Constructing the ‘typical American’: An exploration into boundary making and breaking among American exchange students in Amsterdam (original) (raw)
Related papers
Social identities, societal change and mental borders
Human Affairs, 2011
In this paper we investigate the relations between cross-border mobility, national categorization and intergroup relations in a changing Europe. It focuses on young adults (N=34) commuting on a regular basis between the city of Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) and the city of Vienna (the capital of Austria). Our study draws on the social identity perspective, however, we consider social identity as a discourse of (not) belonging, similarity and difference, which is continually (re)negotiated within a given social context. Semi-structured qualitative interviews, focus groups and drawings of the border area were used as research instruments. We have identified different types of experience in various subgroups of participants framed by (1) age at the time of arrival in Austria; (2) different mobility motivations and goals; (3) interaction setting; (4) the political and economic situation in Slovakia at the time of arrival to Austria linked to perceived status differences. On the individual level, the motivation to integrate or its lack seems to be a crucial element in the ingroup construction and perception of intergroup relations.
Identity construction among boundary-crossing individuals
Scandinavian Journal of Management, 2001
In this article we describe a study of boundary-crossing individuals (individuals who change organisation frequently) and the way they construct identities through interaction and self-reflexion. It is argued from a social constructionist perspective that studies of the way individual identities are constructed are important to our understanding of the complexity of the identity phenomenon. Identities cannot simply be reduced to
Social Identities, 2020
This article is about self-defined social identities, other people's perceptions of us and the potentially conflictual relationship between these two. Building on a Barthian focus on group boundaries, the article takes the interplay between external categorizations and internal group definitions as its point of departure to examine how individuals negotiate the boundaries of their social identities. Based on a case study of skilled migrants with racialized ethnicities in Finland, I look at how they express their self-defined identity as well-to-do, skilled professionals in the face of contradicting categorizations of them as unskilled , lower-class migrant subjects. I identify two types of complementary approaches employed by the skilled migrants in boundary making strategies to their identity negotiations: those de-emphasizing ethnicity (or its importance), and those emphasizing class status. These approaches are two sides of the same coin; coming from different perspectives, they both aim at a more positively viewed identity, and for individuals to be seen as well-to-do, educated, working professionals, rather than as ethnic migrant subjects. As such, the article also highlights the interconnection of class and ethnicity for the social identities of skilled migrants in Finland. ARTICLE HISTORY
Identity in Intercultural Interaction: How Categories Do Things
Although identity has become a key topic in second language research, it is a problematic notion to research when considered to exist only in the individual's head. By operationalizing identity as the social display of self in relation to others, discourse analytic approaches such as Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA) instead locate identity in interaction. hus, this makes identity observable through the sequential details of talk. his paper (1) introduces the CA/MCA approach to identity as a social accomplishment and then (2) applies it to identity ascriptions in a study abroad context and an online English-speaking practice chat room. he analysis initially focuses on the role of epistemics and how discursive displays of knowledge help accomplish identity. It then goes on to demonstrate some of the ways that participants use identity categories as an interactional resource. アイデンティティーの概念は第二言語研究においても近年その重要性を増しているが、 内 在的で不可視な存在であるため研究対象としては疑義的なものであった。 この研究は、 社 会的表象としてのアイデンティティーを相互行為の中に突き止めるのではなく、 会話分析 や成員カテゴリー化分析等の談話分析的手法を用いて会話記録の詳細からアイデンティ ティーを解明する。 まず会話分析と成員カテゴリー化分析の方法論を検証し、 それらの分 析方法を用いて短期留学とオンライン英会話チャッ トルームの環境下での帰属意識の表 示と機能を分析する。 本稿では成員関係の認識的機能と、 またその推論的な知識の表示 が参加者自らのアイデンティティー完遂にどう機能しているかに焦点を合わせる。 そして実 際に参加者が成員カテゴリーを会話方策としてどう使用しているか論証する。 Ever since the increase in post-structural approaches to research such as those of Bonnie Norton (2000) * and David Block (2003), identity has become a major focus within Applied Linguistics. Teachers and learners alike are interested in the efect that acquiring a second language (L2) can have on the way we see ourselves, * Greer, T., Brandt A., Ogawa, Y. (2014). Identity in intercultural interaction: How categories do things.
Identity at the Borders and Between the Borders
SpringerBriefs in Psychology, 2021
, etc). The Series aims at integrating knowledge from many fields in a synthesis of general science of Cultural Psychology as a new science of the human being. The Series will include books that offer a perspective on the current state of developmental science, addressing contemporary enactments and reflecting on theoretical and empirical directions and providing, also, constructive insights into future pathways. Featuring compact volumes of 100 to 115 pages, each Brief in the Series is meant to provide a clear, visible, and multi-sided recognition of the theoretical efforts of scholars around the world. Both solicited and unsolicited proposals are considered for publication in this series. All proposals will be subject to peer review by external referees.
Identifications in Social Contexts. ‘I Am… Who I Am…’
2018
Individuals do not have fixed identifications. How they identify—how they position themselves—depends on the social context. The interviewees described that they yearned to belong in the various fields. They negotiated this belonging both in coethnic contexts, such as the family, and in interethnic contexts, such as at school and in the workplace. In coethnic fields, participants were often confronted with behavioral expectations that ran counter to their own autonomous preferences. In interethnic fields, despite their social mobility, the interviewees sometimes faced an exclusionary labeling that conflicted with how they want to be seen, namely, as one of ‘us’ in that particular situation. Labeling minority individuals in ethnic terms is an act of exclusion, leading to categorization resistance, for various reasons. Although such labeling can be very coercive, individuals do not lack agency. They have various responses at their disposal. Here, the achieved social mobility functions...