Narrative inquiry as cultural psychology

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunil Bhatia
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Indian Diaspora ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Narrative Psychology ◽  
Sociocultural Contexts ◽  
And Migration

In this article, I re-examine Jerome Bruner’s vision of narrative psychology that he laid out over two decades ago. In particular, I argue that narrative inquiry must focus on identities located in sociocultural contexts of transnational movement and migration. The contact of self with multiple forms of otherness — both subtle and violent — play a significant role in identity formation. I discuss two examples from the Somalian and Indian diaspora to show how the study of these fractured, shifting, and hybridized identities provide a very valuable site from which narrative psychology has an opportunity to remake itself as a field that continues to be relevant in a world that is rapidly becoming transnational, diverse, and global.

Ciguapas in New York: Transcultural Ethnicity and Transracialization in Dominican American Performance

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMILIA MARÍA DURÁN-ALMARZA
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Dominican Republic ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
The Usa ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Dominican Women ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Dominican American

The Dominican American community in New York is perhaps one of the best examples of how processes of transculturation are affecting traditional definitions of ethnic identification. Given the intense economic, social and cultural transnational exchanges between the island and the USA from the 1960s, Dominicanyorks have been challenging the illusion of homogeneity in the definition of Americanness for decades, creating transnational social networks that transcend traditional national and ethnographic boundaries. The theatrical works of Josefina Báez, a Dominican American performer living in New York, and Sherezada (Chiqui) Vicioso, a Dominican poet and playwright who lived and worked in the US metropolis for decades before moving back to the Dominican Republic, lyrically explore issues of diaspora, identity and migration and the impact these phenomena might have in the lives of migrant Dominican women. Presenting diasporic experiences from two differing but interconnected locales – New York and the Dominican Republic – these plays offer two complementary views on the ways in which ethnicity, race, social class, age and geopolitical location interact in the formation of transcultural identities, thus contributing to develop a hemispheric approach to the study of identity formation in the Americas.

scholarly journals Socialisation Influences on Gender Ideologies of Immigrant and Native Youth in Germany, England, Sweden and the Netherlands

Sex Roles ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laia Sánchez Guerrero ◽  
Pia S. Schober
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Gender Ideologies ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Gender Empowerment ◽  
Gender And Migration ◽  
Adolescent Parent ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Post Industrial

AbstractAdolescence is a crucial life course phase for identity formation, and youths’ gender ideologies significantly predict gendered behaviours and longer-term transitions. With Western post-industrial societies becoming more culturally diverse, the present study provides novel cross-nationally comparative evidence on gender socialisation processes among native and immigrant youth in Sweden, Germany, England, and the Netherlands, which vary in gender and migration policies and cultures. In addition to parents’ gender ideologies, the study also considers classmates’ gender ideologies as factors shaping 14-year-old adolescents’ gender ideologies. The analysis draws on 5917 adolescent-parent dyads from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study which we link with country-level gender empowerment measures from the United Nations. Remarkably, with the exception of native female adolescents in England and Germany, parents tend to report slightly more egalitarian beliefs than adolescents across the four countries. OLS regressions show that parents’ and classmates’ gender ideologies correlate significantly with adolescents’ ideologies, with little variation across gender and immigrant groups in all four countries. From a policy and practical point of view, the great similarity in the intergenerational transmission of gender beliefs across diverse family backgrounds as well as cultural and policy contexts seem remarkable.

scholarly journals DUA TANI: (Re)evolving Identities of Pacific Islanders

Te Kaharoa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dion Enari ◽  
Elijah Lemusuifeauaali'i
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Pacific Islanders ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
Social Expectations ◽  
Culturally Appropriate ◽  
Life Narratives ◽  
Negative Perceptions ◽  
And Migration

Colonization, modernity and migration have impacted indigenous peoples globally. Of particular interest, is how identity formation of indigenous peoples are affected through these events. This article explores the life narratives of 20 Pacific Islanders in Brisbane, Australia, and their perceptions of identity. Through talanoa (culturally appropriate conversation) a deeper understanding of how Pacific Island people navigate, use, build and (re)shape their identities was established. The findings showed that although all the participants acknowledged the effects of colonialism, migration and western social expectations, their Pacific culturalism was central to their identity formation. Furthermore, participants expressed that without an understanding of who they were as Pacific Islanders, they would inevitably internalize negative perceptions. Interestingly, all the participants in the study also spoke of the complex intersections and hybrid notions of identity they embodied, as opposed to a traditional single representation of self. This study provides a snapshot of an ever (re)evolving Pacific story, still being written.

scholarly journals Postcolonial Myth in Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-95
Author(s):  
Roxana Elena Doncu
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Salman Rushdie ◽  
Julia Kristeva ◽  
Personal Perspective ◽  
Interior Space ◽  
Orpheus And Eurydice ◽  
External Context ◽  
Identity Reconstruction ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Postcolonial Writers

Abstract Postcolonial writers like Salman Rushdie often write back to the “empire” by appropriating myth and allegory. In The Ground beneath Her Feet, Rushdie rewrites the mythological story of Orpheus and Eurydice, using katabasis (the trope of the descent into Hell) to comment both on the situation of the postcolonial writer from a personal perspective and to attempt a redefinition of postcolonial migrant identity-formation. Hell has a symbolic function, pointing both to the external context of globalization and migration (which results in the characters’ disorientation) and to an interior space which can be interpreted either as a source of unrepressed energies and creativity (in a Romantic vein) or as the space of the abject (in the manner of Julia Kristeva). The article sets out to investigate the complex ways in which the Orphic myth and katabasis are employed to shed light on the psychology of the creative artist and on the reconfiguration of identity that becomes the task of the postcolonial migrant subject. The journey into the underworld functions simultaneously as an allegory of artistic creation and identity reconstruction.

