimination is widespread at many different levels of life in Hong Kong, the so-called ‘global city’. For decades, some minority communities have lived with subtle but institutionalized and cultural discrimination permeating their existence. In recent years, social exclusion has been one of the important themes in policy debates in Hong Kong. It is increasingly recognized that there is a close relation between ‘ethnicity’ and ‘social exclusion’. According to our research on the life situation of the South Asian minority in Hong Kong, experiences of exclusion are common. This paper focuses on investigating dress as a form of cultural exclusion among Pakistani women in Hong Kong and how mainstream society constrains the bodies of its members through dress.     

Negotiating identities: the lives of Pakistani and Bangladeshi young disabled people

Research has generally amalgamated minority ethnic (all called 'Asian' or 'black') disabled young people's experiences and failed to acknowledge the multiple aspects of Asian and black disabled identities, for example how the combined attributes of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, culture, class and disability shape their perspectives and experiences. In an attempt to address this issue my doctoral research explored the experiences and perspectives of 13 young Pakistani and Bangladeshi disabled people. By drawing on the substantive and theoretical findings which emerged from my analysis in this paper I shall consider how multiple aspects of identity, such as ethnicity, disability and gender, affect this population's identity and self-image and how this makes their experiences different from white disabled young people and other minority groups' experiences.     

The post-80s generation: exploring the attitudes toward family and housing

ABSTRACT

Previous literature has paid attention to housing pathways and cohort features of young people, but studies connecting the two themes are lacking. This paper offers a perspective on the cohort analysis of young people based on their housing choices and aspirations. With empirical evidence from a two-round social survey, this study explores the ‘not leaving home’ pattern of the housing choices of young people in Hong Kong. With some supplementary subgroup analysis, the cohort label of a ‘post-80s generation’ in Hong Kong is challenged. Contradictions are revealed in the views of our young people about housing and family life, and further analysis is conducted to examine the impacts of economic and sociocultural factors in the local context of Hong Kong. This study argues that we need to look beyond the shared features and subgroup differences and consider how sociocultural factors, particularly gender, marriage, education, and social norms, interact with economic factors to shape housing choices, aspirations and apparent contradictions in the viewpoints of young people regarding their personal development and housing futures. In doing so, the paper also engages with debates around intra and intergenerational dynamics and inequalities. The paper focuses on Hong Kong but these debates have international resonance.     

Hidden boundaries and shared meanings: the roles of researcher characteristics and cultural norms in shaping understandings of sexuality in the unstructured interview setting

This paper examines the role of the research process in shaping the construction of knowledge about sensitive topics in in-depth interviews particularly with regard to researcher identity and cultural influences or norms. We argue that these influences shape all aspects of the research process and that researchers will benefit from reflecting upon them when planning, undertaking and interpreting qualitative studies. Drawing on an empirical study interviewing Australian women aged 55 years and older about sexuality we address differences and similarities between researchers and participants; cultural constructions of sexuality and ageing, and generational influences. Using examples from our interview data we interrogate the contribution of each of these aspects to the interview dynamic and the co-production of meaning. Our analysis draws attention to the fluidity of insider and outsider status and to the existence of hidden boundaries that impact on how certain topics can be discussed in interviews. The paper argues that knowledge about sensitive topics such as older people’s sexuality must be viewed as a situated occurrence shaped by the particularities of the interview and the cultural context. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for qualitative inquiries into sensitive topics.     

Creation of culturally responsive classrooms: teachers’ conceptualization of a new rationale for cultural responsiveness and management of diversity in Hong Kong secondary schools

Presently, there are a growing number of ethnic minority students in Hong Kong schools. This article examines teachers’ views of the cross-cultural experience of ethnic minority students, their influence on the performance of these students, and how the diverse learning needs of these students are being addressed. Qualitative data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 32 teachers from three secondary schools. This study shows that teachers struggle to conceptualize a new rationale for responding to cultural diversity. They develop a sense of intercultural sensitivity, promote cultural responsiveness to diversity, and strengthen the home–school connection. This article argues that, like students, teachers simultaneously engage in a cross-cultural process through which they learn the culture of ethnic minority students, relearn their own culture and reexamine the relevant rationale underlying cultural responsiveness. Finally, a framework for the creation of culturally responsive classrooms, based upon the teachers’ new rationale of cultural responsiveness, is proposed.     

