Hybrids, identity and knowledge boundaries: Creative artists between academic and practitioner communities

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 837-863
Author(s):  
Alice Lam
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Work ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
External Boundary ◽  
Identity Conflict ◽  
Hybrid Identity ◽  
Identity Processes ◽  
Work Strategies ◽  
Creative Artists ◽  
Dynamic Interplay

Hybrid people can be riven by identity conflicts and yet be profoundly disruptive of social boundaries. How can we understand these two facets of hybridity? This study examines how internal identity conflict resolution is related to external boundary disruption by focusing on the identity work of individuals who cross professional knowledge boundaries. It looks at artist-academic hybrids who operate at the interface between the academic and art worlds. The analysis shows the dynamic interplay between their hybrid identity work and knowledge boundary work. It distinguishes three categories of hybrids (‘Janusian’, ‘ambivalent’ and ‘asymmetric’) whose varied identity work strategies (‘integrative’, ‘multiplex’ and ‘buffering’) disrupt knowledge boundaries in different ways (‘blurring’, ‘transgressing’ and ‘brokering’). The study sheds light on the varied nature of hybrids and the mutually constitutive nature of their internal and external identity work. It advances our understanding of identity work as an agentic activity and reveals the identity processes underlying the disruption of knowledge boundaries.

scholarly journals Emotions and identity work: Emotions as discursive resources in the constitution of junior professionals’ identities

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 988-1009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumati Ahuja ◽  
Helena Heizmann ◽  
Stewart Clegg
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Identities ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Professional Careers ◽  
Work Strategies ◽  
Work First ◽  
Discursive Resources

For junior professionals, notions of professional identity established during their education are often called into question in the early stages of their professional careers. The workplace gives rise to identity challenges that manifest in significant emotional struggles. However, although extant literature highlights how emotions trigger and accompany identity work, the constitutive role of emotions in identity work is under-researched. In this article, we analyse how junior professionals mobilize emotions as discursive resources for identity work. Drawing on an empirical study of junior architects employed in professional service firms, we examine how professional identities, imbued with varying forms of discipline and agency, are discursively represented. The study makes two contributions to the literature on emotions and identity work. First, we identify three key identity work strategies ( idealizing, reframing and distancing) that are bound up in junior architects’ emotion talk. We suggest that these strategies act simultaneously as a coping mechanism and as a disciplinary force in junior architects’ efforts to constitute themselves as professionals. Second, we argue that identity work may not always lead to the accomplishment of a positive sense of self but can express a sense of disillusionment that leads to the constitution of dejected professional identities.

The Interplay of Inter- and Intraprofessional Boundary Work in Multidisciplinary Teams

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (12) ◽  
pp. 1649-1672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariline Comeau-Vallée ◽  
Ann Langley
Keyword(s):  
Interprofessional Collaboration ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Multidisciplinary Teams ◽  
High Status ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Professional Groups ◽  
The Social ◽  
Lower Status ◽  
Dynamic Interplay

The challenges of managing interprofessional boundaries within multidisciplinary teams are well known. However, the role of intraprofessional relations in influencing the dynamics of interprofessional collaboration remain underexplored. Our qualitative study offers a fine-grained analysis of the interplay between inter- and intraprofessional boundary work among three professional groups in a multidisciplinary team over a period of two years. Our contribution to the literature is threefold. First, we identify various forms of “competitive” and “collaborative” boundary work that may occur simultaneously at both inter- and intraprofessional levels. Second, we reveal the dynamic interplay between inter- and intraprofessional boundary negotiations over time. Third, we theorize relationships between the social position of professional groups, and the uses and consequences of competitive and collaborative boundary work tactics at intra- and interprofessional levels. Specifically, we show how intraprofessional conflict within high-status groups may affect interprofessional dynamics, we reveal how intraprofessional and interprofessional boundaries may be mobilized positively to support collaborative relations, and we show how mobilization within lower-status groups around interprofessional boundary grievances can paradoxically lead to further marginalization.

