Showing papers on "Identity (social science) published in 2004"

Ethnicity without Groups

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Ethnicity without Groups 2. Beyond "Identity" 3. Ethnicity as Cognition 4. Ethnic and Nationalist Violence 5. The Return of Assimilation? 6. "Civic" and "Ethnic" Nationalism 7. Ethnicity, Migration, and Statehood in Post-Cold War Europe 8. 1848 in 1998: The Politics of Commemoration in Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia Notes References Index

Identity ambiguity and change in the wake of a corporate spin-off

Abstract: We report on the findings of an inductive, interpretive case study of organizational identity change in the spin-off of a Fortune 100 company's top-performing organizational unit into an independen...

Understanding Home: A Critical Review of the Literature:

Abstract: In recent years there has been a proliferation of writing on the meaning of home within the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, psychology, human geography, history, architecture and philosophy. Although many researchers now understand home as a multidimensional concept and acknowledge the presence of and need for multidisciplinary research in the field, there has been little sustained reflection and critique of the multidisciplinary field of home research and the diverse, even contradictory meanings of this term. This paper brings together and examines the dominant and recurring ideas about home represented in the relevant theoretical and empirical literature. It raises the question whether or not home is (a) place(s), (a) space(s), feeling(s), practices, and/or an active state of state of being in the world? Home is variously described in the literature as conflated with or related to house, family, haven, self, gender, and journeying. Many authors also consider notions of being-at-home, creating or making home and the ideal home. In an effort to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations about the meaning and experience of home each of these themes are briefly considered in this critical literature review.

Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity

Abstract: In his seminal work "The Clash of Civilizations" and the "Remaking of World Order," Samuel Huntington argued provocatively and presciently that with the end of the cold war, "civilizations" were replacing ideologies as the new fault lines in international politics.His astute analysis has proven correct. Now Professor Huntington turns his attention from international affairs to our domestic cultural rifts as he examines the impact other civilizations and their values are having on our own country.America was founded by British settlers who brought with them a distinct culture including the English language, Protestant values, individualism, religious commitment, and respect for law. The waves of immigrants that later came to the United States gradually accepted these values and assimilated into America's Anglo-Protestant culture. More recently, however, national identity has been eroded by the problems of assimilating massive numbers of primarily Hispanic immigrants, bilingualism, multiculturalism, the devaluation of citizenship, and the "denationalization" of American elites.September 11 brought a revival of American patriotism and a renewal of American identity. But already there are signs that this revival is fading, even though in the post-September 11 world, Americans face unprecedented challenges to our security."Who Are We?" shows the need for us to reassert the core values that make us Americans. Nothing less than our national identity is at stake.Once again Samuel Huntington has written an important book that is certain to provoke a lively debate and to shape our national conversation about who we are.\

Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity

Abstract: Preface 1. Toward a Theory of Cultural Trauma: Jeffrey C. Alexander 2. Psychological Trauma and Cultural Trauma: Neil J. Smelser 3. Cultural Trauma: Slavery and the Formation of African American Identity: Ron Eyerman 4. Triumph and Trauma: Bernhard Giesen 5. The Trauma of Social Change: A Case of Postcommunist Societies: Piotr Sztompka 6. On the Social Construction of Moral Universals: The "Holocaust" from War Crime to Trauma Drama: Jeffrey C. Alexander Epilogue: September 11, 2001, as Cultural Trauma: Neil J. Smelser Bibliography Index

Adversaries of Consumption: Consumer Movements, Activism, and Ideology

Abstract: This article focuses on consumer movements that seek ideological and cultural change. Building from a basis in New Social Movement (NSM) theory, we study these movements among anti‐advertising, anti‐Nike, and anti‐GE food activists. We find activists’ collective identity linked to an evangelical identity related to U.S. activism’s religious roots. Our findings elucidate the value of spiritual and religious identities to gaining commitment, warn of the perils of preaching to the unconverted, and highlight movements that seek to transform the ideology and culture of consumerism. Conceiving mainstream consumers as ideological opponents inverts conventional NSM theories that view them as activists’ clients.

Collective Identity and the Burden of "Acting White" in Black History, Community, and Education.