Diasporic youth culture of K-pop

This study examines how diasporic Korean youth engage with the recent global circulation of South Korean pop music (‘K-pop’). It explores how young diasporic Koreans negotiate K-pop as an ethnic and/or global cultural form in their transition to adulthood. Drawing on interviews with young people of Korean heritage in Canada, the study addresses how a diasporic sound, which connects the nostalgia for the ancestral homeland and the global mediascape, is appropriated for young people’s identity work. By examining diasporic Korean fans’ consumption of K-pop, this study suggests a perspective for understanding the recent K-pop phenomenon as a diasporic youth cultural practice.     

Outsiders in the union: organizing,consent, and union recognition campaigns

Although outsiders have played an important role in social protest in the U.S., outsiders’ role in the U.S. labor movement has been the focus of spirited debate. Debate about outsider organizers, in particular, reached a fevered pitch in the late 1990s, and continues today. This paper scrutinizes two of the core assumptions of this debate: that insider and outsider organizers operate differently on union recognition campaigns, and that workers respond to them differently in these settings. We analyzed 153 in-depth interviews with workers and organizers conducted at the height of the debate, in order to answer two questions: What is the role of outsider organizers during private sector union recognition campaigns, and how do outsider organizers secure workers’ consent in these settings? All of the organizers in our data-set were graduates of the AFL-CIO’s Organizing Institute, and 64 of them were outsiders. The outsider organizers in our data-set confronted barriers that insider organizers did not, including workers’ concerns about their youth, inexperience and lack of professionalism, and their own inability to relate to workers. While many critics of outsider organizers claim that these barriers are insurmountable, we found the opposite to be true. The vast majority of outsider organizers in our data-set successfully secured workers’ consent by demonstrating commitment, building relationships, and being honest and forthright. After proposing changes in organizer training and leadership development in response to these findings, we conclude with a brief discussion of the enduring debate about outsiders’ role in social protest in the U.S.     

Oppositional consciousness,cultural preservation,and everyday resistance on the Uyghur Internet

The Internet has potential as a tool for propagation of minority cultures and identities. As China is a multi-ethnic, multilingual society, people of varying cultural backgrounds and across the Chinese diaspora may be found participating in Chinese language sites. However, little attention has been paid to the separate online activity among any of China’s 55 officially recognized ethnic minority groups, such as the Uyghurs, especially in their native languages. In this paper, we consider in what ways digital media such as interactive online community forums (UY: munbar) may be used by one ethnic group, Uyghurs, as a means of mobilizing their community to preserve their culture and support their community. As the majority ethnic group within a region of China noted as among China’s most politically sensitive, Uyghur use of computer-mediated communication provides a rich source of study.     

Parent–child relationships,friendship networks,and developmental outcomes of economically disadvantaged youth in Hong Kong

This research investigates factors conducive to the thriving of economically disadvantaged young people in Hong Kong. In particular, we examine ways in which the parent–child relationship and friendship networks, as the principal sources of support during the transition from childhood to adulthood, influence the developmental outcomes of this group of young people with regard to their mental health, positive identity, behavioral adjustment, resilience and academic achievement. Based on a survey of 479 young people recruited from community-based youth-service centers located in different districts of Hong Kong, the results of the present research support the hypotheses that parent–child relationships and friendship networks have significant positive effects on youth development among low-income young people. Our results also show that, when compared with friendship networks, the parent–child relationship is a stronger predictor of youth development, that is, a stronger parent–child relationship tends to correspond to a better developmental outcome. Moreover, our research provides empirical evidence regarding the influence that parents can have on shaping the quality of young people's friendship networks. The implications of our findings, both for future research and for service delivery to promote the well-being of economically disadvantaged young people, are discussed.     

