Questioning Race: Ancestry DNA and Dialog on Race

Human genetics and racial identity converge pointedly in the family narrative. Until recently, genetics, racial identity, and family narrative were all rather malleable concepts in the public arena. All were presented in anecdotal form for the most part, and were often based on certain social conventions. The interjection of popularly available ancestry DNA data adds an additional piece of information to the discussion of genetics, race, and narrative. Using the framework of both narrative theory and theory of social construction, this work uses quantitative and qualitative data to explore how individuals react to ancestry DNA findings and to consider if and how this information will change narratives, behaviors, and perspectives. We also explore whether one's racial identification makes a difference in initial accuracy and if there is a difference among racial groupings in terms of change in census identification based on knowledge of their DNA profile.     

‘Why should I be like bloody Rain Man?!’ Navigating the autistic identity

This article explores the views of six higher education students with autism/Asperger syndrome. The research draws upon social identity theory to explore how participants made meaning of their label. There was consensus that information given at the point of diagnosis generally did not reflect their individual experiences. First‐hand accounts tended to be perceived as more personally relevant. The ‘Asperger’ identity was generally framed as fragile and inconsistent, leading some individuals to distance themselves from it. This may be problematic for a group that is already disadvantaged and isolated. However, participants conveyed strong self‐images regardless of how and whether they identified with their diagnosis, which was attributed to their relative privilege in achieving higher education and therefore experiencing success and achievement related to their personal strengths. In this article, Andrea MacLeod, Ann Lewis and Christopher Robertson, from the University of Birmingham, call for researchers and relevant services to involve autistic individuals directly in fostering a constructive ‘autism identity’.     

Acculturation, well-being and classroom behaviour among white British and British Asian primary-school children in the south–east of England: Validating a child-friendly measure of acculturation attitudes

Using a sample of white British and British Asian primary-school children (N = 386, aged 5–11 years), we measured acculturation attitudes (own and perceived outgroup), correlated constructs (ingroup and outgroup affect and identification) and relevant outcomes (self-esteem, classroom demeanour) in a structured interview to validate a customised, child-friendly measure of acculturation attitudes based on Berry's framework. Scale items measuring desire for culture maintenance and intergroup contact loaded onto the predicted factors, were internally reliable and showed concurrent validity with affect and identification. The predictive utility of measures was demonstrated in associations between children's acculturation attitudes (or perceived discrepancies with those of the outgroup) and outcomes such as self-esteem and teacher ratings of emotional symptoms.     

购买成功:炫耀性消费广告制造的认同秘密

广告制造的认同可以分为三个层次,其代表性形式为炫耀性消费广告,这种广告制造的认同秘密在于促使消费者购买成功,由此导致了理论、实践的内部冲突以及理论与实践之间的矛盾。本文认为,这种矛盾是由于发展中的认同理论难以有效解决个体认同和集体认同之间的内部差异所导致的。     

高校图书馆员职业认同感分析——以天津地区高校图书馆为例

本文利用“天津地区高校图书馆员职业生涯管理研究”调查问卷的数据资料,将其中一些涉及到职业认同感的项目进行再分析,并结合对部分图书馆员的访谈,对其中所反映出的高校图书馆员职业认同感的状况和特征进行进一步研究。     

News narratives as identity performance: A narrative analysis of Taiwanese and international news coverage of interracial intimacy

This study examines news coverage of an assault upon an interracial couple that happened in Taiwan in 2015. Using narrative analysis from a social identity perspective, the study notes that Taiwanese news media suppressed gender salience in their coverage of this incident to construct a favorable Taiwanese identity; nevertheless, this strategy was performed at the price of reducing the urgency to combat sexism at a societal level. International news media framed the same event as a case of both racism and sexism; however, racism was given different symbolic meanings by different media, with each international news press conceptualizing racism in a way that met its local audience’s identity needs. In addition, both Taiwanese and international news organizations employed several social identity strategies in their news coverage to negotiate desirable international relations. These findings reveal that news media function as agents of international communication in today’s age of globalization.     

An Exploratory Study of Part-Time Minorities: Finding Home as a Minority Member

This study examines an atypical population of immigrants in Taiwan who immigrated in search of home, self-discovery, and career opportunities. Many of these immigrants sit at the nexus of privilege and othering with their ability to pass as Caucasian. Through the participatory method Photovoice and semi-structured interviews, I investigate the fluid nature of identity processes, the extent that acculturation hinges on predetermined factors, and the benefits and costs of biculturalism, which include cultural fusion and liminality. Additionally, I investigate the impact of context on acculturation strategies and the experience of transformation.     

Professional coach educators in-situ: a social analysis of practice

Professional coach educators are key to the success of coach education and play a crucial role in developing coaching practice. However, coach education research remains remarkably coach centric with little attention paid to the coach educator or the broader role of the socio-cultural context that frames the learning process. Four professional coach educators working for a Sport Governing Body in-situ with twenty five professional clubs took part in interviews and focus groups over the course of a year. In addition, interviews were undertaken with nine academy managers and thirty two coaches as well as observations in eight of the clubs. This paper focuses on the coach educators specifically and aims to understand the nature of coach educators' social reality and practice by examining something of the relational nature of the coach educators and their practice in context. Using the work of Bourdieu the paper engages in epistemic reflexivity and attempts to uncover coach educators' social and intellectual unconscious embedded in and reflected through their social practice. Findings show the operation of a number of socially constructed legitimating principles where the success or failure of the coach educator's practice and learning was inextricably linked to power. Each club (field) was a field of struggles, and coach educators had to play a symbolic and relational game being defined by and, at the same time, struggling to define these relations. Hence practice for the coach educators was both social and embodied.     

Refugee Identities: Ethnicity as a Communicative Process

Ethnicity and, by extension, ethnic identity, are problematic concepts to define. This article explores self-defined boundaries of ethnic identity by framing ethnicity as a communicative process through a narrative study focusing on a particular refugee group called Meskhetian Turks. Twelve in-depth interviews were analyzed for emerging themes. The results revealed three inter-connected themes demonstrating the significance of (1) the past, (2) cultural preservation, and (3) a sense of community. Thus, the study demonstrated self-defined borders of ethnic identity and revealed ethnicity as a communicative process, whose emergence, preservation, and continuity depends solely upon communication.     

“There’s no such thing as Asian”: A membership categorization analysis of cross-cultural adaptation in an Asian American business community

This paper examines the relationship between communication and cross-cultural adaptation through conducting a membership categorization analysis of interactions among members of an Asian American Chamber of Commerce (AACC). Analysis of audio-and-video-recorded data gathered during ethnographic fieldwork illustrates how immigrant AACC members adapt to US notions of race through adopting the “Asian” racial category yet define “Asian” in creative ways that meet institutional goals. AACC members also resist US essentialist racial ideology through identifying with ethnic categories that help members meet situated institutional goals. Overall, this paper highlights how members routinely switch among racial, ethnic, and professional identity categories when navigating structural constraints of racial ideology during cross-cultural adaptation in institutional contexts.