This study uses literature on identity work to examine the gender similarities and differences in the ethnic identity work that Asian Indian immigrants to the United States do. It also looks at the changes Indian immigrants' understanding of themselves as Indian men/women due to migration. Interviews with thirty-eight first generation Asian Indian immigrants reveal that while food, clothing, language, and family roles are significant means of expressing ethnic identity, men and women differ in the kind of identity work they perform. Migration also changes men and women's family and work responsibilities, and thereby their social networks. This impacts their identity as Indian men and women in the United States. The study uses these findings to critique the ethnicity paradigm, especially the perspectives of assimilation, which calls for immigrants to adopt the ways of the dominant group, and pluralism, which advocates that immigrants retain their cultural practices and ethnic identities but treats ethnic groups as monoliths. Both the assimilationist and the pluralist models assume that men and women experience the process of migration and adaptation to the new context in similar ways. However, adaptation is a process that occurs differently by gender, and gender relations can create obstacles to assimilation. These models therefore need to be revised to pay greater attention to the varied experiences within groups, based on gender, and other identities such as age and social class. / Ph. D.

In organisation studies there has been an increasing interest in ‘identity work' – that is, the processes through which people's identities become constructed. The role that others play, along with the self, in identity work has, with varying degrees of emphasis, been a recurrent theme both in the contemporary literature and in its classical antecedents. Extant research leaves scope for further investigation of how others are present within identity working processes and this thesis is primarily concerned with the elaboration and understanding of the centrality of others to the working of identities. An interest in this area stemmed from my professional occupation and its context in a performing arts organisation. My observation of the constructions of the identities of my colleagues and myself was forming prior to my engagement in a formal research role. I adopted an interpretivist perspective, an ethnographic and autoethnographic method and an abductive analytical approach. The data collection was achieved through: field note collection; autoethnographic reflection; semi structured and interactive interviewing; and a reflexive diary. The thesis seeks to augment the identity work literature by applying and elaborating previously under-used theories, in particular, reflexive imagination in Cooley's ‘Looking Glass Self' (1902/1983) and ‘social ghosts' (Gergen, 2001). These ideas are synthesised to produce an understanding of the significance of others to identity working and the processes through which they impact on identity construction. A detailed explication of the qualities of social ghosts and the ways in which actors use them in interaction (identity work moves) leads to more profound understandings of how people work identities in relation to others. This reveals that identity emerges in an interactive process that is other-multiple, tentative and reactive, and which is underpinned by imagining the self in relation to others.

