Migrant identities: Personal memory and the construction of selfhood

Gayatri Chakravotry Spivak’s A Critique of Postcolonial Reason explicitly asks the reader to examine the limits of its argumentative structure. Just as Spivak has recently argued that the form of Jamaica Kincaid’s novel Lucy is paratactic (a way of using language that withholds connections and conjunctions), Spivak’s own A Critique of Postcolonial Reason is carefully constructed to force the reader to supply links between the sections of the text. In this sense, Spivak achieves a poetic effect, one that is not unrelated to the contemporary paratactic prose poetry of Harryette Mullen. The formal parataxis of Spivak’s work also serves to reflect an argument in A Critique of Postcolonial Reason about the difficulty of forging solidarity among disparate migrant and racialized groups in the Western metropolis.     

Resistance to dominant narratives and the construction of identity legitimacy: counterstories of Chinese migrant workers with pneumoconiosis

This study is focused on the pneumoconiosis workers’ illness narratives in Bashan Town in Chongqing. In-depth interviews were used to gather their illness narratives, and a “counterstory” framework was adopted for the critical analysis of the resistance of these texts to the dominant discourse. The results showed that these pneumoconiosis counterstories to be legitimacy narratives that sought four types of legitimacy: medical, suffering, moral, and public. Three opposing identity relations were explored in these narratives: qualified vs unrecognized pneumoconiosis patients, bearers of great suffering vs complainers without cause and neglected within the pneumoconiosis group vs Invisible pneumoconiosis. These identity relations strengthened the pneumoconiosis workers’ confrontation with the illegitimacy of the main social narrative, and they were used in the attempt to construct a legitimized self-identity. The study also identified three narrative strategies used to resist the oppressive dominant narrative, they are revelation, refusal and contestation. Finally, the author proposed that these counterstories consisted a weapon for the weak to voice their legitimacy concerns and offered recommendations for the prevention and treatment of pneumoconiosis.     

Respect,equality, and power: A social psychological perspective

In this article I outline a principled social psychological approach to respect. As a first definitional approximation, I suggest that respect for someone involves the willingness to include that person as a factor in the psychological equation underlying self-regulation. I then review and discuss the fairly recent, but thriving, career of the notion of respect in social psychological research, with particular emphasis on intragroup respect. Next, I turn to conceptual specification and purification necessary for a principled approach to respect and discuss promising efforts to identify the critical social psychological principle or active ingredient of respect. In particular, I make out a case for an equality-based conception of respect in which recognition as an equal plays a central role. The final section examines further theoretical and practical implications of this conception including its relation and relevance to issues of social power. Bernd Simon (Dipl.-Psych., Dr. habil.) is Professor of Social Psychology and Evaluation Research and one of the Directors of the Institute of Psychology at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel (Germany). He studied psychology, sociology and philosophy at the University of Münster (Germany) and the University of Kent at Canterbury (England). In his research, Bernd Simon investigates inter-and intragroup processes, with particular emphasis on issues of identity, power, politicization and respect. He is author/co-author of a number of research articles in international journals and books, including Identity in Modern Society (Blackwell Publishing).     

Trust,uncertainty and identity in health-related decision-making: the role of key professionals

There is a growing literature examining the way service users make choices in the context of complex and frequently changing forms of welfare provision and increasingly personalised services in England. Despite criticisms of the individualistic, consumerist assumptions underpinning these policies, little is known about the relational contexts of individuals’ lives and the role of professional support in choice-making. Drawing on interviews with ‘key professionals’, identified by service users as having played a crucial role in recent important choices, this paper explores how these choices are made with the support of those who are trusted to provide assistance. Placing ‘key professionals’ at the centre of the analysis, the distinct experiences of people with fluctuating and sudden-onset health conditions are examined. The analysis highlights the particular value of relationships that pay close attention to transitional health identities and the co-production of health-related decisions.     