Abstract: After more than 15 years of comparative study of minority education, I concluded that I would have to study two additional factors, namely collective identity and cultural frame of reference to more fully explain the variability in minority school performance. In 1986, I published an article with Signithia Fordham on how “oppositional collective identity and cultural frame of reference” or oppositional culture contributed to Black students' school performance. Many critics have misinterpreted the joint article and even constructed a different thesis of oppositional culture than the one we proposed in the joint article. The thesis is that Black students do not aspire to or strive to get good grades because it is perceived as “acting White.” Furthermore, they have translated my cultural–ecological theory into an oppositional culture theory. I am writing this paper to correct the misinterpretations of the joint article in order to advance scholarship on the subject. I begin by explaining the meaning of collective identity and distinguishing it from other concepts of identity. Specifically, I summarize the evolution of oppositional collective identity and cultural frame of reference or oppositional culture among Black Americans and discuss the Black experience with the “burden of ‘acting White’” in the contemporary United States. Finally, I suggest some continuity between Black historical and community experiences with the “burden of ‘acting White,’” as experienced by Black students.

Narrative Identity and Meaning Making Across the Adult Lifespan: An Introduction

Abstract: In a quiet but consistent way, a new subdiscipline of personality psychology—narrative identity research—has emerged. Its organizing concern is how individuals employ narratives to develop and sustain a sense of personal unity and purpose from diverse experiences across the lifespan (McAdams, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2001). Partly obscured by its interweavings with clinical, developmental, and cognitive psychology, as well as links to social psychology (e.g., Baumeister, Wotman, & Stillwell, 1993; Gergen, 1992; Sarbin, 1986), and the related social sciences of sociology and anthropology, it has sometimes seemed too diffuse or chameleonlike to identify. Finding allies in philosophy (Ricoeur, 1984), psychoanalysis (Schafer, 1981; Spence, 1982), narrative therapy (White & Epston, 1990) and literature (e.g., Lau, 2002; Bruner & Weisser, 1991), it may have appeared too humanities-oriented to be considered a part of scientific inquiry. With its roots in the personological perspective of Henry Murray (1938), it may have been written off by some as too grand in design and similar to Murray’s noble, but daunting, efforts to capture all of the complexity of human personality. Now, however, it is clear that there is a body of midcareer and younger empirical researchers who place narrative identity at the center of personality. In the language of McAdams’s (1995) framework of personality, this group draws on Level 1 ‘‘Trait’’ measures,

Globalization and belonging

Abstract: Global Change and Local Belonging The Limits of Local Attachment Parenting, Education and Elective Belonging Suburbia and the Aura of Place The Ambivalence of Urban Identity 'Manchester, So Much to Answer For' Work Cultures and Social Ties Mediascapes in the Mediation of the Local and the Global Cosmopolitanism, Diaspora and Global Reflexivity

