China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) deeply wounded the collective identity of the nation’s population, as it caused dramatic chaos and violence in every social arena, bringing the country into a decade-long crisis. In the 1980s and 1990s, a wave of autobiographical works was published in China and overseas, commemorating the authors’ (mainly former Red Guards) participation in the Cultural Revolution and post-1968 Rustication Movement (1968-1980). Focusing on the Red Guards, the main participants of the movements, this research inquiries how autobiographical works reflect the impacts of their direct engagement in the history on their self-identification. This study applies a theoretical framework combining Maurice Halbwachs’s insights into collective memory and Jeffrey C. Alexander’s conceptualization of cultural trauma, with trauma and identity as the cores of textual analysis. This research analyses two selected works in each region to observe how the different cultural and social contexts in China and North America affect former Red Guards’ self-identification and their navigation of the traumatic past. Textual analysis of the four selected works shows that Red Guard autobiographies embody the nexus between individual memory and the social framework of the collective memory of the Cultural Revolution and Rustication Movement, as the latter reveals itself in the forms of narrative chronology, verbal conventions, and recurring scenes in the texts. While the social framework of collective memory shapes the Red Guard writers’ textual representations, the Red Guard writers engage in the collective remembering process and construct a victimhood-oriented narrative of the two movements through concentrating on the narrator or other characters’ tragedies. In social and practical aspects, Red Guard autobiographies have multiple roles in the trauma process of the events: the channel for emotional catharsis, the discursive field for former Red Guard writers’ exploration of their memories, and the medium through which the former Red Guard writers articulate their identities. Published in distinctive cultural and political contexts, China and North America, the Red Guard autobiographies embody authors’ different claims: the domestic Red Guard writers remain ambiguous in attribution of the undesired outcomes of the two movements and provide no clear identity of the victims, whereas the expatriate Red Guard writers in North America claim the movements’ experimental nature with stress laid on the inner-party struggles and identify the generation of the Red Guards and educated youths as the victims. Concentrating on collective memory and cultural trauma, this thesis provides new angles to understand the relations among personal narratives, social and cultural contexts, and national history. This study analyzes Red Guard memoirs’ functions in the working-through process of the two unsuccessful mass movements, showing how literary representations assist individuals and collectives with trauma healing and self-reflection. / Graduate

This essay examines the incentives and notions behind the practice of genealogy, in terms of how discourses and notions of kinship, identity and history is expressed against the setting of genealogy as a cultural and social phenomenon that is gaining a growing interest amongst the general public. Through qualitative interviews with six amateur genealogists, the study explores how notions of kinship and history shape the way in which genealogists come to understand themselves and their place in the world. Furthermore, the study explores how genealogists make use of the specific knowledge that they have acquired through their engagement with genealogy. Through analysis of discourse and the logics approach, the essay shows that lack of specific knowledge about one’s ancestry is seen as an inherent reason for seeking knowledge through genealogy. The essay indicates that the notion of understanding oneself can be seen as a significant incentive and driving force in the practice of genealogy, where kinship is made meaningful through identity formation. The essay also shows that genealogy is made meaningful through notions and desires of belonging and affinity, and that genealogy can be seen as a way for genealogists to either create or maintain links between generations, to places, or with the past in general. Furthermore, the essay shows examples of how genealogy can be seen as a way to explore alternative aspects of history, and that the knowledge that is acquired through genealogy can be employed to challenge understandings of “real” and “authentic” history. Lastly, the essay shows that genealogy offers a backdrop of historic knowledge that can be used by genealogists to contrast notions of the past with notions of the present, in order to express criticism towards society, convey moral messages, and to make sense of the present time.

No description available.

In the study of identity and conflict, much research has focused on a macro-perspective where two or more antagonists are in conflict of power. Social construction of identity, and more precisely identity as social categories that are changeable and the result of discourse, human thinking and action provides a picture of how identity may change as context changes. A  social constructionist perspective also provides an understanding about the endogenous relationship between identity and conflict where they both influence each other. In November 2020, an armed conflict broke out in Ethiopia where ethnicity and ethnic identity played a big role, both historically and contemporary. The aim of this study is to understand the more profound mechanisms of how the conflict has contributed to identity formation by interviewing Ethiopians. The results show that the conflict in Ethiopia contributed to change the respondents attitude towards other people, religion, politics, ethnicity/nationality and future. The five categories are understood as processes in which they have affected, and often deteriorated trust and attitude towards the said object. The results thus showed how the conflict through the five processes, contributed to change the respondents identity. Understanding the five processes of how conflicts affect identity provides an interesting insight about the mechanisms that tend to drive conflict in the endogenous relationship between identity and conflict.

