According to self-categorization theory (SCT), environmental context is the key factor in determining whether or not a social identity will be activated. Blanz (1999) has extended SCT by suggesting that there are certain social categories (i.e., race and gender) that people will chronically use to categorize individuals. However, neither of these two perspectives addresses the notion that individuals could differ in the chronic accessibility of a given social identity. The present research explored this hypothesis. By adapting Higgins and colleagues' (1982) methodology for studying the chronic accessibility of personality traits, three studies were conducted to determine if there are differences in chronicity of female (Experiments 1 and 3) and anglophone (Experiment 2) social identities. Results suggest that individual differences in accessibility appear to exist. However, differences in chronicity of female and anglophone social identities were not related to discrimination, an important variable in social identity theorizing. Theoretical and real-world implications are discussed along with suggestions for future research.

No description available.

Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 245-251). / Electronic reproduction. / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / [3], ix, 251 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

This study synthesises three conceptual areas-identity, fictional television programmes and memory to examine what young people remember about their fictional television viewing and how it impacts their identity. Memory is used as a window through which long-lasting identity influencers can be analysed; this takes the analysis beyond the level of 'effects' to a more contextualised view. Focus group research and a quantitative overview work to uncover which fictional programmes stand out in young people's memory and why. Research further interrogates what events, characters or story lines young people recall and why these elements are important. The answers to these two research questions crystallises the ways in which South African youths' memories of fictional programmes impact their identity formation. The hypothesis that young South Africans remember that which directly affirms or contradicts their lived experience, is found to be partially true. Similarly, the second hypothesis that fictional memories of South African 15- to 20-year-olds impact youth identity through a direct link between memory selection, interaction and application is found to be fractionally substantiated. The final conclusion of the study is that while memories of fictional programmes do impact the identity of young people, it must be viewed within the larger context of lived experience. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

This narrative inquiry study explores the past and present relationships between the personal and professional experiences of teachers and their evolving teacher identities. In this study, I take on the role of participant-researcher to work together with two other teachers in my school to share and study our personal and professional stories of lived experience in order to better understand how our teacher identities might be evolving in response to the South African educational context. The diverse contexts from which we have journeyed frame the different experiences that we share. In considering the question of how teachers’ past lived experiences might have shaped our teacher identities, I identify political, social, educational and economic forces as well as teacher and family legacies that have emerged from our personal and professional narratives. In looking at the question of how teachers’ current professional experiences might be affecting our evolving teacher identities, I highlight the daily lives of the teachers in this study, their influences and experiences, their inter-personal relationships, their passion for their subject and finally their future expectations that may or may not bring about change. Overall, this study draws attention to the value of teachers examining the personal and professional experiences that they have had in order to understand why they take on and project the identities that they do and how these identities might evolve and change in response to new situations and challenges. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2010.

This thesis presents a multi-sited and multi-scalar ethnography of the processes and practices through which producers attempt to designate food as heritage. Grounded in cultural geography, it adopts a cultural economy approach to addressing concerns within agro-food studies by joining in conversation notions of heritage, place-making and time. By underlining the intrinsic relation between articulations of time and constructions of place, this thesis further maps the alternative geographies of food. It engages with three overarching questions, drawing on research conducted within two heritage-based food initiatives in Mexico and Scotland, both linked to the Slow Food movement. These produce, respectively, a traditional sweet called pinole and 'real' bread. The thesis asks: what objectives are pursued through the heritagisation of food whereby various actors strategically coin foods as heritage? How is time articulated in the discourse of heritage food, and how do heritage food networks and producers understand time as a component of food quality? Finally, what senses of place emerge from the various uses of time as a quality in global, translocal and local heritage food discourses? This thesis explores Slow Food's heritage qualification scheme and the ensuing commodification of heritage food, as well as translocal networks, and practices of 'slow' production. Through empirical engagements it argues that the qualification of heritage foods is multifunctional and that various articulations of time enable small-scale producers to engage with a plethora of socio-economic and political issues. Numerous and at times conflicting constructions of place surface from the discourses woven around these two heritage products and problematise identity formation and narratives of the past linked to producers and communities. This thesis concludes that the constructions of place associated with heritage foods depend not only upon the authority and circumstances of actors articulating a heritage discourse, but also on the scale of the dissemination of that discourse, and on the notions and understandings of time associated with heritage and place.