Handbook of experimental existential psychology

Abstract: Part 1: Introduction. Pyszczynski, Greenberg, Koole, Experimental Existential Psychology: Exploring the Human Confrontation with Reality. Part 2: Existential Realities. Solomon, Greenberg, Pyszczynski, The Cultural Animal: Twenty Years of Terror Management Theory and Research. Arndt, Cook, Routledge, The Blueprint of Terror Management: Understanding the Cognitive Architecture of Psychological Defense against the Awareness of Death. Florian, Mikulincer, A Multifaceted Model of the Existential Meanings, Manifestations, and Consequences of the Fear of Personal Death. Goldenberg, Roberts, The Beast within the Beauty: An Existential Perspective on the Objectification and Condemnation of Women. Koole, van den Berg, Paradise Lost and Reclaimed: A Motivational Analysis of Human-Nature Relations. Taubman - Ben-Ari, Risk Taking in Adolescence: "To Be or Not to Be" Is Not Really the Question. Janoff-Bulman, Yopyk, Random Outcomes and Valued Commitments: Existential Dilemmas and the Paradox of Meaning. Part 3: Systems of Meaning and Value. Batson, Stocks, Religion: Its Core Psychological Functions. Tangney, Mashek, In Search of the Moral Person: Do You Have to Feel Really Bad to Be Good? Van den Bos, An Existentialist Approach to the Social Psychology of Fairness: The Influence of Mortality and Uncertainty Salience on Reactions to Fair and Unfair Events. McGregor, Zeal, Identity, and Meaning: Going to Extremes to Be One Self. Sedikides, Wildschut, Baden, Nostalgia: Conceptual Issues and Existential Functions. Young, Morris, Existential Meanings and Cultural Models: The Interplay of Personal and Supernatural Agency in American and Hindu Ways of Responding to Uncertainty. Salzman, Halloran, Cultural Trauma and Recovery: Cultural Meaning, Self-Esteem, and the Reconstruction of the Cultural Anxiety Buffer. Dechesne, Kruglanski, Terror's Epistemic Consequences: Existential Threat and the Quest for Certainty and Closure. Jost, Fitzsimons, Kay, The Ideological Animal: A System Justification View. Part 4: The Human Connection. Mikulincer, Florian, Hirschberger, The Terror of Death and the Quest for Love: An Existential Perspective on Close Relationships. Castano, Yzerbyt, Paladino, Transcending Oneself through Social Identification. Haidt, Algoe, Moral Amplification and the Emotions That Attach Us to Saints and Demons. Case, Williams, Ostracism: A Metaphor for Death. Pinel, Long, Landau, Pyszczynski, I-Sharing, the Problem of Existential Isolation, and Their Implications for Interpersonal and Intergroup Phenomena. Wicklund, Vida-Grim, Bellezza in Interpersonal Relations. Part 5: Freedom and the Will. Bargh, Being Here Now: Is Consciousness Necessary for Human Freedom? Vohs, Baumeister, Ego Depletion, Self-Control, and Choice. Kuhl, Koole, Workings of the Will: A Functional Approach. Martin, Campbell, Henry, The Roar of Awakening: Mortality Acknowledgment as a Call to Authentic Living. Ryan, Deci, Autonomy Is No Illusion: Self-Determination Theory and the Empirical Study of Authenticity, Awareness, and Will. Kasser, Sheldon, Non-Becoming, Alienated Becoming, and Authentic Becoming: A Goal-Based Approach. Part 6: Postmortem. Koole, Greenberg, Pyszczynski, The Best of Two Worlds: Experimental Existential Psychology Now and in the Future.

The social psychology of ethnic identity

Abstract: In contrast to other disciplines, social psychology has been slow in responding to the questions posed by the issue of ethnicity. The Social Psychology of Ethnic Identity, Second Edition, demonstrates the important and diverse contribution that social psychology can make. Comprehensively updated to include the latest research on dual and multiple identities, mutual links between sense of ethnic identity and social contexts, and the development of ethnic identity in adolescence, this new edition now also features research from non-European cultural contexts, including Turkey, Mauritius and Myanmar. The book shows, on the one hand, that social psychology can be used to develop a better understanding of ethnicity and, on the other hand, that increased attention to ethnicity can benefit social psychology. By filling in theoretical and empirical gaps, Maykel Verkuyten brings an original approach to subjects such as: ethnic minority identity – place, space and time; hyphenated identities and duality; and self-descriptions and the ethnic self. Featuring the latest theoretical ideas and research, the combination of diverse approaches to this burgeoning field make this book invaluable reading for students of psychology and related disciplines, as well as researchers and professionals.

Cyberprotest: New Media, Citizens and Social Movements

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. New Media, Citizenship and Social Movements Part One: Changing the levels and the domains of political action 3. Gobal-protesters: Virtual or Real? The Role of the Internet in Shaping the Anti-globalisation Movement 4. Is the Market the New Battle Ground for Political Campaigning? Part two: Changing strategies and stratagems: action and activism in the information age 6. Meta-movements: New Technologies and New Forms of Coalition, Co-operation and Co-ordination in the Social Movement 'Industry' 7. "'Times are Changing': Media Strategies of Protest Groups since the 1960s" 8. The Internet, Global Mobilization, and Movement Message Frames: Organizational Similarities and Communicational Differences between Protest Events and Issue Campaigns The activists in between: New Media, Social Movements and Change 9. The Activists in Between: New Media, Social Movements and Change 10. Social Movements and the Media. September 1999, from Portugal to East-Timor 11. The Expert Always Knows Best? ATTAC's Use of the Internet as a Tool to Facilitate New Virtual Forms of Protest 12. Tales from Italy Part Three: Citizenship, Identity, and Virtual Movements 13. Citizenship, Democracy and New States of Welfare 14. The Woman's Movement Online: A Study into the Uses of Internet by Women's Organizations in the Netherlands 15. The Grey Panthers wants Political Influence - Democratic Effects of Utilising ICTs 16. Disembodied Citizenship? Re-@ccessing Disabled People's Voices in Portugal 17. Conclusion

Friendster and publicly articulated social networking

Abstract: This paper presents ethnographic fieldwork on Friendster, an online dating site utilizing social networks to encourage friend-of-friend connections. I discuss how Friendster applies social theory, how users react to the site, and the tensions that emerge between creator and users when the latter fails to conform to the expectations of the former. By offering this ethnographic piece as an example, I suggest how the HCI community should consider the co-evolution of the social community and the underlying technology.

