Showing papers on "Identity (social science) published in 2000"

Economics and Identity

Abstract: This paper considers how identity, a person's sense of self, affects economic outcomes. We incorporate the psychology and sociology of identity into an economic model of behavior. In the utility function we propose, identity is associated with different social categories and how people in these categories should behave. We then construct a simple game-theoretic model showing how identity can affect individual interactions. The paper adapts these models to gender discrimination in the workplace, the economics of poverty and social exclusion, and the household division of labor. In each case, the inclusion of identity substantively changes conclusions of previous economic analysis.

Identity theory and social identity theory

Abstract: In social psychology, we need to establish a general theory of the self which can attend to both macro and micro processes, and which avoids the redundancies of separate theories on different aspects of the self For this purpose, we present core components of identity theory and social identity theory and argue that although differences exist between the two theories, they are more differences in emphasis than in kind, and that linking the two theories can establish a more fully integrated view of the self The core components we examine include the different bases of identity (category/group or role) in each of the theories, identity salience and the activation of identities as discussed in the theories, and the cognitive and motivational processes that emerge from identities based on category/group and on role. By examining the self through the lens of both identity theory and social identity theory, we see how, in combination, they can move us toward a general theory of the self In contrast to Hogg and his colleagues (Hogg, Terry, and White 1995), we see substantial similarities and overlap between social identity theory and identity theory. We think that this overlap ultimately will cause these theories to be linked in fundamental ways, though we do not think that time has

The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory*

Abstract: Among the many traditions of research on "identity," two somewhat different yet strongly related strands of identity theory have developed. The first, reflected in the work of Stryker and colleagues, focuses on the linkages of social structures with identities. The second, reflected in the work of Burke and colleagues, focuses on the internal process of self-verification. In the present paper we review each of these strands and then discuss ways in which the two relate to and complement one another Each provides a context for the other: the relation of social structures to identities influences the process of self-verification, while the process of self-verification creates and sustains social structures. The paper concludes with examples of potentially useful applications of identity theory to other arenas of social psychology, and with a discussion of challenges that identity theory must meet to provide a clear understanding of the relation between self and society. The language of "identity" is ubiquitous in contemporary social science, cutting across psychoanalysis, psychology, political science, sociology, and history. The common usage of the term identity, however, belies the considerable variability in both its conceptual meanings and its theoretical role. Even when consideration is restricted to sociology and social psychology, variation is still considerable.'

Identity as an analytic lens for research in education

Abstract: n today's fast changing and interconnected global world, researchers in a variety of areas have come to see identity as an important analytic tool for understanding schools and society. A focus on the contextually specific ways in which people act out and recognize identities allows a more dynamic approach than the sometimes overly general and static trio of "race, class, and gender." However, the term identity has taken on a great many different meanings in the literature. Rather than survey this large literature, I will sketch out but one approach that draws on one consistent strand of that literature. This is not to deny that other, equally useful approaches are possible, based on different selections from the literature.

Organizational Identity, Image, and Adaptive Instability

Abstract: Organizational identity usually is portrayed as that which is core, distinctive, and enduring about the character of an organization. We argue that because of the reciprocal interrelationships between identity and image, organizational identity, rather than enduring, is better viewed as a relatively fluid and unstable concept. We further argue that instead of destabilizing an organization, this instability in identity is actually adaptive in accomplishing change. The analysis leads to some provocative, but nonetheless constructive, implications for theory, research, and practice.

Orchestrating Impartiality: The Impact of “Blind” Auditions on Female Musicians

Abstract: A change in the audition procedures of symphony orchestras--adoption of "blind" auditions with a "screen" to conceal the candidate's identity from the jury--provides a test for sex-biased hiring. Using data from actual auditions, in an individual fixed-effects framework, we find that the screen increases the probability a woman will be advanced and hired. Although some of our estimates have large standard errors and there is one persistent effect in the opposite direction, the weight of the evidence suggests that the blind audition procedure fostered impartiality in hiring and increased the proportion women in symphony orchestras.