Becoming metal: narrative reflections on the early formation and embodiment of heavy metal identities

Heavy metal music has long been researched as a risk factor for youth development. Over the last decade, however, there has been a significant shift towards studies that are more sympathetic to metal fans, but still we know very little about young people’s pathways to forming metal identities. What is the allure of metal as an identity choice? What can be gained from the early embodiment of metal identities? To explore these questions, this paper reports on findings from qualitative research with metal youth in Australia that captured rich, narrative reflections on ‘becoming’ metal. The results show that metal was vitally important when participants felt vulnerable to bullying and exclusion by popular peers at school. But crucially, the young ‘metalheads’ were able to disrupt power relations at school by embodying ‘chosen’ heavy metal identities as a strategic response for countering ‘unchosen’ marginal school-based identities. The politically transformative properties of subculture at the level of the individual are revealed through ways that the metal youth, as self-described outsiders, were able to act alone to challenge dominant school norms and enter into social relationships on their own terms, protecting themselves from social threats to their mental health and well-being in the process.     

Incorporating Struggles with Racism and Ethnic Identity in Therapy with Adolescents

Ethnic and racial minority adolescents enter therapy with the behavioral, emotional, social, familial, and educational problems common to clinical practice. However, therapy with these youth necessitates attention to the effects of racial discrimination on their psychological functioning and to matters of how their ethnic or racial identities are integrated. Of the myriad issues that become part of therapy with minority adolescents, the profound effects of racism and the process of ethnoracial identity development can be seen in adolescents' sense of self and behavior. Experiences with racism and with their own ethnic reference group and others may have led to distortions and partial understanding of their identities that may affect adaptation and functioning. In this paper, the author draws from experiences in clinical practice with minority youth to highlight issues of racism and ethnic identity emergent in treatment. Three cases illustrate discussions of struggles with racism and ethnic identity as they emerged in therapy. In each case, the struggles were made salient by the therapist's purposeful eliciting of them to clarify issues of transference, family relations, peer group relations, and achievement.     

“I don't like to live nowhere but here”: The shelter as mediator of U.S. homeless youth's identity formation

Identity formation, from a sociocultural perspective, involves people choosing from among the variety of historical and cultural resources available to them for living their values, making a commitment to a particular life course, and grounding their hope in the future. Researchers in the past have argued that homeless shelters provide few such resources for children and youth to form healthy identities. At the same time, these researchers have not examined how young people themselves make sense of the shelters in which they live in the course of their own development. This article examines how children living in two small family shelters in a large southeastern city understand the shelter as a place they call home in relation to their families, friends, and themselves. Implications for the study of identity formation of homeless children and youth are discussed.     

WHAT MAKES THE LOCAL? A BRIEF CONSIDERATION OF THE REJUVENATION OF HONG KONG IDENTITY

This paper ascertains what makes the local and why the local is important, in the context of change in Hong Kong due to the political transition to PRC sovereignty.In doing so, I hope to pose a modest polemical challenge to cultural studies' tendency to overlook seemingly simplistic empirical information. The return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 has led to a contraction of the political sphere, as the convergence of political structures curbed the development of local identities. The label or category ‘Hong Kong people’ was then appropriated with a specific meaning for the local to resist encroachment of the national. It was true that the high intensity of dominant national discourses during the political transition created a favourable atmosphere for re-nationalization. However, as soon as the political transition was over, Hong Kongers re-adhered to their own label in their struggle for cultural autonomy.Their strong cultural affect toward various national icons during the transition quickly diminished. This multiyear discourse study (1996–1998), which utilizes social scientific methods in conjunction with cultural theories, illustrates important political and methodological impulses necessary for the formulation of a socio-political approach to cultural studies within the Hong Kong context.