Gender in psychology.

Abstract: Gender is increasingly understood as defining a system of power relations embedded in other power relations. Psychological research on gender—which has most often focused on analysis of sex differences, within-sex variability, and gender roles—has begun to incorporate this new understanding. By drawing on three resources, psychologists can make more rapid progress in understanding gender's significance for psychological processes: social science theories that link the individual and social levels of analysis; constructs (such as identity) that bridge the social and individual levels; and conceptual tools generated in feminist theory, perhaps especially intersectionality. We review these resources, cite active research programs that have employed them, and conclude by offering some practical suggestions about how to incorporate these resources into our research.

Discourse Analysis and the Study of Classroom Language and Literacy Events: A Microethnographic Perspective

Abstract: The authors present a social linguistic/social interactional approach to the discourse analysis of classroom language and literacy events. Building on recent theories in interactional sociolinguistics, literary theory, social anthropology, critical discourse analysis, and the New Literacy Studies, they describe a microethnographic approach to discourse analysis that provides a reflexive and recursive research process that continually questions what counts as knowledge in and of the interactions among teachers and students. The approach combines attention to how people use language and other systems of communication in constructing classroom events with attention to social, cultural, and political processes. The focus of attention is on actual people acting and reacting to each other, creating and recreating the worlds in which they live. One contribution of the microethnographic approach is to highlight the conception of people as complex, multi-dimensional actors who together use what is given by culture, language, social, and economic capital to create new meanings, social relationships and possibilities, and to recreate culture and language. The approach presented by the authors does not separate methodological, theoretical, and epistemological issues. Instead, they argue that research always involves a dialectical relationship among the object of the research, the theoretical frameworks and methodologies driving the research, and the situations within which the research is being conducted. Discourse Analysis and the Study of Classroom Language and Literacy Events: A Microethnographic Perspective: *introduces key constructs and the intellectual and disciplinary foundations of the microethnographic approach; *addresses the use of this approach to gain insight into three often discussed issues in research on classroom literacy events--classroom literacy events as cultural action, the social construction of identity, and power relations in and through classroom literacy events; *presents transcripts of classroom literacy events to illustrate how theoretical constructs, the research issue, the research site, methods, research techniques, and previous studies of discourse analysis come together to constitute a discourse analysis; and *discusses the complexity of "locating" microethnographic discourse analysis studies within the field of literacy studies and within broader intellectual movements. This volume is of broad interest and will be widely welcomed by scholars and students in the field language and literacy studies, educational researchers focusing on analysis of classroom discourse, educational sociolinguists, and sociologists and anthropologists focusing on face-to-face interaction and language use.

The Politics of Disgust: The Public Identity of the Welfare Queen

Abstract: ContentsList of Tables Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations 1 Introduction: The Face of Welfare Reform2 Political Culture and the Public Identity of the "Welfare Queen" 3 The News Media: Constructing the Politics of Disgust? 4 Public Discourse in Congress: Haunted by Ghosts of "Welfare Queens" Past 5 Contending with the Politics of Disgust: Public Identity through Welfare Recipients' Eyes 6 The Dual Threat: The Impact of Public Identity and the Politics of Disgust on Democratic Deliberation 7 Epilogue: Public Identity and the Politics of Disgust in the New Millennium Appendix A: Citations for News Media Data SetAnalyzed in Chapter 3 Appendix B: Congressional Record DocumentsAnalyzed in Chapter 4 Appendix C: Data Analysis Procedures Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

Gender As Social Institution

Abstract: This article encourages sociologists to study gender as a social institution. Noting that scholars apply the institution concept to highly disparate phenomena, it reviews the history of the concept in twentieth-century sociology. The defining characteristic most commonly attributed to social institution is endurance (or persistence over time) while contemporary uses highlight practices, conflict, identity, power, and change. I identify twelve criteria for deciding whether any phenomenon is a social institution. I conclude that treating gender as an institution will improve gender scholarship and social theory generally, increase awareness of gender’s profound sociality, offer a means of linking diverse theoretical and empirical work, and make gender’s invisible dynamics and complex intersections with other institutions more apparent and subject to critical analysis and change.