Corporate communication and impression management - New perspectives why companies engage in corporate social reporting

Abstract: This paper addresses the theoretical framework on corporate social reporting. Although that corporate social reporting has been analysed from different perspectives, legitmacy theory currently is the dominating perspective. Authors employing this framework suggest that social and environmental disclosures are responses to both public pressure and increased media attention resulting from major social incidents such as the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the chemical leak in Bhopal (India). More specifically, those authors argue that the increase in social disclosures represent a strategy to alter the public's perception about the legitimacy of the organisation. Therefore, we suggest using corporate communication as an overarching framework to study corporate social reporting in which “corporate image” and “corporate identity” are central.

Classifying Managerial Responses to Multiple Organizational Identities

Abstract: We examine the phenomenon of multiple organizational identities and suggest that they can be managed in organizations by changing the number of (identity plurality) or relationships among (identity synergy) the identities. Using “plurality” and “synergy” as response dimensions, we offer a classification scheme identifying four major types of managerial responses: compartmentalization, deletion, integration, and aggregation. We also suggest several key conditions that may affect the use and appropriateness of these identity management responses and develop a series of propositions for research.

The Gendered Society

Abstract: Thoroughly updated throughout, the fourth edition of The Gendered Society explores current thinking about gender, both inside academia and in our everyday lives. Michael Kimmel challenges the claim that gender is limited to women's experiences--his compelling and balanced study of genderincludes both masculine and feminine perspectives. Part 1 examines the latest work in biology, anthropology, psychology, and sociology; Part 2 provides an original analysis of the gendered worlds of family, education, and work; and Part 3 explores gender interactions, including friendship and love, sexuality, and violence. Kimmel makes three bold and persuasive statements about gender. First, he demonstrates that gender differences are often extremely exaggerated; in fact, he argues that men and women have much more in common than we think they do. Kimmel also challenges the pop psychologists who suggest that gender difference is the cause of inequality between the sexes; instead, he reveals that the reverse is true--gender inequality itself is the cause of the differences between men and women. Finally, he illustrates that gender is not merely an element of individual identity, but a socially constructed institutional phenomenon. The fourth edition features a new chapter on gender and religion; increased coverage of bisexuality and transgender issues; a series of text boxes ("Oh, Really?") that dispel gender myths; more photos and art; and an expanded Instructor's Manual that provides additional teaching and testingsuggestions. An expanded Instructor's Manual and Test Bank (9780199738588) includes chapter summaries, short-answer questions, essay questions, class discussions/assignments, learning objectives, and multiple-choice questions. Essential reading for both students and scholars, The Gendered Society, Fourth Edition, is an authoritative, incisive, and lively statement about contemporary gender relations from one of the country's foremost thinkers on the subject. Kimmel's companion anthology, The Gendered Society Reader, Fourth Edition (OUP, 2010), coedited with Amy Aronson, provides a perfect complement for classroom use. PACKAGE the textbook and the reader together and save your students 20%! Please call Customer Service at 800.280.0280 for details.

Social capital : critical perspectives

Abstract: 1 Social capital: a review and critique 2 Civil society and democratic renewal 3 Social capital, the economy and education in historical perspective 4 Economic, social capital and the colonization of the social sciences 5 Socialising social capital: identity, the transition to work and economic development 6 Social capital, innovation and competitiveness 7 Refugees and social capital theory: social capital and social integration 8 Social capital trumping class and cultural capital? Engagement with school among immigrant youth 9 Social capital, schools and exclusions 10 Social capital and health: contextualizing health promotion within local community networks 11 Local social capital: making it work on the ground 12 Social capital and associational life 13 Human capital, social capital and collective intelligence 14 Social capital and human capital revisited

When Cymbals Become Symbols: Conflict Over Organizational Identity Within a Symphony Orchestra

