The issue is making sense of identity and career as mutually contouring. I look at that contouring through a conceptual framework which constellates narrative theory, social theory, and existential theory as three related but significantly different ways of understanding human life and human action. That framework constitutes an advance upon thinking about identity and career in Modernist terms, in that each of the constituent theories goes beyond the duality of subjectivity and objectivity to reconceptualise the subject as entangled, inscribed, and involved. Given that conception, we begin to see why the achievement of a coherent identity through career is inherently problematic. To reach that way of seeing, I analyse the narrative accounts of two research partners: accounts of their lives and careers. The goal of the analysis is to demonstrate the illuminative potential of the combined theory that is developed in the first part of the thesis: a potential which is partly realized in the ways that the analysis reveals a mutual contouring that had not been fully recognised by the research partners. Finally, I conclude that career can be fruitfully seen as a nexus of opportunity for the construction and expression of narrative identity, social identity, and existential identity over time.

Erving Goffman's dramaturgical perspective sees the world as a stage and social actors as the players (1959). Social actors partake in a series of dramatic performances to accomplish a certain stable social self. This idea has been built upon in recent years through the structural symbolic interactionist perspective, particularly with the work of Peter Burke's Identity Control Theory (2004). I hope here to continue to build upon the work of these theorists, as well as engage in a dialogue within the field of computer-mediated-communication (CMC). This work is at the nexus of social psychology and CMC studies. Contemporary technology has had great implications for many aspects of the social world and for interaction in particular. Since contemporary technologies impact interaction, and self construction is embedded in the interaction process, then it is important to look to at the theoretical implications of contemporary society's technological advances. I look ethnographically at MySpace, using participant observation and interview, to study how interaction and self presentation take place within the structure of the personal interactive homepage. My sample (N=97) is non-random and is drawn from my "Friends" list. I argue that the personal interactive homepage provides a unique forum for interaction. I analyze the structure of the personal interactive homepage, and examine the ways in which users construct an ideal and still authentic self within this structure. Through a synthesis of these analyses, I am able to build upon presentation of self theories, arguing that the dimension of power can (and should) be included in understanding the presentation of self process. The extent, to which an actor can present an ideal self in light of varying degrees of negotiation, represents the actors" "power to present".

This thesis explores reactions to the Quebec Act of 1774 in pamphlets and newspapers within Britain and the American colonies. The Quebec Act was signed by George III in June of 1774, the bill instituted French Civil Law, put in place a military governor and a executive council, all of whom served at the will of the Crown, and effectively established Roman Catholicism in Canada under the Crown’s control. The rhetoric analyzed for this thesis came from a number of contemporary pamphlets and newspaper commentaries on the Quebec Act specifically,or on colonial policy, which included the Quebec Act, more generally. The pamphlets were written by ministers, politicians, public figures and anonymous individuals. The concepts, ideals, and words used by these various commentators suggest underlying concerns and ideals which they all share and which their audience would understand and identify with. In using the rhetoric employed in these sources this study hopes to show that in their reactions to the incorporation of French Catholics, under their own laws and religious traditions, British contemporaries revealed their conception of what it meant to be British.There is a strong sense that British Protestantism was not so unified that it would serve as an effective foundation to build an identity. Therefore, rather than simply being formed as a reaction against the French and Catholic Other, this identity seems to be rooted in a positive sense of the nature of English liberty, which was then extended to the British people. The rhetoric in the American colonies is used to show how an identity centered on the ideal of liberty functions on the periphery. This thesis hopes to also address the fact that the Quebec Act has been overlooked by many who address the issue of British identity. Such an event, even if overshadowed in popular history by the other Coercive Acts, is a valuable episode in the creation and expression of a British Identity.

Vi lever i ett samhälle där vi ständigt står inför nya bemötanden, där kläder bland annat används för att för att uttrycka intressen, åsikter och attityder till människor i vår omgivning. För att uttrycka sin livsstil lägger konsumenter större vikt vid sådant som tilltalar deras känslor vid köpbeslut, vilket medfört att varumärkesinnehavare anspelar på olika känslor för att differentiera sig mot andra märken. Varumärkesinnehavarna skapar en egen identitet som skall särskilja dem från andra. Butiker kan med hjälp av varumärkenas differentiering vända sig mot ett ofta nischat segment vilket är kunder som efterfrågar en viss typ av varumärken. Jag har varit intresserad av att undersöka hur relationen mellan en butik och en leverantör påverkas av varumärkesidentitet. Jag har därför samarbetat med grosister, varumärkesinnehavare och butiker för att besvara uppsatsens frågeställning "vilken betydelse har varumärkesidentitet har för relationen mellan leverantör och butik." I uppsatsen redovisas resultatet från mina intervjuer vilket bland annat visar att butiker har en viktig roll i att kommunicera varumärkesidentitet vidare till slutkonsumenten, men också vad märkesinnehavarna på grund av varumärkesidentiteten ser över innan en butik får representera varumärket.