One Year of #GamerGate: The Shared Twitter Link as Emblem of Masculinist Gamer Identity

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 982-1003
Author(s):  
David O. Dowling ◽  
Christopher Goetz ◽  
Daniel Lathrop
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Gaming Culture ◽  
One Year ◽  
Gaming Communities

Since the #GamerGate controversy erupted in 2014, anti-feminist gamers continue to lash out at feminists and supporters of progressive and inclusive gaming content. A key strategy in this discourse is the sharing of content via links on Twitter, which accompany messages positioning the sender on either side of the debate. Through qualitative analysis of a data set drawn from 1,311 tweets from 2016 to 2017, we argue that tweeted links are a salient tool for signaling affiliation with gaming communities. For anti-feminist gamers, the tweeted link defines masculinist gamer identity and constructs social boundaries against the increasing diversification of video game culture reflected in higher overall rates of feminist tweets. Links can be construed as revelatory of boundary work and thus can help shed insight on the extent to which #GamerGate discourse was intended to defend gaming culture as an exclusively masculine space.

scholarly journals “That is Not What I Live For”: How Lower-Level Green Employees Cope with Identity Tensions at Work

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 5778
Author(s):  
Susanne Blazejewski ◽  
Franziska Dittmer ◽  
Anke Buhl ◽  
Andrea Simone Barth ◽  
Carsten Herbes
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Job Crafting ◽  
Top Management ◽  
Work Strategies ◽  
Job Context

Research on green identity work has so far concentrated on sustainability managers and/or top-management actors. How lower-level green employees cope with identity tensions at work is, as yet, under-researched. The paper uses an identity work perspective and a qualitative empirical study to identify four strategies that lower-level employees use in negotiating and enacting their green identities at work. Contrary to expectations, lower-level green employees engage substantially in job crafting as a form of identity work despite their limited discretion. In addition, the study demonstrates that lower-level green employees make use of identity work strategies that uphold rather than diminish perceived misalignment between their green identities and their job context.

Stepping Out of the Fish Tank

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (16) ◽  
pp. 2368-2392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasima Mohamed Hoosen Carrim
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
South African ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Identity Conflict ◽  
Indian Women ◽  
The Status ◽  
Life Story Interviews ◽  
Fish Tank

This article explores the ethnic identity work in which Indian parents engage with regard to allowing their daughters to pursue a tertiary education and a career. Life story interviews were conducted on a purposive sample of 12 sets of South African Indian parents. The results indicate that these parents, especially mothers experience tremendous inner identity conflict, as they are torn between ensuring that daughters maintain their honor and dignity as respectable Indian women, and allowing daughters the freedom to venture away from the protective space of the home and family. The study highlighted that although parents were living in the postapartheid era ethnic identity work was still influenced by the lingering impact of apartheid regarding the status of women. Daughters were still not accorded the same status as sons although they were perceived as future breadwinners in their natal families.

scholarly journals Behind the Mask: Hybrid Identity Work of Indian Women Managers in Corporate South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasima M. H. Carrim
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Women Managers ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Career Transitions ◽  
Hybrid Identity ◽  
Indian Women ◽  
Tremendous Amount ◽  
Managerial Positions

AbstractThere is a dearth of research on how women managers engage in hybrid identity work during their career transitions, and the aim of this study was to fill this gap. Interviews were conducted with 13 Indian women managers in senior and top managerial positions, and the data obtained were analysed using thematic analysis. The narratives indicate that previously disadvantaged groups (Indian women in this case) are caught between subscribing to cultural values and concurrently conforming to organisational norms. Participants’ answers to the question: “Who am I as an Indian female manager?” reveal that during their career ascendency these women engage in a tremendous amount of hybrid identity work and rework related to their self-concept of being an “ideal” Indian female and simultaneously being a “perfect” manager. Nevertheless, in their career transitions to managerial positions, these women are selective in the hybrid identity work they engage in.