Fernand Braudel (1972) in his study The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II suggested, among other things, that the Mediterranean world despite its differences should be conceived of as a unit. The present study is not an attempt to challenge Braudel's entire work on historical, empirical or pragmatological grounds, but an effort to question the unitary and totalitarian conception of the Mediterranean region. Specifically, I explore how a small Mediterranean town, Rethemnos, Crete, Southern Greece, was theorized on the back of this widespread conception that wants the Mediterranean to be a unit, and how a differential reading of the town is possible once various theories and conceptions of postmodernism and poststructuralism are put forward with respect to Rethemnos. I will be drawing on theories of the consumer society (Jean Baudrillard's and Zygmunt Bauman's analyses) in an attempt to document that Rethemnos is a society that is currently organized by recourse to the internal contradictions of the consumer society and on theories of the event and the subject (Alain Badiou's analysis) in order to explain that the Rethemniot subject is undecidable and bound to truth procedures as long as there is an event named after an intervention. Prior to that, I will be challenging, with respect to how the Greek subject was depicted on the back of the unitary fashion of conceiving of the Mediterranean region, a variety of studies of anthropological origin, based on Greece; and I will be also criticizing with respect to how the Greek social formation was dissected, on the back of the same unitary fashion, a variety of other studies of politico-economic origin this time, based on Greece as well, by focusing and drawing on certain aspects of Jacques Derrida's deconstructive strategies and Gilles Deleuze's and Felix Guattari's geo-philosophy's lines of flight.

本研究關注以文化改變為目標的生活風格運動的身份建構過程。以往身份研究主要集中於以政治為目的的傳統社會運動。傳統運動的運動身份是由社會結構所決定的，並由社會運動團體所代表。傳統運動的身份建構過程基本上是建立起「我們」，以别於敵人的「他們」。但由於生活風格運動的目標是文化改變，主要手段是將運動價值透過個人和群體的生活風格展示出來，組織和行為更為私人化和分散。故此，傳統社會運動的理論並不足以描繪生活風格運動的運動身份建構過程。為補充此社會運動理論的不足，我提出生活風格運動的運動身份建構是一個將運動價值實踐的過程。參加者透過個人反省將抽象的價值具體化成演繹和行動，建立另類生活風格或組織，以回答「我們應如何生活？」的問題及引發社會的意識轉變。具體來說，在群體層面，運動身份的建立過程包括(1) 透過加入其他生活風格運動的元素、(2) 按成員個人理解將運動與其他運動區別出來和(3) 協調衝突的價值；在個人層面，(4) 參加者需要結合運動和個人追求以個人化運動身份。本文研究菜園村生活館，探討生活風格運動的運動身份建構過程。研究顯示，由於運動身份不再是由社會結構導向，運動身份建構過程變得更流動，而個人的反思及小組的身份工作也成為生活風格運動的身份建構的重要部份。本研究的重要性是補充傳統社會運動理論對生活運動身份建構解釋的不足及豐富我們對香港生活風格運動的認識。 / This study is concerned with movement identity construction processes in lifestyle movements (LMs). Identity in social movements is mostly studied in the context of traditional social movements, in which the movement identity is derived from a social structure and embodied in formal social movement organizations aiming at affecting state policy. Its identity construction is a process differentiating “we“ from “our enemy“. However, as LMs are value-oriented, diffused, individualized in action, small-sized group in organization and aimed at cultural change, the traditional social movement literature does not help us to understand the identity construction of LMs. It is the gap to be studied here. I argue the process of movement identity construction of LMs is fluid. It is a reflexive actualization of conceptual movement values into concrete interpretations and repertoires of actions. Alternative lifestyles and examples are set up to answer “how should we live?“ and for promoting conscious shifts of specific issues. The actualization of values at the group level takes place in (1) the incorporation of movement ideas in accordance to the local needs, (2) interacting with people of other movements, and (3) negotiation over other conflicting values and practices. The actualization at individual level is (4) a personalization of the movement by blending the movement with a pursuit of authentic self. I conclude that the distinctiveness of LMs’ movement identity construction is the fluidity of the process, group identity work and reflexivity. A case study of Choi Yuen Village is carried out to examine the movement identity construction in LMs, filling the gap in social movement literature and enriching our understanding of LMs in Hong Kong. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Lo, Sin Chi. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-95). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / ABSTRACTS --- p.i / 論文摘要 --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.iv / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.iv / ABBREVIATIONS --- p.iv / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1. --- Diffused Lifestyle Movements in Post-capitalist Society --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2. --- Defining Movement Identity --- p.5 / Chapter 2. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1. --- Identity work --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2. --- Movement Identity Construction in Traditional Social Movements --- p.10 / Chapter 2.3. --- Identity Work in Diffused Lifestyle Movements --- p.11 / Chapter 3. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.13 / Chapter 3.1. --- Case Study --- p.13 / Chapter 3.2. --- Case Description --- p.14 / Chapter 3.3. --- Data Collection --- p.21 / Chapter 3.4. --- Sample Profile --- p.23 / Chapter 3.5 --- Gaining Access and Gaining Trust --- p.23 / Chapter 3.6. --- Informed Consent and Ethical Issues --- p.25 / Chapter 4. --- THE MOVEMENT IDENTITY CONSTRCUTION OF LMS --- p.25 / Chapter 4.1. --- Background - Movement Values of and Needs Shared among LP --- p.26 / Chapter 4.2.1. --- Incorporating Movements’ Ideas as Participants’ Need --- p.35 / Chapter 4.2.2. --- Interacting with other Social Movement Participants to create Personal Interpretation --- p.63 / Chapter 4.2.3. --- Negotiation over Conflicting Values --- p.68 / Chapter 4.2.4. --- Blending Movement Values and Personal Lives --- p.76 / Chapter 5. --- CONCLUSION --- p.84 / APPENDIX --- p.89 / REFERENCES --- p.91