Un estudiante universitario de primera generación (EUPG, First Generation College Student, FGCS) se define como una persona cuyos padres tienen escaso conocimiento acerca de la educación superior y el objetivo de esta etnografía es mostrar como se utiliza esta categoría social en una universidad del suroeste de los Estados Unidos de América. El primer capítulo sirve de introducción. El segundo capítulo ubica el estudio dentro de la etnografía, viéndola como una perspectiva en las ciencias sociales. Se traza un mapa conceptual de numerosas referencias relacionadas a la etnografía como método y presenta los elementos necesarios para hacer una "etnografía informada por la etnometodología". El tercer capítulo realiza una revisión de la literatura acerca de la categoría social de EUPG y el trabajo académico con ésta desde dentro y fuera del los confines de la investigación científica. De ahí, siguen dos capítulos donde el Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA, análisis de pertenencia categórica) se aplica a varios tipos de datos etnográficos. En el primero se analiza la transcripción de un DVD de marketing educativo, un artefacto institucional que presenta las experiencias de un grupo de EUPGs. Para el segundo capítulo de análisis se toman los apuntes del libro de campo en combinación con unos documentos que fueron recogidos durante la estancia etnográfica. Durante el análisis del DVD, los documentos, y de los apuntes del diario de campo aparecieron varias categoríasrelacionadas a la categoría social de EUPG. Éstas surgen en acontecimientos y el MCA sirve para pensar la extensión y la penetración del "identity work" (trabajo de identidad) que se da en el ámbito cotidiano de la educación superior. El concepto de membership knowledge (conocimiento de pertenencia) sirve para poner en primer plano las categorías de interacciones vividas, las que se constituyen por los propios integrantes de las interacciones. En los conjuntos de datos presentados en esta tesis empezamos a ver que el EUPG también pertenece a varias minorías, sea por etnia, raza, o sexo. Esto sucede en el DVD donde se les pide a unos estudiantes que hablen de su experiencia como los primeros de su familia en el mundo de la educación superior. También queda patente en el protagonismo que se le da a un listón que ciertas personas se añaden a la vestimenta académica para la ceremonia oficial de graduación. Las diferentes categorías también surgen en una solicitud a una beca estatal, escrita por los directores de un programa para la formación de EUPGs como trabajadores sociales. En ella aparece la categoría de estudiante tradicional pero aparece de manera ubicua, al igual que en los demás conjuntos, así como en la revisión de la literatura del tercer capítulo. A raíz del análisis de unas reflexiones que toman como referencia una interacción que ocurrió entre un niño y unos adultos en la universidad surge el cuarto conjunto de datos. Es una muestra "en acción" de las políticas universitarias en torno a varios tipos de diferencias identificadas a lo largo de esta investigación. En las conclusiones se abarcan tres aspectos básicos que aparecieron a través de toda la investigación: a) apuntes biográficos que describen por qué llegó a interesarme el sujeto de esta etnografía en relación al conocimiento producido por nuestras disciplinas y su expresión a través de una variedad de tecnologías del ser; b) la modalidad metodológica de una etnografía informada por la etnometodología que es capaz de revelar las categorías que emergen en interacciones cotidianas; y c) el uso instrumental del conocimiento que producimos en las ciencias sociales. Como tal, los resultados de este estudio se ofrecen como una oportunidad más para pensar nuestras formas de vida. / Generation College Student (FGCS) is defined as a person whose parents have little knowledge about higher education and the objective of this ethnography is to show how this social category is used at a university in the southwest of the United States of America. The first chapter serves as an introduction. The second chapter situates the study within ethnography, approached as a perspective in the social sciences. It offers a conceptual mapping of a number of ethnography as a method references and presents the necessary elements for doing an "ethnomethodologically informed ethnography". The third chapter is a literature review of the FGCS social category and the academic work done on it from within and outside of the confines of scientific research. What follows are two chapters devoted to the Membership Categorization Analysis (MCA) of a variety of ethnographic data. The first one analyses the transcript of a educational marketing DVD, an institutional artefact that presents the experiences of a group of FGCSs. The second chapter is an analysis of field notes in combination with documents that were gathered throughout the ethnography. Many categories appeared in relation to the social category of FGCS during the analysis of the DVD, the documents and the field notes. These are categories that emerge in events and MCA helps us think about the extent and pervasiveness of the "identity work" the occurs in the day-to-day activities of higher education. The concept of membership knowledge helps foreground the categories of lived interactions, the ones that get constituted by interaction members themselves. In the data sets presented in this dissertation we begin to see that FGCS also pertains to a variety of minorities in terms of ethnicity, race and sex. This happens in the DVD where a group of students are asked to talk about their experience as the first in their family to enter the world of higher education. This is also evident in the prominence given to a sash that certain students add to their academic regalia for the official graduation ceremony. The different categories also arise in a state grant application, written by the directors of a program to prepare FGCSs as social workers. It is in this document that the traditional student category appears, but in a ubiquitous manner and similar to how it arises in the rest of the data sets, as well as in the literature review of the third chapter. The subject of a fourth data set is an analysis of some reflections written in reference to an interaction that occurred between a child and some adults at the university. It shows university policies "in action" using various types of the differences identified throughout this study. The conclusions cover three basic aspects that appeared throughout the whole study: a) biographical notes the describe why I became interested in this subject of study in relation to the production of knowledge by our disciplines and their expression through a variety of technologies of the self; b) the methodological modality of an ethnomethodologically informed ethnography that is able to reveal the categories that emerge in quotidian interactions; and c) the instrumentality of the knowledge we produce in the social sciences. As such, the results of this study offer one more opportunity to think about our forms of life.

