Present dissertation aims to achieve three related objectives. First, it is aimed at investigating the theoretical view of Reicher and Hopkins (2001) that some people called &lsquo / identity entrepreneurs&rsquo / actively try to re-define the limits and the contents of the social categories. For this purpose social political milieu of Northern Cyprus is chosen as it is intended to achieve the ingroup members&rsquo / support by portraying national/ethnic identity constructions of National Unity Party, which acknowledges supporting the independence of Turkish Republic of North Cyprus and the Republican Turkish Party, which acknowledges supporting the unification of Cyprus. In accordance with the first objective, the official documents of two parties were analyzed by Structural Analysis of Group Arguments (SAGA) technique. The results confirm that the definitions of Northern Cypriots, the Cyprus Problem, the solutions of the problem, and collective threats and interests were constructed by these parties in the service of their own political projects. Second study purposes to explore the identity constructions of lay Northern Cypriots in order to investigate the relationship between political and lay constructions. By the second objective 19 Turkish Cypriots who were not involved in politics actively (classified as anti and pro-integrationists iv based on their votes at the Referenda of Annan Plan) were interviewed. The results indicate that the lay Northern Cypriots narrated three identities when defining themselves as &lsquo / Turkish&rsquo / , &lsquo / Turkish Cypriots&rsquo / and &lsquo / Cypriots&rsquo / , each of which implicated different constructions of the Cyprus problem, its possible solutions, and perceptions of collective threats and interests. All the constructions were made in accordance with their identity definitions and their votes at the referenda. The analysis also shows that the political and lay constructions are convergent at a great extent. Lastly, present work aims at investigating the relationship between national/ethnic identities and collective projects, quantitatively. Regarding the third objective a questionnaire study was conducted in North Cyprus, with 206 participants. The data confirmed the model, which proposed that social identities (Turkish, Turkish Cypriots and Cypriots) influenced attitudes towards unification through perceived collective interests and threats.

The thesis analyzes the role of politicized music of Kurdish music groups (koms) that emerged in the 1990s in the construction of Kurdish identity. The relation between politics and music is analyzed in the framework of the relation between nationalism and music and political movements&#039 / relation to music. Through koms&#039 / politicized music, the movement communicated its cause, told the struggle of the movement and aimed to mobilize the masses. In addition to this, music has functioned as a field where the collective identity of the movement as well as the Kurdish identity is constructed. As the Kurdish movement did not possess the institutional and ideological apparatuses of the national state in its national identity construction process, music started to play an important role. Through modernization of Kurdish folk music, the identity is constructed as a modern and authentic one. In addition, with the political lyrics of the songs, the national elements such as common language, common history and the imagined territory are constructed, popularized, and canonized. Despite their counter-hegemonic position, koms have articulated elements of the hegemonic discourses as well.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze Armenian ethnic identity construction, the dynamics influencing this process, and varying boundaries of this identity in Yesilk&ouml / y, which is one of the regions of Istanbul where Armenians prefer to live. The primordial as well as constructed aspects of Armenian identity in Turkey and the influence of objective and subjective definitions of Armenian collective identity constitutes the main themes of this thesis. From that perspective, homeland, history, myths, collective remembering, religion, language, rituals, the sense of being a member of a minority group, and perception of citizenship play a crucial role. Besides, relationalism, interaction with others, daily life practices, and relations with the nation-state appear as the other crucial elements of this identity construction process. Armenian identity in Turkey is multi-layered, situational and fluid. Together with the elements which provide the rigidity of identity such as religion, there are other loyalties such as ethnicity, traditions and language which give rise to plural and flexible identities. Armenian communities outside the national boundaries also serve for the self- positioning of the Armenians in Turkey.

In a university undergraduate dance department, students seem to be learning more than pirouettes and pas de bourees; students are learning how to construct their identities and present themselves as 'dancers'. As they progress through their undergraduate careers, the students are not only developing technical skills, but they are also learning the ins and outs of how dancers look, speak and behave. Based on three months of observation and in-depth interviews, it seems that developing into a dancer requires developing into an individual who shows unique commitment both to him/herself and to the art of dance itself. While many of the students enter the university focused on increasing their technical prowess measured in terms of turning ability, elevation in leaps, and flexibility, the older students in the program seem to be focused more on finding their own - individualized - standards of excellence, which frequently have little to do with technical 'tricks'.