Language and Identity: National, Ethnic, Religious

Abstract: Preface Introduction Linguistic Identity and the Function and Evolution of Language Approaching Identity in Traditional Linguistic Analysis Integrating Perspectives from Adjacent Disciplines Language in National Identities Case Study 1 - The New Quasi-Nation of Hong Kong Language in Ethnic/Racial and Religious/Sectarian Identities Case Study 2 - Christian and Muslim Identities in Lebanon Afterword: Identity and the Study of Language Bibliography Index

Cages in tandem: Management control, social identity, and identification in a knowledge-intensive firm

Abstract: Developments in organization studies downplay the role of bureaucracy in favour of more flexible arrangements and forms of organizational control, including socio-ideological control. Corporate culture and regulated social identities are assumed to provide means for the integration and orchestration of work. Knowledge-intensive firms, which typically draw heavily upon socio-ideological modes of control, are often singled out as organizational forms that use social identity and the corporatization of the self as a mode for managerial control. In this article we explore and discuss social identity and identification in a large IT/management consultancy firm with a strong presence of socio-ideological or normative control, but also with strong bureaucratic features. Structural forms of control-formal HRM procedures and performance pressures are considered in relation to socio-ideological control. We identify organizational and individual consequences of identification in a context of social, structural, and cultural 'closures' and contradictions, including the tendency to create an 'iron cage of subjectivity'. (Less)

Theorizing identity in language and sexuality research

Abstract: The field of language and sexuality has gained importance within socioculturally oriented linguistic scholarship. Much current work in this area emphasizes identity as one key aspect of sexuality. However, recent critiques of identity-based research advocate instead a desire-centered view of sexuality. Such an approach artificially restricts the scope of the field by overlooking the close relationship between identity and desire. This connection emerges clearly in queer linguistics, an approach to language and sexuality that incorporates insights from feminist, queer, and sociolinguistic theories to analyze sexuality as a broad sociocultural phenomenon. These intellectual approaches have shown that research on identity, sexual or otherwise, is most productive when the concept is understood as the outcome of intersubjectively negotiated practices and ideologies. To this end, an analytic framework for the semiotic study of social intersubjectivity is presented. (Sexuality, feminism, identity, desire, queer linguistics.)*

Race to the Finish: Identity and Governance in an Age of Genomics

Abstract: In the summer of 1991, population geneticists and evolutionary biologists proposed to archive human genetic diversity by collecting the genomes of "isolated indigenous populations." Their initiative, which became known as the Human Genome Diversity Project, generated early enthusiasm from those who believed it would enable huge advances in our understanding of human evolution. However, vocal criticism soon emerged. Physical anthropologists accused Project organizers of reimporting racist categories into science. Indigenous-rights leaders saw a "Vampire Project" that sought the blood of indigenous people but not their well-being. More than a decade later, the effort is barely off the ground. How did an initiative whose leaders included some of biology's most respected, socially conscious scientists become so stigmatized? How did these model citizen-scientists come to be viewed as potential racists, even vampires? This book argues that the long abeyance of the Diversity Project points to larger, fundamental questions about how to understand knowledge, democracy, and racism in an age when expert claims about genomes increasingly shape the possibilities for being human. Jenny Reardon demonstrates that far from being innocent tools for fighting racism, scientific ideas and practices embed consequential social and political decisions about who can define race, racism, and democracy, and for what ends. She calls for the adoption of novel conceptual tools that do not oppose science and power, truth and racist ideologies, but rather draw into focus their mutual constitution.

Does identity or economic rationality drive public opinion on European integration

Abstract: How do citizens respond to the reallocation of authority across levels of government? This article investigates the relative importance of economic versus identity bases of citizen support for the most far-reaching example of authority migration—European integration.