In this research process, my objectives were as follows; firstly, to explore the relationship between identity formation and poverty and secondly to explore the role of the church in combating the effects of poverty in the lives of those who live in poverty stricken communities. A Narrative approach was used to gather data from the community. I listened to the stories of those people who live in poverty. Seven movements were used as the methodology for this research (Muller 2005:81-86). As a practical theologian, I positioned myself within postfoundationalist theology. In this position I avoided foundation epistemology which seeks the absolute truth as well as anti or nonfoundational epistemology which promotes relativism. As I mentioned earlier postfoundationalist practical theology is always thinking in a specific context and can also go beyond that specific context into interdisciplinary thinking. Starting from a specific context into an interdisciplinary context, we found that the concept of poverty has been described as a discourse meaning that it went from poverty as a lack of resources into linguistic, poverty as lack of capabilities or poverty being political. By taking multidimension method to eradicate poverty one needs to apply a multidimensions approach. The stories from Nellmapius affirmed that poverty influences identity formation. The following effects were identified: low self-esteem, stress, depression, lack of self-acceptance and hopelessness. The church has the capacity as the biggest membership and with the most awareness organization in most communities that has the attention of many people. The church is able to preach hope for people in what seems to be hopelessness and encourage the poor to rise out of their poverty. It can facilitate the poor and the government to work together to change their lives. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

I have been using qualitative interviews to explore music's influence in school from a learning perspective, community perspective and identity-building perspective. I have visited two classes at two different schools to do these interviews with ten informants, both students and teachers. My interview questions were almost the same for both students and teachers, but differed in wording. My research is based on the informants’ answers and relevant sources such as literary books, curricula and the Internet. After fieldwork was completed, I transcribed the interviews to further analyze them according to relevant theories, such as Bergman (2009) and Antal Lundström (1996). I am satisfied with the results of the research and I am glad that the sources I have found verify my own theories about music's understated value in schools and that music is really a necessary tool to help learning, community and identity creation. Regrettably I have not found any theories that take an opposite stance to my views. Through my research I have found that music can benefit most students, not all because everyone has different needs - but many, in their learning process. Music, for example, helps with a new means of expression for students. I have also found that music increases the cohesion and creates community in groups where the participants reveals new sides to each other - something that creates a strong and secure group. The music gives students the opportunity to try different roles - it strengthens the students' personalities and helps them in their identity formation.

This study aims to dive deep and examine through interviews and previous research wich role historical consciousness and identity play in multicultural classrooms. The goal is to use a qualitative method to investigate for example wich role historical consciousness play in creating identities in multicultural classrooms. It will also be about how teachers shape their teaching according to multiculturalism. The interviews conducted in the study were of a semi structured nature as there were no predetermined answers to the questions. The interviews took place at one school in southern Sweden with two teachers of varying ages. After the interviews I divided the answers in to themes that were the three main concepts that the study is about (historical consciousness, identity and multiculturalism) as well as other themes like us and them. The empirical material further showed that multicultural classrooms have meant that teachers have broadened their view of history and made it more inclusive. Teachers are also increasingly shaping their teaching from a teacher-centerd classroom to giving students a greater role by for example telling about their culture or homeland. Both teachers also agreed that it was better to find similarities in history between diffrent countries and cultures in order to create a more inclusive classroom and that it made it easier to create a common identity. I am fully aware that the results of my study can not generate in any major conclusions. Although my study of the scope is not particulary large I think that there is a basis for understanding how multicultural classrooms can affect teachers role and work in schools.

