9 research outputs found
Negotiating the (non)negotiable: connecting 'mixed-race' identities to 'mixed-race' families
Whilst being a global phenomenon, âmixed-raceâ means different things in different contexts. âMixed-raceâ individuals make sense of their mixed heritages by drawing on interactions with intimate others from their social networks. Based on an empirical study conducted in Scotland, this paper seeks to explore the linkage between mixed identities, society and families. Examining first-person accounts derived from interviews with self-identified mixed Scots, this paper delineates the dynamics involved in âmixed-raceâ identifications and it contends that the ways in which mixed individuals make sense of their mixedness are profoundly influenced by their early experiences at home. This paper analyses qualitative data from in-depth interviews to examine the interrelationship between expressed identities and their experiences at home. The focus of analysis is placed upon the ways in which families are factored into the process of negotiating racialised differences by those who had grown up with limited knowledge about their non-Scottish heritage. This paper suggests that the role of families is two-folded: on one hand, it generates symbolic resources for children to negotiate racialised difference; on the other hand, it serves as a key site for the development of racial ideologies. The two roles of families shed light to understand the formation of mixed identities
Negotiating the (Non)Negotiable: Connecting âMixed-Raceâ Identities to âMixed-Raceâ Families
Constructing identity as a second-generation Cypriot Turkish in Australia: the multi-hyphenated other
This article explores how Cypriot Turkish people in
Australia construct their multi-hyphenated identity and the
implications this has for their sense of belonging. Ethnic identity
is conceptualized as a set of social and cultural understandings,
shaped by historical processes, positions of power and patterns of
privilege, which people draw on to understand and experience
themselves. Ten Cypriot Turkish peopleâs identities were explored
through semi-structured interviews. Discourse analysis was used
to identify the discursive constructions of identity and
belongingness. Discourses that constructed the Cypriot Turkish
Australian identity were: modern Muslim, language, phenotype
and ancestry and generation discourse. These discourses give rise
to the multi-hyphenation of this identity, positioning them as
either Cypriot Turkish Australians or Cypriot Turkish in
Australia. The discourses have highlighted not only the current
socio-political context as shaping subjectivities, but also the
historical and political collective memory that continues in the
construction of ethnic identities
Theatres of difference: the politics of 'redistribution' and 'recognition'in the plays of contemporary Black and Asian Playwrights
Since the 1990s, there has been an extended debate among feminists and left-wing thinkers concerned with notions of justice and equality about the relationship between 'redistribution' and 'recognition' in contemporary politics. In this article, I examine the ways in which the issues of redistribution of resources and recognition are articulated in plays by contemporary Black and Asian women playwrights such as Rukhsana Ahmad, Tanika Gupta, Winsome Pinnock, and Zindika. I shall suggest that their theatre work, and experience of working in the theatre, produce a dynamic and interdependent model of the relation between redistribution and recognition that ultimately suggests the need for recognition as the continuing primary concern of Black and Asian communities in Britain. This is evident in the plays' contents, the theatrical forms employed by Black and Asian women playwrights (often naturalistic and issue-based), and the funding and theatre policies with which they engage. These, as I shall argue, produce tensions between the collective identities which they hail, for instance, through the appellation 'Black playwright', and the individual identities the playwrights seek to assert, requiring negotiations between the empowering as well as constraining demands of collective identities and the post-'cultural diversity' aspirations of long-term theatre politics
The role of recognition in the desistance process:A case analysis of a former far-right activist
This article explores the intersubjective dynamics that foster desistance from crime. It explains that the concepts of âidentificationâ and ârecognitionââas defined by Jessica Benjaminâilluminate how psychic change can come about despite social continuity within offendersâ lives. The value of Benjaminâs approach is illustrated through the analysis of the case of a former far-right activist. The article shows that in order to desist from crimes that involve a symbolic âotheringâ (e.g. hate crimes) offenders have to reclaim the psychic parts of themselves that are projected onto victims. The article concludes that when those deemed âotherâ are able to withstand and survive hostile projections the possibilities for psychic change among desisting offenders are enhanced