Persistence and desistance in heavy cannabis use: the role of identity,agency, and life events

Many cannabis users ‘mature out’ of their drug use, and factors of cannabis use cessation have been identified. However, very little in-depth knowledge is available about the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. Criminological studies have gained interesting insights in desistance from crime, yet these perspectives are rarely used in drug research. This qualitative, three-year longitudinal study explored the processes involved in desistance from frequent cannabis use for young adults. Using a narrative approach, desisters (frequent users who successfully quit their cannabis use) and persisters (frequent users with a persistent desire and unsuccessful attempts to quit) were compared. In the course of the study, desisters mainly exhibited increasing agency and goal setting, established strategies to achieve these goals, and could envision another self. Desistance was generally induced by life events that became turning points. Persisters experienced largely similar events, but lacked goals and strategies and held external factors responsible for their life course and failed quit attempts. Identity change is at the core of desistance from frequent cannabis use, and the meaning-giving to life events and experiences is essential. Agency is a necessary ingredient for desistance, develops over time and through action, and leads to a new drug-free identity with desistance in turn increasing agency.     

Video and the diasporic imagination of selfhood: A case study of the croatians in Australia

Abstract

This article is concerned with the role and effects of video on cultural technology in the Croatian diaspora in Australia in the light of the war in former Yugoslavia. It reveals the fragility of the cultural boundaries both of Australian multiculturalism and of the emerging postmodern culture of hybridity, which favour symbolic ethnicity as a form of ethnic identity. It also traces the gradual and often nervous formation and reinvention of Croatian cultural (diasporic) identity which has, with the inception of war, turned into fully fledged diasporic nationalism.     

Prosodic cues of identity construction: Intensity in Greek young women's conversational narratives1

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.     

Mythscapes: memory,mythology, and national identity

In this paper I seek to challenge the dominant modes of conceiving the relationship between memory and national identity, and in so doing offer analysts of nationalism an improved understanding of the dynamics of national identity formation. The concept of collective memory is invoked regularly in attempts to explain the pervasiveness and power of nationalism. I argue that the concept is misused routinely in this context, and instead I employ a 'social agency' approach to theorizing, whereby memory is conceived in a more limited and cogent manner. I argue that it is important to distinguish clearly between memory and mythology, both of which are essential to understanding national identity, for not only are the two concepts distinct, they can also act in opposition to each other. Following from this I introduce the notion of a 'mythscape', the temporally and spatially extended discursive realm in which the myths of the nation are forged, transmitted, negotiated, and reconstructed constantly. Through employing the idea of a mythscape we can relate memory and mythology to each other in a theoretically profitable way.     

Youth cultures and the rest of life: subcultures,post-subcultures and beyond

Recent debate on the conceptualisation of youth cultures has been characterised as an irreconcilable stalemate between materialist defenders of a version of subcultural theory derived from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) and post-subcultural theorists who favour more individualised understandings. This article suggests that, beneath this facade lies a more complex and reconcilable debate and that it may be time to move beyond the polarising presence of the CCCS as primary reference point for the discussion. Turning to substance, I go on to examine how enduring areas of disagreement within the debate can be resolved, establishing ways forward with respect to the interplay between spectacular groupings and individual pathways and the contextualisation of youth cultures, including with respect to material and structural factors. I advocate greater emphasis on the study of collective youth cultures as part of broader biographies as a way forward that can draw together these substantive strands and bring together insight from across the subcultures/post-subcultures debate.     

Karen cultural capital and the political economy of symbolic power

For the Karen of northern Thailand, constructing the image of Karen as forest guardians and conservationists has produced an instrument of struggle against the official hegemonic discourse. This image construction is the accumulation of cultural capital and its transformation into symbolic power. The Karen cultural producers promote this strategy by investing their local knowledge and cultural resources into political action and alliances that reinforce their identification as ‘children of the forest’, in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. Through image construction, the largely negative identities embodied in ‘Karen’ and their communities—as denigrated ‘hill‐tribes’, forest‐destroyers and illiterate peasants—are transformed into a single social and political category defined as the ‘indigenous’ forest managers.     