Boundaries in Interaction: The Cultural Fabrication of Social Boundaries in West Jerusalem

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 390-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nir Gazit
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
Local Boundary ◽  
Local Newspapers ◽  
The City

Boundary work projects are relevant in any social context, but they seem to carry particular significance in multicultural or multinational and highly contested urban settings. This study examines how daily artifacts such as local newspapers are used by various urban social groups in their local boundary work projects. the analysis is based on the particular case of West Jerusalem, and focuses on how Jewish communities use the popular local Jerusalem newspaper Kol Ha'Ir (“Whole of the City”). the study shows that local newspapers have three functions: (1) they are important components in the local cultural tool kit that various groups use and relate to; (2) they are cultural objects exploited by communities to redefine and regulate their particular identities and to sustain a common ground for local solidarity; and (3) they serve as mechanisms that construct and maintain an ethnonational front toward rival communities within their urban space. This study also suggests that in order to facilitate such a complex task of boundary work, cultural objects must be polysemous. First, they should produce to some degree a consensus among their various consumers on their content and social significance. Second, they should permit a range of interpretations regarding their particular social meaning for each group.

scholarly journals "Thank you, your English is very good also": Asian Panethnicity and its Performance in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sophia Edwards
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
Asian Identity ◽  
Creative Artists ◽  
Asian People ◽  
Diverse Groups

<p>Existing studies suggest that Asian panethnicity is the political mobilisation of diverse groups of people under a new name, to oppose racism and discrimination. Asian panethnicity is shaped by social forces, including those that exclude. As such, it is inherently political. However, it is limiting to think of it only as a kind of intentional, collective action bent towards achieving a predetermined group goal. This thesis expands this understanding of panethnicity, by considering how “Asiannness” is experienced on an intersubjective level and asks what “Asian” means to and for the Asian individual.  Lingering Orientalism perpetuates a sense of Asian people as not quite belonging in the West. Though by now cliché, this narrative of non-belonging continues to determine ideas of Asianness and set the parameters of appropriate Asian behaviour. But, this non-belonging is also the site in and from which Asian actors make their own meanings and seek their own kind of situated belonging. This thesis takes an autoethnographic and ethnographic approach to field sites in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand to observe some of the ways Asian identity is formed. It is inevitable that transnational processes contribute to this identity work, but these global processes are also subsumed by localised structures and contexts.  Drawing from participant observation with social and community groups, and interviews with creative artists, writers, administrators, community workers and activists addressing the question of what it means to be Asian, I argue that Asian panethnicity is constituted by “doing”. It is made up of different acts, repeated over time, and in different settings. As a product of relationships between externally imposed, in group enforced, and self-made conceptions of “Asianness”, Asian panethnicity is both performative and performed. This thesis presents scenarios in which these performances and presentations of the Asian self take place. In considering some of the possible contexts and conventions that give rise to the performative act/s of being Asian, I argue that being Asian is a creative, collaborative, ongoing endeavour. It is a means by which to accomplish belonging in the world.</p>

The Institutionalization of Commercialism in the Accounting Profession: An Identity-Experimentation Perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 99-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken H. Guo
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Institutional Work ◽  
Accounting Profession ◽  
Work Identity

SUMMARY This paper draws on theories of institutional work, institutional experimentation, and identity work to develop a conceptual framework of identity experimentation in order to better understand the institutionalization of commercialism in the accounting profession. The framework highlights two key collective identity-experimentation strategies by the profession: boundary work (claiming auditor knowledge and traits and redefining auditors as “versatile experts”) and practice work (reinventing audit to create an “expert work” identity and tailor-making expert work to fit the image of supercharged versatile experts). Such identity experimentation moves the accounting profession toward the commercialization of not only auditing practices but, more importantly, the very identity of the auditor and the profession as a whole. Such change is an important issue as it may have profound implications for the profession's roles in the market economy.

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