This study examines how some Indian women in South Africa who became managers negotiated their identities in their early lives and in their adult working lives on their journeys to becoming successful managers. Prior studies on identity work and the experience of intersectionality by ethnic minority women have typically focused on professional identities in isolation, separate from early life influences. The current study uses a life story approach to provide a holistic understanding of the journeys of the first significant cohort of Indian women to ascend to management positions in South Africa. I explored the narratives of 13 Indian women managers in senior and top management positions in corporate South Africa using a grounded theory approach to make visible the identity work they have engaged in throughout their lives so far. The life stories of the participants reveal that throughout their lives they have grappled with negotiating a gender identity shaped by Indian cultural assumptions about the roles of men and women in juxtaposition to or in combination with their personal aspirations for professional success. I used a bird cage metaphor to capture how these multiple factors shaped and constrained their lives and careers. The interplay between their racio-ethnic, gender and professional identities is unpacked, and their strategies for reconciling the tensions among their multiple identities are described. In negotiating their identities, these women have developed a particular type of hybrid identity that allows them to move between the compartments into which their professional identity demands and cultural expectations have been divided. The women’s cultural identities remain pivotal in their lives, and they have strong collectivist identities, as they still live within their communities even after the official end of apartheid. My findings enrich and extend the identity literature relating to ethnic minority women by focusing on identity negotiation over time, rather than only on discrete moments in time. My findings also contribute to identity literature in general, as they illustrate that an individual’s identity is formed not only by personal and social identities, but also by the historical and cultural context beyond the organisation within which the person operates. This context is often not considered in identity research in organisations – most studies relating to identity work focus on the tensions between personal identities and professional identities in the workplace. It also reinforces the idea that identity is never fixed but always in negotiation. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

Research purpose: This study aimed to explore the professional identity construction of accountants from previously disadvantaged groups. The study considered the significance of context and the influence of whiteness and racial micro-aggressions on individual identity construction. Motivation for this study: Little is known about the struggle that people from previously disadvantaged groups in South Africa have to go through to negotiate their professional identities. This study provided a platform for these individuals to share their journey in becoming a professional accountant and understanding the impact of context on their professional identity construction. Research design, approach and method: The study followed a qualitative design, and a multiple case study method was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted through a narrative lens to explore the individual stories of the participants’ experiences. Non-probability purposive sampling was used. The sample consisted of five black professional accountants from previously disadvantaged groups. Data analysis took the form of individual case narratives followed by a thematic analysis across cases. Main findings: The history of apartheid is still present in South African organisations today in the form of racial micro-aggression and whiteness which create barriers to the professional identity construction of people from previously disadvantaged groups. It was found that the following contexts influence identity construction: political, legislative, socio-economic, educational, organisational, professional, family and cultural contexts. Practical Implications: Legislation such as BBEEE, AA and the EEA are in place to support the transformation agenda of South African organisations. However, in this study it became clear that legislation does not achieve its intended impact. If organisations do not start supporting professionals of colour, it will have a major impact on their skills and career development as well as on talent retention within organisations. Value/Study contribution: The results could become a valuable resource for educational institutions, professional bodies and managers within organisations to enable them to eliminate the barriers of whiteness and micro-aggression and to support people from previously disadvantaged groups to construct positive professional identities. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Human Resource Management / MCom / Unrestricted

We provide a qualitative analysis of resistance to calls for gender-neutral language. We analyzed more than 900 comments responding to two essays—one on AlterNet and another on Vox posted to the Vox editor’s Facebook page—that critiqued a pervasive male-based generic, “you guys.” Five rhetorics of resistance are discussed: appeals to origins, appeals to linguistic authority, appeals to aesthetics, appeals to intentionality and inclusivity, and appeals to women and feminist authorities. These rhetorics justified “you guys” as a nonsexist term, thereby allowing commenters to continue using it without compromising their moral identities as liberals or feminists. In addition to resisting an analysis that linked their use of “you guys” to social harms, commenters positioned the authors who called for true generics as unreasonable, divisive, and authoritarian. We conclude with suggestions for how feminists can challenge the status quo and promote social change.