Tensions in Learning to Teach Accommodation and the Development of a Teaching Identity

Abstract: This article analyzes how Sharon, a student teacher, negotiated the different conceptions of teaching that provided the expectations for good instruction in her university and the site of her student teaching and how her effort to reconcile the different belief systems affected her identity as a teacher. The key settings of Sharon’s experience were the university program, her third-grade class at Harding Elementary, and her first teaching job. During student teaching, Sharon experienced frustrating tensions because her cooperating teacher provided little room for experimentation, mentoring instead with a mimetic approach. When in her first job, Sharon had the opportunity to resolve instructional problems with greater authority. We see tensions that require a socially contextualized intellectual resolution rather than simply one of relational accommodation as potentially productive in creating environments conductive to the formation of a satisfying teaching identity.

The varieties of dignity.

Abstract: As a part of a research project on Dignity and Older Europeans (Fifth Framework (Quality of Life) Programme) I explore in this paper a set of notions of human dignity. The general concept of dignity is introduced and characterized as a position on a value scale and it is further specified through its relations to the notions of right, respect and self-respect. I present four kinds of dignity and spell out their differences: the dignity of merit, the dignity of moral or existential stature, the dignity of identity and the universal human dignity (Menschenwurde). Menschenwurde pertains to all human beings to the same extent and cannot be lost as long as the persons exist. The dignity of merit depends on social rank and position. There are many species of this kind of dignity and it is very unevenly distributed among human beings. The dignity of merit exists in degrees and it can come and go. The dignity of moral stature is the result of the moral deeds of the subject; likewise it can be reduced or lost through his or her immoral deeds. This kind of dignity is tied to the idea of a dignified character and of dignity as a virtue. The dignity of moral stature is a dignity of degree and it is also unevenly distributed. The dignity of identity is tied to the integrity of the subject's body and mind, and in many instances, although not always, also dependent on the subject's self-image. This dignity can come and go as a result of the deeds of fellow human beings and also as a result of changes in the subject's body and mind.

Identities and social structure: The 2003 cooley-mead award address

Abstract: The present paper examines existing links between identities and the social structure in the context of identity control theory. I point out that, whether social structure is conceived as positions (roles and group memberships) to which identities are tied, or as the human organization of resource flows and transfers that are controlled by the identity verification process, identities and social structure are two sides of the same coin. Building on this theme, I develop hypotheses that explore some of the implications of this identity—social structure link. Some hypotheses suggest contexts in which identity change is likely; others explore the various consequences of identity verification, which depend on the different ways in which identities are tied to the social structure.

When Multiple Identities Interfere: The Role of Identity Centrality

Abstract: The current study extends research in the area of identity conflict or interference by focusing on a new identity combination, the woman and scientist identities. In addition, it examines the influence of identity centrality, or importance, as a predictor of interference and moderator of the relation between interference and well-being and science performance. Supporting hypotheses, greater identity interference was related to lower levels of performance and well-being. Furthermore, woman centrality was unrelated to interference for those with a central scientist identity, but for those without a central scientist identity, they were positively related. Although central identities were related to positive outcomes in the absence of interference, the outcomes of all women suffered when interference was high, contrary to the hypothesis. The implications of identity centrality for understanding the negotiation of potentially conflicting identities, and for the retention of women in the sciences, are discussed.

Television, Disordered Eating, and Young Women in Fiji: Negotiating Body Image and Identity during Rapid Social Change

Abstract: Although the relationship between media exposure and risk behavior among youth is established at a population level, the specific psychological and social mechanisms mediating the adverse effects of media on youth remain poorly understood. This study reports on an investigation of the impact of the introduction of television to a rural community in Western Fiji on adolescent ethnic Fijian girls in a setting of rapid social and economic change. Narrative data were collected from 30 purposively selected ethnic Fijian secondary school girls via semi-structured, open-ended interviews. Interviews were conducted in 1998, 3 years after television was first broadcast to this region of Fiji. Narrative data were analyzed for content relating to response to television and mechanisms that mediate self and body image in Fijian adolescents. Data in this sample suggest that media imagery is used in both creative and destructive ways by adolescent Fijian girls to navigate opportunities and conflicts posed by the rapidly changing social environment. Study respondents indicated their explicit modeling of the perceived positive attributes of characters presented in television dramas, but also the beginnings of weight and body shape preoccupation, purging behavior to control weight, and body disparagement. Response to television appeared to be shaped by a desire for competitive social positioning during a period of rapid social transition. Understanding vulnerability to images and values imported with media will be critical to preventing disordered eating and, potentially, other youth risk behaviors in this population, as well as other populations at risk.