Assault on Self: Intimate Partner Abuse and the Contestation of Identity

The complexities of intimate partner abuse and violence have been studied from a range of theoretical, conceptual, and methodological perspectives. It is argued here that symbolic interactionist analyses offer specific and powerful insights into this particular interactional domain. This article is based on data generated by a topical life‐history case study of a well‐educated, middle‐class, middle‐aged man, whose wife subjected him to sustained unilateral violence and abuse, resulting in deleterious consequences for his health and well‐being. Data were gathered via a series of in‐depth interviews and a personal diary. The analysis draws on Goffman's conceptualization of “possessional territory” as one of the “territories of the self,” in order to examine the role of possessions in the interactional routines of intimate partner abuse.     

Social Cocoons: Encapsulation and Identity Transformation Organizations*

The transformation of personal identities is an implicit or explicit goal of many organizations, including “new” religious movements, self-help groups, “deprogramming” enterprises, rehabilitation programs, and others. This essay describes and accounts for one important structural feature of identity transformation organizations (ITOs): encapsulation. Three types of encapsulation are described–physical, social, and ideological–and reasons why different ITOs emphasize certain types of encapsulation rather than others are suggested. Finally, we discuss how the need for encapsulation may conflict with other organizational imperatives of ITOs and we discuss the implications of this organizational dilemma for the successful functioning of ITOs.     

Identity: Its Emergence within Sociological Psychology*

Identity is an oft used technical term in sociological social psychology. Yet, its rather recent emergence remains uncharted. Discussion of its origin in the post World War II period from the writings of Erikson leads to recognition of its rapid development in the 1960's and 1970's. Five theoretical sources are currently informing the development and use of the concept. Its continued strength is apparently in response to the need to interpret contemporary American society. By the 1980's, identity serves as a powerful bridging concept stretched across micro and macro levels of theory and reaching from laboratory analyses to cultural criticism.     

The Online Poker Sub-Culture: Dialogues, Interactions and Networks

This paper examines the distinct world of online poker. It outlines the online poker eco-system, and the players which inhabit it, their distinctive attitudes and behaviors towards the game and gambling. These unique patterns of behavior have been created and sustained by the interaction of players within online poker forums. Therefore online poker forums were identified as primary mechanism within which a poker sub-culture may exist. The study conducted an extensive netnography of online poker forums. The study found that within the online poker eco-system there are forums which are elevated to sacred status amongst this online poker sub-culture. The members of these forums enact sub-cultural characteristics such as ethos of collaboration/cooperation, and a competitive hierarchy of status. In particular this paper identifies the importance of identity generation, and communities within the online poker eco-system.     

Examining Identity Consolidation Processes Among Ethnic Minority Gay Men and Lesbians

Legal recourse is a vital avenue for many domestic violence victims. For lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people, these laws have historically been heterosexist. Considering the many states that are now inclusive of same-gender relationships, an existing data set was utilized to examine the influence of sociodemographic predictors on the perceptions of domestic violence law among LGB. Our findings illustrate that nonwhite LGB and those who have negative perceptions of law enforcement have the most negative perceptions of domestic violence legal protections as they apply to same-gender relationships. These findings have implications for service providers, advocacy and outreach organizations, and future research exploring the impact perceptions of legal avenues have on LGB victims.     

The CB Handle: An Announcement Of Adult Identity*

The CB handle is used as a means of exploring voluntary identity-making among adult CBers. While only an exploratory study, gender appeared to be the most deeply embedded adult identification. Other, apparently less deeply embedded, identities were found in occupation (white- versus blue-collar workers and truckers versus non-truckers). Sexual identifications seemed to have increased in importance with time, with ethnic identifications decreasing in importance. Finally, Turner's (1976) distinction between impulse and institutional anchoring of the real self was used to suggest that white-collar workers and new CBers had significantly more impulse-based handles than blue-collar workers and “old-timer” CBers.     

Elder Abuse and Child Abuse:

Elder abuse has been compared with other forms of intrafamilial violence. Despite obvious age and status differences, elder parents and young children exhibit similarities that make the linking of elder and child abuse compelling. However, difference in the nature of child-to-parent and parent-to-child relations and in the social and legal status of adulthood versus childhood argue against a too facile linking of the two problems. This paper suggests dimensions relevant to a comparison of intergenerational physical abuse of elder parents and young children.     