Fabric that weaves stories: Pua kumbu and contemporary Iban identity construction in Sarawak,Malaysia

This article examines the process of identity construction among the Iban indigenous people of Sarawak in Malaysia through pua kumbu – their sacred and ritual cloth. Although the Ibans are popularly known for their headhunting practices and longhouse dwellings, these cultural practices are in major decline and therefore pua kumbu is brought to the forefront as a significant means of identity construction. By illustrating the meanings, narratives, and ceremonies associated with pua kumbu, this article demonstrates that pua kumbu is not just a piece of sacred or ritual cloth; rather, it has significant meanings in the everyday life of the Ibans. It connects the Ibans with distinctly eternal meanings of their life and cosmology, past histories, and their connections to the physical environment. It thus helps the process of maintaining a boundary and identity construction of the Ibans by distinguishing between ‘us and them’ – the Ibans and others.     

Identity,selfhood and dementia: messages for social work

Dementia has been identified as a policy priority area for the European Union (EU). Given projected figures on the global increase in dementia over the next few decades, working with people with dementia is likely to become an even more prominent area of activity for social workers in older people's services. Recent research has begun to engage with the subjective experiences of people with dementia and there is considerable focus within nursing literature on their active efforts to maintain identity and selfhood. However, these issues have received little attention within the domain of social work. This paper reviews recent research on the subjective experiences of people with dementia and discusses the implications for social work in relation to: early intervention; communication and assessment, and support arrangements. Based on experience in England, it is argued that the current policy and practice context constrains social work's ability to respond to these issues and that a supportive organisational context, as well as high levels of skill, time and commitment, are required if concepts of personhood and citizenship are to have meaning in practice.     

Safaris into Subjectivity: White Locals,Black Tourists,and the Politics of Belonging in the Okavango Delta,Botswana

The elite safari lodges in Botswana's Okavango Delta provide an intriguing site through which to explore processes of identity construction, as people from vastly different backgrounds meet and explore ontological possibilities through and against each other. Drawing on a dinner table dispute between an African American tourist and his white Motswana guide, I explore contested notions of what constitutes African identities. The encounter shows that colonial histories and the racialization of space continue to be central to African identity politics, and I describe how white citizens' claims to belonging are challenged on these grounds. In response to such challenges, white Batswana assert a strongly nationalistic identity, distancing themselves from other southern African white populations and their colonial histories. They staunchly defend their claims to belonging through mobilising a partial view of Botswana's history and contemporary sociopolitical conditions, which has made possible a deep sense of emplacement within the social and natural environments of the Okavango.     

The discourse of powerlessness and repression: Identity construction in domestic helper narratives1

This article analyses domestic helper narratives focusing on identity construction in diaspora. It reports on an ongoing research project in a church shelter in Hong Kong where foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) seek help when they have been abused. Many of the stories told by FDHs are trauma narratives about physical assault, starvation, underpayment, and exploitation, and the article explores how narratives may be used as a means for identity construction, but also as a site for empowering FDHs to re‐author their stories and become agents in their own lives. The analyses show how linguistic resources are used to index different identities. They also show that FDHs have to accept forced identities and fight for their right to re‐author their own life stories. Finally, the article provides examples of private and public discourses about FDHs in Hong Kong and suggests that ideologies of moral exclusion, or the local codes of argument, serve to legitimise their dehumanisation. 本文分析散居香港的外籍家庭傭工有關身份建構的敘事話語。本文資料取自一個尚在進行中的研究項目。該項目的受訪者為棲身教會收容所尋求幫助的受虐外傭。項目所收集的訪問內容許多為創傷敘事,涉及身體傷害、飢餓、薪酬不足和剝削。除了探討創傷敘事如何用作身份建構的手段,本文還將探討這些敘事如何賦與受虐外傭話語權,讓她們重敘故事,主宰自己的生活。本文的分析將展現 語言資源如何成為標示不同身份的工具,並將說明：外傭被迫接受強加的身份,並為獲得重敘自己故事的權利而鬥爭。文章提供了關涉香港外傭的個人和公眾話語實例,並認為,道德排外的意識形態或本地輿論準則,對外傭所受非人道待遇的合理化發生了作用。[Chinese]     

Sociolinguistic interaction and identity construction: The view from game‐theoretic pragmatics