Thesis (DPhil (Sociology and Social Anthropology))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The uncertainty and insecurity generated by social transformation within local and global contexts foregrounds concerns with identity. South African society has a legacy of an entrenched racial order which previously privileged those classified ‘white’. The assumed normality in past practices of such an institutionalised system of racial privileging was challenged by a changing social, economic and political context. This dissertation examines the discourse of white middle-class South Africans on this changing context. The study draws on the discourse of Afrikaansspeaking and English-speaking interviewees living in urban and rural communities. Their discourse reveals the extent to which these changes have affected the ways they talk about themselves and others. There is a literature suggesting the significance of race in shaping people’s identity has diminished within the post-apartheid context. This study considers the extent to which the evasion of race suggested in a literature on whiteness is apparent in the discourse on the transformation of the society. By considering this discourse a number of questions are raised on how interviewees conceive their communities and what implication this holds for future racial integration. What is meant by being South African is a related matter that receives attention. The study draws the conclusion that in spite of heightened racial sensitivity, race remains a key factor in the identities of interviewees.

This dissertation examines how Marcel Proust presents and uses different speech styles in A la recherche du temps perdu. The narrator of the novel analyzes how almost everyone he encounters speaks and consistently bases his decisions about how to interact with others on his evaluation of their speech mannerisms. I argue that, through the narrator’s observations, Proust emphasizes the role of the socioindexicality of speech, or how the way a person speaks communicates their social identity, in mediating social relations. I begin by presenting the narrator’s comments on how social status is interpreted through the way that people speak. Then I turn in the second chapter to how the narrator’s understanding of what factors determine a person’s speech mannerisms changes over the course of his life. The third chapter argues that the narrator has a sustained interest in how people use speech to perform different identities and shows how his investigation into the reasons these performances succeed or fail informs Proust’s own technique of using different speech styles to create fictional characters in his novel. The last chapter discusses how Proust’s Jewish and gay characters adapt how they speak to avoid or overcome discrimination. In each of these chapters, I show how, in A la recherche, the way social identity is interpreted and performed through speech causes individuals to take on different identities. I argue that, through the narrator’s comments on this phenomenon, Proust demonstrates how it affects the structure of society while also studying the way it can be used to create fictional characters in a novel.