Abstract: In this qualitative field study, I explore how the construction of a cultural institution's identity is related to the construction of strategic capabilities and resources. I investigated the 1996 musicians' strike at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), which revealed embedded and latent identity conflicts. The multifaceted and specialized identity of the ASO was reinforced by different professional groups in the organization: the ideologies of musicians and administrators emphasized institutional resource allocations consistent with the legitimating values of their professions, i.e., artistic excellence versus economic utility. These identity claims, made under organizational crisis, accounted for variations in the construction of core competencies. I propose a model that explicates how the construction of core capabilities lies at the intersection of identification and interpretive processes in organizations. Implications are discussed for defining firm capabilities in cultural institutions and for managing organizational forms characterized by competing claims over institutional identity, resources, and core capabilities.

Social Psychology of Identities

Abstract: In this chapter I review the social psychological underpinnings of identity, emphasizing social cognitive and symbolic interactionist perspectives and research, and I turn then to key themes of current work on identity—social psychological, sociological, and interdisciplinary. I emphasize the social bases of identity, particularly identities based on ethnicity, race, sexuality, gender, class, age, and (dis)ability, both separately and as they intersect. I also take up identities based on space, both geographic and virtual. I discuss struggles over identities, organized by social inequalities, nationalisms, and social movements. I conclude by discussing postmodernist conceptions of identities as fluid, multidimensional, personalized social constructions that reflect sociohistorical contexts, approaches remarkably consistent with recent empirical social psychological research, and I argue explicitly for a politicized social psychology of identities that brings together the structures of everyday lives and t...

A geography of heritage : power, culture, and economy

Abstract: Machine generated contents note: Part I: The context -- 1 The uses and abuses of heritage -- Introduction -- The origins of heritage -- The functions and uses of heritage -- Contestation: whose heritage? -- Conclusion -- Part II: Heritage and the cultural realm: its social -- and political uses -- 2 Heritage, power and identity -- Introduction -- Analogies to heritage: landscape and museology -- Heritage, power and collective memory -- Heritage and identity -- Heritage and class -- Heritage, gender and sexuality -- Heritage and ethnicity -- Conclusion -- 3 Heritage and national identity -- Introduction -- Heritage and nationalism -- Heritage, nationalism and ethnicity -- Heritages of disinheritance and atrocity -- Conclusion -- 4 Heritage, identity and postmodernity -- Introduction -- Heritage, place and postmodernity -- A hybridity of heritages -- Dissonance of heritage revisited -- Conclusion -- 5 Multicultural heritage: from dissonance to harmony? -- Introduction --^

“Being” Native versus “Going Native”: Conducting Social Work Research as an Insider

Abstract: The increasing cultural diversity among professional social workers has resulted in the need to examine critically some of the earlier notions about the epistemology, ontology, and methodology of social work research and practice. One outcome of these analyses about how and by whom research projects are carried out is the emergence of "native," "indigenous," or "insider" research in which scholars conduct studies with populations and communities and identity groups of which they are also members. This article reports the work of a native social work researcher who conducted an ethnographic study with her social identity group. The complex and inherent challenges of being both an insider with intimate knowledge of one's study population and an outsider as researcher are explored. Implications for social work research and practice with regard to native social work perspectives and methods also are discussed.

A Conceptual Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity

Abstract: A conceptual model of multiple dimensions of identity depicts a core sense of self or one’s personal identity. Intersecting circles surrounding the core identity represent significant identity dimensions (e.g., race, sexual orientation, and religion) and contextual influences (e.g., family background and life experiences). The model evolved from a grounded theory study of a group of 10 women college students ranging in age from 20-24 and of diverse racial-ethnic backgrounds.