A paradigm shift has taken place in identity formation as the society7 is moving towards to be more digitized. Previous research shows that young people use social media and its opinion leaders, called influencers, to a large extent as a tool to create their own identity. One way to express identity is through clothing and today the fast fashion industry has digital marketing strategies in shape of collaborations with influencers to reach consumers. Young women are, above all, the target group that both spends time and is most affected by social media, which makes them easily fall for the consumerism of clothing that influencers encourage. The fashion industry is an industry that has an extensive climate impact where emissions of greenhouse gas, chemicals and the use of resources have major negative consequences for the world. Statistics specifically indicate that young women have a high environmental awareness in form of strong sustainable values, while this group in the meantime also having a tendency to be affected to consume. The purpose of this study is to investigate young women's identity formation via Instagram and how they position themselves in their identity formation regarding both clothing consumption and environmental awareness. This study was conducted in accordance with a qualitative approach where the data material was obtained through interviews with four focus groups. The method has been chosen to study how the respondents argue while being a part of a group. The data has been analyzed through a developed analytical model based on a thematization of selected identity theories. The study's findings and conclusions indicates that young women are generally unplanned and materialistic in their clothing consumption despite a general or high environmental awareness. However, a greater interest in fashion tends to lead to increased environmental awareness in the consumption of clothing. The perception of the importance of clothing for identity formation affects how different patterns of consumption develop where those with a high opinion are less materialistic and impulsive and vice versa. Influencers' impact on young women’s identity formation vary and is based on the intention to follow a profile, where those who intend to follow fashion-based profiles are more affected than those who follow lifestyle influencers. This study is written in swedish. / Ett paradigmskifte har skett inom identitetsskapande i takt med att samhället går mot att bli allt mer digitaliserat. Tidigare forskning visar på att unga individer i stor utsträckning använder sociala medier och dessa plattformars opinionsledare, kallade influencers, som verktyg för att skapa sin egen identitet. Ett sätt att uttrycka sin identitet på är genom kläder och fast fashion industrin har idag digitala marknadsföringsstrategier i form av samarbeten med influencers för att nå ut till konsumenter. Unga kvinnor är den målgrupp som både spenderar tid och påverkas av sociala medier allra mest, vilket gör att de lätt faller för den konsumtionshets som influencers uppmuntrar till. Modeindustrin är en bransch som har en omfattande miljöpåverkan där utsläpp av avgaser, kemikalier och användning av resurser medför stora negativa konsekvenser för miljön. Statistik visar specifikt på att unga kvinnor besitter en stor miljömedvetenhet i form av starka hållbara värderingar, samtidigt som de haren benägenhet att påverkas i sin konsumtion. Syftet med studien är att undersöka unga kvinnors identitetsskapande via influencers på Instagram och hur de ställer sig till sittidentitetsskapande med hänsyn till både konsumtion av kläder samt miljömedvetenhet. Undersökningen har skett i enlighet med ett kvalitativt förhållningssätt där datamaterialet harinhämtats via intervjuer med fyra fokusgrupper. Metoden har valts för att studera hur respondenterna i egenskap av grupp för ett resonemang. Datamaterialet har analyserats genomen framarbetad analysmodell som baseras på en tematisering av valda identitetsteorier. Studiens resultat och slutsatser indikerar på att unga kvinnor generellt är oplanerade och materialistiska i sin klädkonsumtion trots en allmän eller hög miljömedvetenhet. Ett större intresse för mode tenderar emellertid att leda till en ökad miljömedvetenhet vid konsumtionav kläder. Uppfattningen om hur stor betydelse kläder hade för identitetsskapandet påverkar hur olika konsumtionsmönster utvecklas där de med hög uppfattning är mindre materialistiska tillika impulsiva och vice versa. Influencers påverkan på unga kvinnors identitetsskapandevarierar utifrån vilken intention som ligger bakom att följa dessa där de som avser att följa modebaserade influencers påverkas mer än de som följer livsstilsinfluencers.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Medical education researchers have long been interested in understanding medical professional identity formation and its implications for the healthcare system. Various theories have been proposed to explain identity formation. Among them, Foucault’s discourse theory maintains that it is the discourse of medicine that constitutes medical professional identities. This study deployed a Foucauldian archaeological methodology to analyze the structure of modern medical discourse and establish links between discourse and professional identity formation in medical students. A total of forty-six medical students at Indiana University School of Medicine participated in either individual or focus group interviews. Direct observation of the clinical and educational settings was also performed, which resulted in additional textual data in the form of fieldnotes. Archaeological analysis of discourse was undertaken in three levels of the statements, the discursive elements, and the discursive rules and relations. Results entailed a detailed depiction of the structure of medical discourse including discursive objects and modes of enunciation, discursive concepts, and theoretical strategies related to each object. Discursive objects are things that are talked about in modern medical discourse. This study identified four discursive objects as disease and treatment, the doctor, the human body, and the sick person. Modes of enunciation are the different ways in which people talk about objects of medicine, whereas concepts consist of the notions people draw from when talking about objects of medicine. Theoretical strategies indicate certain positions that people take in relation to the objects of medicine. Rules of formation and conditions of existence for each discursive element were also established. Since Identities are entrenched through language and interaction, developing a systematic understanding of the structure of medical discourse will shed new light on medical professional identity formation. Results of this study also have profound implications for teaching professionalism and medical humanities in medical curricula. Furthermore, as a research methodology used for the first time in medical education, archaeology not only opens new territories to be explored by future research, it also provides an entirely new way to look at them.

No description available.