This dissertation explores the culture of sport among African American male football players as well as African American perspectives on sport and success. A case study of six African American, Division 1 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) collegiate student athletes was conducted along with seventeen supplemental interviews with community members, parents, coaches and former athletes and fans. The participants answered questions that explored education, success, identity construction, ethnicity and sport. Archival data was also reviewed framing the discussion on football in Florida, links between education and sport participation and African American male academic achievement. While many perspectives varied, there were collective trends in relation to how African American Athletes in Florida define themselves as well as their perspectives on ethnicity and sport. The individual perspectives and collective trends are discussed in this dissertation.

My research uses participants' understandings to look at how people define and use the identities and categories of "vegetarian" and "meat-eater." My research examines what it means to be vegetarian, how ideals and moral hierarchies are understood, and how issues of identity importance, social support, and boundary work are components of vegetarian identity construction processes. My research highlights the unmarked character of the meat-eating identity and investigates the variations and complexities of eating behaviors and identities. Learning more about how both vegetarians and meat-eaters construct vegetarian identities contributes to our understanding of identities and how, despite ambiguities, people experience identities. I further previous work by focusing more on the boundaries and interactions that become meaningful when supporting ones identity. Through one-on-one in-depth interviews, I draw out perspectives and understandings of vegetarian and meat-eating meaning-making processes.This research demonstrates how, despite numerous variations within and between groups, people develop more or less socially shared ideas of what it means to be vegetarian, what vegetarian ideals are, and what moral meanings are produced by various eating behaviors. These ideas run through issues of vegetarian identity, including: identity importance, social support, and boundary work. Vegetarians and meat-eaters' interactions involve cognitive processing, self-presentations, and negotiations that are not as oppositional as stereotypical social ideas suggest. Meat-eaters play an active role throughout many of these vegetarian identity construction processes and provide a more balanced picture of them. Meat-eaters at times engage with vegetarians in the issues of vegetarian ideals, moral hierarchies, identity importance, social support, and boundary work.

This bachelor thesis is about the human identity in the postmodern society, and how it changes throughout the paradigm shift we’re going forward into. What kind of impact do the various blogs have on their public concerning the consumption of brands and fashion? And how come various big brands choose to do their product placement on specific blogs? In this thesis I will discuss and compare the changes from how we used to show our status in the society in the past and how we do it today with digital tools.  Why are people so urged to show others in the society who they are, and how come we do it by wearing specific clothes and brands that other tells us to wear in order to have a higher status? These phenomena’s reflects the way we build our identity today. The other aspect of the digitalization I’m discussing in this thesis is the importance of package-design in order to attract costumers to the physical store, and maintain the brand-loyalty during the transition for the stores.