No description available.

The purpose of this qualitative ethnographic study was to addresses how the existence of counterspaces influences the psychological well-being of offender-labeled youth transitioning back into society. A counterspace has been defined as a social setting where two or more individuals come together to challenge deficit notions. No longer is recidivism solely being placed on offender-labeled youth that reside within juvenile correctional facilities, therefore the need for innovative programs that help develop resistance narratives and promote reengagement with the educational system are needed. In this 12-week qualitative ethnographic study the two concepts of restorative practices and narrative identity work are blended together and reconceptualized to create something new Restorative Identity Work. From an ontological perspective, the educational experiences within the counterspace (Room 21) was shared utilizing a musical playlist. The playlist is used to provide a thick description of the 12-session leadership group that was designed to be a resource for offender-labeled youth to become eligible for the high school Student Council within the correctional facility. Through the use of journals, theme songs, restorative practices, and narrative identity work, offender-labeled youth gradually gained a deeper understanding of their role in social narratives. The leadership group resulted in six out of nine offender-labeled youth becoming members of the Student Council and fostered the development of resistance narratives for all nine students.

Aims and Rationale: The present study aims to enrich understanding of the professional identity of counselling psychology in the UK by exploring both the individual professional identities of counselling psychologists and the broader identity of the profession as a whole. This will elaborate on the existing literature base and allow the researcher to gather a breadth of perspectives of counselling psychology identity whilst also exploring the issues surrounding the identity development of practitioners in greater depth. Method: The study adopts a triangulation mixed methods design to explore the professional identity of counselling psychologists (Cresswell, Plano Clark, Guttman & Hanson, 2003). An exploratory online survey was designed to explore 1) the training, employment and practice characteristics of counselling psychologists and 2) their perception of the role, contribution and future identity of the profession. Concurrent with this data collection, qualitative interviews were conducted which aimed to explore the participants’ experience of training and working as a counselling psychologist, and develop an understanding of factors that have impacted upon their individual professional identity. Results: Both data sources contribute to the conception of counselling psychology as a diverse and multi-faceted profession. ‘Unity within diversity’ has been proposed as an overarching theme that marries the data sources and highlights the different ways in which counselling psychologists experience and articulate their individual professional identity, and the collective identity of the profession. Conclusions: The findings reveal there is no single professional identity inherent within counselling psychology. Multiple professional identities exist and are shaped by a range of factors. Uniting these diverse identities is a central commitment to a humanistic philosophy and value base. This provides a foundation on which therapeutic decision making is made and clients’ difficulties conceptualised. Whilst counselling psychology’s interest in identity and critical self-reflection has been questioned, this process may allow the profession to remain alert to the changing professional climate and adapt their practice to ensure that they remain valuable and are not overlooked within the field of therapeutic provision.

This study investigates the personal experience of newly appointed chief executives in transitioning into the CEO role. Adopting an exploratory qualitative design, data was obtained from two semi-structured interviews with 19 newly appointed chief executives, for a total of 38 interviews. The main contribution of this thesis to the extant literature is to show the ways in which CEOs go through an identity construction process when transitioning into the role, which is characterized in two ways. First, there exists a bi-directionality of influence between the personal identity of the CEO and the organizational identity. Second, this process comprises strong identity demands (lack of specificity of the role and weak situation) and identity tensions (personal identity intrusion and identity transparency) that dispose new CEOs towards an unbalance that promotes individuality. This disequilibrium might hinder the integration of new chief executives into the organization, since the data suggests that new CEOs are responsible for fostering their own integration by connecting aspects of their personal identity with the identity and culture of the organization. The thesis offers a theoretical model of the CEO identity construction process and concludes with a series of propositions that address the ramifications of these findings to our understanding of CEO succession.