Understanding the dynamics that characterize interaction between conversational participants is a fundamental goal of most theories of socially conditioned language use and identity construction through language. In this paper, I outline a class of formal tools that, I suggest, can be helpful in making progress towards this goal. More precisely, this paper explores how Bayesian signalling game models can be used to formalize key aspects of current sociolinguistic theories, and, in doing so, contribute to our knowledge of how speakers use their linguistic resources to communicate information and carve out their place in the social world. The Bayesian framework has become increasingly popular for the analysis of pragmatic phenomena of many different types, and, more generally, these models have become a dominant paradigm for the explanation of non‐linguistic cognitive processes. As such, I argue that this approach has the potential to yield a formalized theory of personal and social identity construction and to situate the study of sociolinguistic interaction within a broader theory of rationalistic cognition.     

Reflections on diaspora and soft power: community building among female US expats in Southern Europe

ABSTRACT

Illuminated by life stories of American women in Italy and Greece, our work examines a complex relationship between expatriate collectivity and soft power agency. The data were collected from in-depth interviews with 60 US nationals who live in Italy and Greece. Our findings show that these women shape as a strong diasporic collectivity through activities of ecological civic engagement, which, however, do not result in a successful exercise of soft power. The isolationist nature of their collectivity causes a number of diasporic mistakes and turns their chosen community project into a weak resource for soft power, a translation of which remains highly problematic. The basic mistakes that such expats make while exercising soft power are misunderstanding of the notions of community and its main building tool (civic engagement) as well as overall inability to learn the new culture quickly.     

Untangling the tolerance of socioeconomic inequality: Comparing Japan,the United States,South Korea,and the People's Republic of China

The last three decades have witnessed major institutional and structural transformations across both economically developed and developing countries. While many individuals and groups have benefited from these changes, they have simultaneously resulted in growing disparities between the haves and have-nots. The growing socioeconomic inequalities, however, have not been met with significant resistance and it has been even observed that people have become more tolerant of inequalities. This article explores the motivations behind tolerating socioeconomic inequality, and investigates how the tolerance of socioeconomic inequality has changed over the past 25 years, while also comparing it across very distinctive political and socioeconomic regimes. This study overcomes a gap in research by employing longitudinal, cross-sectional survey data to analyze temporal change in attitudes towards inequality. Fixed effects models are applied on five waves of World Values Survey data (1994–2020) on four distinctly different post-industrial countries: Japan, the People's Republic of China, South Korea, and the United States. The paper argues that, on an individual level, there is a tendency to accept inequality normalizing narratives and defend one's own self-interest, derived from one's structural position. This accounts for a considerable part of the variation in tolerance for socioeconomic inequality across these nations. The article concludes that trends in tolerating socioeconomic inequality have over time become more similar across these four countries with distinctly different political–economic regimes.     

Social marking and the mental coloring of identity: Sexual identity construction and maintenance in the United States

This article theoretically develops the concepts of social markingand mental coloringas processes in assigning and maintaining other-defined sexual identities in the United States. While most studies of sexual identity focus exclusively on sexual orientation as the foundation for identity construction, I demonstrate that contemporary sexual identities are formed along six hierarchically arranged dimensions represented as continuums. These dimensions include (1) quantity of sex, (2) timing of sex, (3) level of perceived enjoyment, (4) degree of consent, (5) orientation, and (6) social value of agents. Along these dimensions, the social marking process is used to construct discrete identities at each extreme. Social marking is a rigid, asymmetrical classification process that accents one side of a contrast as unnatural, thereby tacitly naturalizing the unmarked side. Mental coloring intensifies the rigid contrast by figuratively painting all members of the marked category under a single stereotypical image. I introduce two ideal-typical classification conventions for assigning marked identities: the mental one-drop ruleand the mental entire-ocean rule.These conventions maintain the rigidity of the marking process by preventing identity categories from overlapping. I conclude that the cognitive sociological processes outlined in this article are generalizable to the broader study of identity constructions. Ultimately the social marking of identity legitimates unequal treatment of marked categories by creating the illusion that they are less natural than the unmarked. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Eastern Sociological Society's annual meeting, Philadelphia, PA, March 1995.