scholarly journals A Consideration of the Relationship Between Music and Collective Identity: From the Viewpoint of Cultural Psychology of Music

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Đorđević
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Cultural Artifact ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
Identity Processes ◽  
Psychology Of Music ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of the present study lies in an effort of converging anthropological, ethnomusicological and psychological approach to the relationship between music and collective identity. Music is considered a socio-cultural artifact, which mediates the processes of collective identity construction, and whose function in such process can be multiple. In order to understand the ways in which it is sutured into (in)formal processes of collective (self)identification, we propose simultaneous consideration of various dimensions: cultural, social, political, psychological. Although there already has been interdisciplinary research of the role of music in the emergence of identity, we advocate for a more complementary approach, by a consideration of the psychological accounts, adjusted to the needs of ethno-anthropological analysis. As the most comprehensive theoretical approach, we propose cultural psychology of music. Future empirical research on specific identity processes mediation by music as cultural artifact, should include the analysis of intersecting local and global social trends, aspects of musicological analysis, specificities of psychological development of identity, the role of socio-political strategies of identity formation, and, last but not least, cultural specificity of the community in focus of the research. We find the complexity of the phenomenon in focus to be obligatory for the complexity of the theoretical and methodological approach.

scholarly journals I’m Somali and I’m Christian: A dilemma for religion and identity in the context of migration in Southern Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Buhle Mpofu
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Survival Strategies ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Hybrid Identities ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Religious Transformation ◽  
Identity Constructions ◽  
Economic Framework ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
And Migration

This contribution is one of a series that aimed at publishing significant findings from the research conducted for a PhD study where emerging themes were isolated and discussed. During one of the focus group conversations, Abdul (not his real name) explained how his Somali-Christian identity presented a dilemma whilst he lived with fellow Muslim Somali nationals when he was displaced during the 2015 xenophobic violence in Johannesburg. Firstly, this contribution discusses a general overview of the situation of migration and then his situation is explored from the themes, which emerged from this study from the lens of bicultural and acculturation processes of identity formation. Although this was not a representative sample of male foreign migrant experiences, analysing Abdul’s situation within a post-colonial and bicultural acculturation paradigm revealed the ‘embedded’ trajectories at the interface between religion, identity and migration in social and economic processes of transformation. Sketching Abdul’s experiences through these lenses also generated contested processes on the interface of religion and identity that reflect the significance of the role played by religion in identity constructions which are open to change (and sometimes present a dilemma), as life circumstances fluctuate with complex interactions in search of survival strategies to ward off any potential threats to a flourishing life. Such survival strategies highlight how these encounters generate hybrid identities and discourses with new boundaries, which, although fluid, volatile and situational, are reminiscent with historical and odious notions of colonialism that present African migrants as undesired foreigners whilst portraying other western and Asian migrants in cosy terms such as expatriates and tourists.Contribution: Exploring the relevance of migrant expressions within the context of identity constructions and socio-economic framework demonstrates how contested processes of socio-economic and religious transformation reflect the significance of the role played by religion on identity constructions. These constructions are articulated through fluid and complex encounters, which fluctuate to generate hybrid identities and migrant survival discourses.

Toward a Transnational Cultural Psychology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunil Bhatia
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Indigenous Psychology ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Narrative Psychology ◽  
Psychological Understanding ◽  
American Psychology ◽  
Urban Indian

In this chapter, a decolonizing perspective is used to show how urban Indian youth identities across the different classes unsettle long-held beliefs about Eurocentric understandings of youth culture, identity, and subjectivities. It also shows how narrative psychology can be useful in providing a counterpoint to the depoliticized, individualistic, and universal views of culture. A vision of psychology is articulated that locates the psychological understanding of identity, cultural difference, power, and practices in neoliberal transnational contexts and reimagines the discipline of psychology in which concepts of narrative and indigenous psychology, social justice, and equity are central. It is argued that psychology has not developed a meaningful theoretical vocabulary or a willingness to explore questions of social justice that are wrapped around qualitative methods and community-based practices because these are usually conducted in faraway places with marginalized populations that have no history or recognition in American psychology or in the United States.

Phoenix Rising: An Autoethnographic Account of a Gifted Black Male With Dyslexia

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn Anthony Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Black Male ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Central Research ◽  
Personal Experiences

The purpose of this study was to describe my academic journey as a gifted Black male with dyslexia. The central research question was the following: What were some of the stories along my academic pathway that seem significant? The research design positioned me inside the culture in which I am the topic of examination. The research methodology used for my analysis was autoethnography, which allows personal experiences to be explored through the intersection between narrative inquiry and ethnography. The approach allowed me to fully articulate my lived experiences, which provided a deeper understanding on how the intersectionality of race, dyslexia, and giftedness influenced my identity formation. An analysis of my journey led to the finding that the intersection of identity categories must be attended to, in order to support the learning of students with “triple-identity.” The article presents a theoretical model for exploring the intersectionality of those elements.

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