Assimilation and Diversity: An Integrative Model of Subgroup Relations:

Abstract: A model of sociostructural relations among subgroups within a superordinate category is presented. Contextualized by discussion of political and social psychological models of intergroup contact, we extend principles of social identity theory to address structural differentiation within groups. Subgroup identity threat plays a pivotal role in the nature of subgroup relations, as do the social realities of specific subgroup relations (i.e., inclusiveness, nested vs. crosscutting categories, leadership, instrumental goal relations, power and status differentials, subgroup similarity). Our analysis suggests that subgroup identity threat is the greatest obstacle to social harmony; social arrangements that threaten social identity produce defensive reactions that result in conflict. Social harmony is best achieved by maintaining, not weakening, subgroup identities, and locating them within the context of a binding superordinate identity.

Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People

Abstract: Through combined theoretical and empirical study, this work argues that transgendered people are not so much "produced" by medicine or psychiatry as they are "erased", or made invisible, in a variety of institutional and cultural settings. An analysis is made of two theoretical perspectives on transgendered people - queer theory and the social sciences - displaying how neither of these has adequately addressed the issues most relevant to sex change: everything from employment to health care to identity papers. Namaste then examines some of the rhetorical and semiotic inscriptons of transgendered figures in culture - including studies of early punk and glam rock subcultures - to illustrate how the effacement of transgendered people is organized in different cultural sites. This text concludes with research on some of the day-to-day concerns of transgendered people, offering case studies in violence, health care, gender identity clinics and the law.

Displacing place‐identity: A discursive approach to locating self and other

Abstract: Questions of 'who we are' are often intimately related to questions of 'where we are', an idea captured in the environmental psychological concept of place-identity. The value of this concept is that it attends to the located nature of subjectivity, challenging the disembodied notions of identity preferred by social psychologists. The topic of place identity would thus seem to be a productive point around which the sub-disciplines of social and environmental psychology might meet, answering calls for greater disciplinary cross-fertilization. This study contributes to this project by presenting a sympathetic but critical evaluation of research on place-identity. It argues that such research is valuable in that it has established the importance of place for creating and sustaining a sense of self. However, drawing on recent developments in discursive approaches to social psychology, the authors identify several limitations with existing work on place-identity. This critique is then developed through analysis of an ongoing research programme located in the changing landscapes of the new South Africa.

Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing

Abstract: It has long been said that clothes make the man (or woman), but is it still true today? If so, how has the information clothes convey changed over the years? Using a wide range of historical and contemporary materials, Diana Crane demonstrates how the social significance of clothing has been transformed. Crane compares 19th-century societies - France and the United States - where social class was the most salient aspect of social identity signified in clothing with late 20th-century America, where lifestyle, gender, sexual orientation, age and ethnicity are more meaningful to individuals in constructing their wardrobes. Today, clothes worn at work signify social class, but leisure clothes convey meanings ranging from trite to political. In today's multicode societies, clothes inhibit as well as facilitate communication between highly fragmented social groups. Crane extends her comparison by showing how 19th-century French designers created fashions that suited lifestyles of Paris elites but that were also widely adopted outside France. By contrast, today's designers operate in a global marketplace, shaped by television, film and popular music. No longer confined to elites, trendsetters are drawn from many social groups, and most trends have short trajectories. To assess the impact of fashion on women, Crane uses voices of college-aged and middle-aged women who took part in focus groups. These discussions yield fascinating information about women's perceptions of female identity and "Fashion and Its Social Agendas" stands out as a critical study of gender, fashion and consumer culture.

The Impact of Identity Orientation on Individual and Organizational Outcomes in Demographically Diverse Settings

Abstract: Our present understanding of identification processes poses a serious limitation to diversity research. In this article I present a preliminary model explicating how organizational, task, and reward structures affect the activation of members' personal relational, and collective identity orientations. I further outline the manner in which the identity orientations of majority and minority individuals link to cognition, affect, and behavior of members of each group, as well as to diversity-related organizational outcomes. Activating a relational identity orientation may promote benefits and inhibit disadvantages associated with diversity. I also discuss apparent theoretical and practical contributions of the model.