In the present study, I look at the relationship between power and identity verification and the conditions under which this relationship can be disrupted. Specifically, I look at the role of information in disrupting power differences within identity processes. I examine these processes through an experiment with task-oriented, power-imbalanced, dyads (N=144). Priming participants with a task-leader identity, I test how the introduction of negotiation resources—or information discrepant and external to a high power actor’s self presentation, affect presentation power—or the degree to which an actor can maintain identity meanings in light of partner negotiations. In contrast with existing literature, I did not find a direct relationship between power and identity verification. I did, however, find that those in higher positions of power experience greater identity stability, while those in lower positions of power experience increased identity change. Interestingly, I found that identity change and identity verification varied with identity valence, such that those with dominant task leader identity meanings experienced greater identity stability but less identity verification than their more submissive counterparts. These relationships, however were power dependent, such that differences disappeared among power-high actors, and were magnified for power-low actors. Negotiation Resources did not have a significant main effect, but showed a significant interaction with identity valence when predicting identity verification among power-low actors.

This thesis explores reactions to the Quebec Act of 1774 in pamphlets and newspapers within Britain and the American colonies. The Quebec Act was signed by George III in June of 1774, the bill instituted French Civil Law, put in place a military governor and a executive council, all of whom served at the will of the Crown, and effectively established Roman Catholicism in Canada under the Crown’s control. The rhetoric analyzed for this thesis came from a number of contemporary pamphlets and newspaper commentaries on the Quebec Act specifically,or on colonial policy, which included the Quebec Act, more generally. The pamphlets were written by ministers, politicians, public figures and anonymous individuals. The concepts, ideals, and words used by these various commentators suggest underlying concerns and ideals which they all share and which their audience would understand and identify with. In using the rhetoric employed in these sources this study hopes to show that in their reactions to the incorporation of French Catholics, under their own laws and religious traditions, British contemporaries revealed their conception of what it meant to be British.There is a strong sense that British Protestantism was not so unified that it would serve as an effective foundation to build an identity. Therefore, rather than simply being formed as a reaction against the French and Catholic Other, this identity seems to be rooted in a positive sense of the nature of English liberty, which was then extended to the British people. The rhetoric in the American colonies is used to show how an identity centered on the ideal of liberty functions on the periphery. This thesis hopes to also address the fact that the Quebec Act has been overlooked by many who address the issue of British identity. Such an event, even if overshadowed in popular history by the other Coercive Acts, is a valuable episode in the creation and expression of a British Identity.

none

Erving Goffman's dramaturgical perspective sees the world as a stage and social actors as the players (1959). Social actors partake in a series of dramatic performances to accomplish a certain stable social self. This idea has been built upon in recent years through the structural symbolic interactionist perspective, particularly with the work of Peter Burke's Identity Control Theory (2004). I hope here to continue to build upon the work of these theorists, as well as engage in a dialogue within the field of computer-mediated-communication (CMC). This work is at the nexus of social psychology and CMC studies. Contemporary technology has had great implications for many aspects of the social world and for interaction in particular. Since contemporary technologies impact interaction, and self construction is embedded in the interaction process, then it is important to look to at the theoretical implications of contemporary society's technological advances. I look ethnographically at MySpace, using participant observation and interview, to study how interaction and self presentation take place within the structure of the personal interactive homepage. My sample (N=97) is non-random and is drawn from my "Friends" list. I argue that the personal interactive homepage provides a unique forum for interaction. I analyze the structure of the personal interactive homepage, and examine the ways in which users construct an ideal and still authentic self within this structure. Through a synthesis of these analyses, I am able to build upon presentation of self theories, arguing that the dimension of power can (and should) be included in understanding the presentation of self process. The extent, to which an actor can present an ideal self in light of varying degrees of negotiation, represents the actors" "power to present".

<p>Vi lever i ett samhälle där vi ständigt står inför nya bemötanden, där kläder bland annat används för att för att uttrycka intressen, åsikter och attityder till människor i vår omgivning. För att uttrycka sin livsstil lägger konsumenter större vikt vid sådant som tilltalar deras känslor vid köpbeslut, vilket medfört att varumärkesinnehavare anspelar på olika känslor för att differentiera sig mot andra märken. Varumärkesinnehavarna skapar en egen identitet som skall särskilja dem från andra. Butiker kan med hjälp av varumärkenas differentiering vända sig mot ett ofta nischat segment vilket är kunder som efterfrågar en viss typ av varumärken. Jag har varit intresserad av att undersöka hur relationen mellan en butik och en leverantör påverkas av varumärkesidentitet. Jag har därför samarbetat med grosister, varumärkesinnehavare och butiker för att besvara uppsatsens frågeställning "vilken betydelse har varumärkesidentitet har för relationen mellan leverantör och butik." I uppsatsen redovisas resultatet från mina intervjuer vilket bland annat visar att butiker har en viktig roll i att kommunicera varumärkesidentitet vidare till slutkonsumenten, men också vad märkesinnehavarna på grund av varumärkesidentiteten ser över innan en butik får representera varumärket.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-50).