Parking Sign and Solidarity within Religious Groups: Social Identity Constructions in Nigeria*

This study offers an interpretation of driving signs used in interpersonal communication. Questionnaires were administered in a university setting to faculty members to assess the manner in which “parking” is used. Religious affiliations of the respondents are related to social identities, and the results suggest that religion serves as a direct influence on motorists who park off the road to communicate with other drivers. The findings further suggest that within the specific cultural milieu described, parking connotes respect for family members.     

Cycles of Social Problem Development: The Case of Drug Abuse*

The genesis and course of a social problem results from the interplay of political and historical forces. This paper formulates a cyclical model of social problem development in which the history of drug abuse as a social problem is a function of the political processes which shape its course. The developmental cycle comprises five stages, with the fifth stage initiating a new cycle through the stages. Political struggles at each stage over the choice of definition and remedy are analyzed to explicate how the outcomes of earlier struggles become historical contingencies for subsequent stages. Institutionalized remedial approaches become entrenched and may not be superseded by subsequent approaches, leading to an accretion of institutional forms. Current drug abuse policy and programs, a patchwork accumulation of conflicting approaches instituted during different historical eras, exemplify this phenomenon.     

Preadolescent Clique Stratification and the Hierarchy of Identity*

This article focuses on one of the most critical features of elementary school students' social lives: their peer friendship groups. Within each grade, and separated by gender, a hierarchy of friendship groups is stratified according to the dimension of status and popularity. This ranges from the popular clique at the top, to the wannabes who hang around the popular people's periphery seeking access, to the individuals forming smaller middle-level friendship circles, to the social isolates at the bottom. Membership at each of these ranks carries with it a distinct experience in terms of power and domination, intra-group stratification, type of leadership, and friendship relations, leading to a further stratification by group into a hierarchy of identity. We conclude by examining the basis for preadolescents' identity formation, augmenting previous models of identity and social position that rely exclusively on status with the addition of interactional and relational factors. This structural-relational model bridges the structural and processual symbolic interactionist models of identity, linking them at a Simmelian level of analysis.     

Suspended Identity: Identity Transformation in a Maximum Security Prison

This article presents an empirically-grounded model of identity transformation that differs both from the gradual transformation processes that characterize most adult identity changes and from such radical transformation processes as brainwashing or conversion. Data for the study are derived from participant observation and focused interviews with first-time, short-term inmates at a maximum security prison. By attempting to suspend their preprison identities and constructing inauthentic prison identities through impression management, these inmates are able to forestall more radical identity change and to maintain a general sense of identity continuity for most of their prison careers.     

Psychological,Cultural and Family Factors in Incest and Family Sexual Abuse*

This paper reviews clinical experience and research evidence about father-daughter incest and family sexual abuse and suggests six factors important in its etiology: 1) the personal characteristics of the offender, 2) the role of the mother, 3) a milieu of abandonment, 4) subcultural isolation, 5) poor family sexual boundaries, and 6) opportunity factors.     

Elder Abuse in a Forming Society:

No abstract available for this article.     

Crafting the Collective Identity: The Origin and Transformation of Taiwanese Nationalism*

Abstract This essay starts with the observation that the common perspective on third world nationalism, which emphasizes the centrality of West/non-West tensions, is inadequate in explaining the development of specific nationalist discourses in the third world. As an attempt to come closer to a good understanding of the specific situations of third world nationalism, it engages in a case study of post-war Taiwan, whose nationalist discourse had gone through three phases: Political Nationalism, Rational Nationalism, and Identity Nationalism. How and why these different phases developed constitutes my overarching question. Noting the importance of social relationships and the specificity of contextual constraints in the life of a nationalist movement, I develop a perspective which stresses relationality and contingency. This newperspective leads to the recognition of the centrality of the relationships among the ruling party (the KMT), Taiwanese nationalists, social groups in Taiwan, and the dominant regimes in the world system in understanding the transformation of the Taiwanese nationalist discourse. This study points to the multiplicity of domination and contention, the reflection upon which reveals that particular groups, such as the bourgeoisie, are likely to occupy contradictory positions in the nationalist struggle, and that such contradictions may amount to transformative forces.