Linguistic Variation as Social Practice: The Linguistic Construction of Identity in Belten High

Abstract: List of Figures. List of Tables. Preface. Introduction: Variation and Agency. Interpreting the Meaning of Variation. The Social Order of Belten High. Sociolinguistic Research in the School. The Vocalic Variables. Outline of Variation in Belten High. We Are What We Do. Friendships, Networks, and Communities of Practice. Style, Social Meaning, and Sound Change. References. Index.

L2 Literacy and the Design of the Self: A Case Study of a Teenager Writing on the Internet

Abstract: This article presents a case study that uses ethnographic and discourse analytic methods to examine how electronic textual experiences in ESL figure in the identity formation and literacy development of the learner. First, the article reviews some recent work in literacy studies, L2 learning, and computer-mediated communication to provide a conceptual basis for studying discursive practices and identity formation in L2 learning. The results of a case study of a Chinese immigrant teenager's written correspondence with a transnational group of peers on the Internet then show how this correspondence relates to his developing identity in the use of English. This study develops the notion of textual identity for understanding how texts are composed and used to represent and reposition identity in the networked computer media. It also raises critical questions on literacy and cultural belonging in the present age of globalization and transborder relations.

Storylines: Craftartists' Narratives of Identity

Abstract: What do we mean when we refer to our "identity", and how do we represent it in the stories we tell about our live? Is "identity" a sustained private core, or does it change as circumstances and relationships shift? In this book, a recognized master of research interviewing explores these questions through analyses of in-depth interviews with five crafts , who reflect on their lives and their efforts to sustain their form of work as committed artists in a world of mass production and standardization. The artist describe their families of origin and the families they have created, and the conscious decisions, chance events, and life experiences that entered into the ways they achieved their adult artistic identities. Exploring these continuities, discontinuities and unresolvable tensions in an analysis that brings new sophistication to a much-used term, the author suggest that "identity" is always dialogic and relational, a complex of partial subidentities rather than a unitary monad. More a verb than a noun, it reflects an individual's modes of adaptation, appropriation, and resistance to socio-cultural plots and roles.

Relating Narratives: Storytelling and Selfhood

Abstract: Relating Narratives is a major new work by the philosopher and feminist thinker Adriana Cavarero. First published in Italian to widespread acclaim, Relating Narratives is a fascinating and challenging new account of the relationship between selfhood and narration. Drawing a diverse array of thinkers from both the philosophical and the literary tradition, from Sophocles and Homer to Hannah Arendt, Karen Blixen, Walter Benjamin and Borges, Adriana Cadarero's theory of the `narratable self' shows how narrative models in philosophy and literature can open new ways of thinking about formation of human identities. By showing how each human being has a unique story that can be told about them, Adriana Cavarero inaugurates an important shift in thinking about subjectivity and identity which relies not upon categorical or discursive norms, but rather seeks to account for `who' each one of us uniquely is.

Shame and the Social Bond: A Sociological Theory

Abstract: Emotion has long been recognized in sociology as crucially important, but most references to it are generalized and vague. In this essay, I nominate shame, specifically, as the premier social emotion. First I review the individualized treatment of shame in psychoanalysis and psychology, and the absence of social context. Then I consider the contributions to the social dimensions of shame by six sociologists (Georg Simmel, Charles Cooley, Norbert Elias, Richard Sennett, Helen Lynd, Erving Goffman) and a psychologist/psychoanalyst (Helen Lewis). I show that Cooley and Lynd, particularly, made contributions to a theory of shame and the social bond. Lewis's idea that shame arises from threats to the bond integrates the contributions of all six sociologists, and points toward future research on emotion, conflict, and alienation/integration.

Factors Affecting Fan Attendance: The Influence of Identity Salience and Satisfaction

Abstract: The study combines disparate streams of research in order to develop a model of devoted fan behavior. The theoretical foundations for this study are based on literature examining social identity th...