The aim of the present study is to theoretically ground and practically present how the sexual identity of homosexual individuals is constructed through the language they use in an American TV series Queer as Folk. Since the LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) individuals have become a more visible group in the present-day society both in Lithuania and abroad, it is natural that there is a certain degree of interest in the lives of non-heterosexual people, their customs, communication patterns, the relationship among themselves as well as the relationship between them and the heterosexual, heteronormative society around them. One of the most recent branches of linguistics researches the peculiarities of the speech and speaking patterns of homosexual individuals. This study is a humble attempt to look, at least superficially, at this new branch of linguistics which has not yet been research in Lithuania. The thesis is divided into two separate parts: the first part of the thesis, the theoretical part, deals with aspects of alternative human sexualities and explains some sociological aspects of homosexuality. Also, some basic features of the Lithuanian and American LGBT communities are presented. This part theoretically covers the link between sexual identity and language. Theoretical part also presents earlier research carried out by scholars in the fields of sociolinguistics, sexuality and sociology. Also explained are the gay communication strategies, according to... [to full text] / Šio darbo tikslas – teoriškai pagrįsti ir pristatyti kaip homoseksualių žmonių identitetas, jų lytinė tapatybė, yra konstruojama per kalbą amerikiečių televizijos seriale Queer as Folk. Homoseksualūs asmenys šiandieninėje visuomenėje, tiek Lietuvoje, tiek užsienyje, tapo pakankamai matoma grupė, todėl natūralu, kad kyla susidomėjimas homoseksualių žmonių gyvenimo, bendravimo, jų tarpusavio santykių bei santykių su kitais heteroseksualios ir heteronormatyvios visuomenės nariais ypatumais. Viena iš naujausių lingvistikos mokslo šakų tiria homoseksualių žmonių kalbėsenos ir kalbos vartojimo ypatumus. Šis darbas – tai kuklus bandymas bent paviršutiniškai pažvelgti į šią naują lingvistikos mokslo šaką, kol kas netyrinėtą Lietuvoje. Studija yra padalyta į dvi dalis: pirmojoje, teorinėje dalyje apie alternatyviąsias seksualines tapatybes aiškinami kai kurie homoseksualumo sociologiniai aspektai, bei bendrais bruožais pristatomos Lietuvos ir Jungtinių Valstijų homoseksualų bendruomenės. Taip pat teoriškai grindžiama seksualinio identiteto ir kalbos sąveika. Teorinėje dalyje pristatomi anksčiau atlikti mokslininkų tyrimai sociolingvistikos, seksologijos ir sociologijos srityse bei paaiškinamos gėjų komunikacijos strategijos, kuriomis remiantis praktinėje dalyje šifruojami homoseksualių asmenų bendravimo ypatumai. Praktinėje šio darbo dalyje pristatomas 2010 m. balandžio mėn. Vytauto Didžiojo universitete atliktas studentų požiūrio į homoseksualumą tyrimas bei analizuojama medžiaga... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between language, identity construction and learning in the context of the Vehicle programme, a vocational program in Swedish upper secondary schools. The study focuses on language practices and the norms of language, gender and school work that are negotiated in conversations between pupils and between pupils and teachers. The language practices are considered as talk-in-interaction, and identity construction and learning are understood as processes in socially situated activities. The Vehicle programme has its basis in mechanics with links to the vehicle and transport trades, and can be identified as a male-coded program in several respects. The pupils participating in this study were both boys and girls attending a school situated in the North of Sweden. The study was conducted through an ethnographic approach, employing plural methods including observation, field notes, audio-recordings of conversations, and interviews with pupils in focus groups and individually. Recorded conversations were analysed using tools from conversation analysis. The analysis is based on Judith Butler’s theory of gender as performance, Raewyn Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity, and Penelope Eckert’s theory of the heterosexual market. A socio-cultural theory of learning describing communities of practice, by Lave and Wenger, which has also been applied to linguistics by Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, forms the basis of the theoretical framework. The analyses of conversations show that the language practices were confrontational, direct and humorous; characteristics that have strong connections to notions of a masculine conversational style. The pupils were not as aware of interactional patterns as they were of the words they used. Thereby the norms in the community of practice, which were based on notions of masculinity and heterosexuality, were not noticed, and worked as undercurrents in the interaction. The girls participated in the language practices in the same ways as the boys, but contrary to the boys, the girls interpreted the language practices as effects of other things than gender, for example as signs of being independent or daring. They also experienced that adjusting to the expectations of normative middle-class femininity was more oppressive than adjusting to the norms that were negotiated within the community of practice. The conversation analyses also show some of the complexity in teachers’ work and their role as mediators of norms and values. Peer reactions to individual pupil turns in the classroom conversations were of more importance for the development of the conversations than teacher responses. Thus there was usually a homogenization of the expressed perspectives. Norms of heterosexuality were constantly reconstructed in interaction within the community of practice and they controlled the pupils’ understanding of what was perceived as normal or deviant behaviour. Thereby the pupils constrained each other’s school performances in the core subjects and reconstructed a difference between being theoretical and practical, a process that was partly supported by the school as an institution. Generally, the pupils in the community of practice had to balance their identity constructions in relation to the peer group, teacher expectations, and their own ambitions, for which reason learning turned out to be more than just a process of acquiring knowledge.

Online Self-portrayal has been attracting attention since the rise of social networks and their integration into everyday life. Social media have been said to support the idea of an “endlessly constructed self,” transporting culture and shaping people’s online experiences. Research often focused on the if and why when mostly college students portrayed themselves on social networks and in online communities. The aim of this study is to deepen the understanding of how a certain demographic of women uses Facebook and Instagram for self-portrayal and what it means to them. The focus is on interesting but seldom studied personalities: well-educated, urban women in their late 20’s up to their late 30’s that are well integrated into the labor market. A combination of netnographic study and semi-standardized interviews of Facebook and Instagram activities are conducted within the framework of Erwin Goffman’s "representation of the self in everyday life." Results show a high appreciation of Instagram in order to present a curated portrayal of one’s life and a communication through 'likes'. Interestingly, the women, although highly skilled, often successful and living in one of the most appreciated urban centers of the world, occasionally feel pressure and insecurity to live up to the expectations of their networks.