Social Identity

" Las tecnologías del yo nos dan las bases para reconocer que la búsqueda de nuestra propia identidad está constituida por prácticas de individualización que nos proveen de las categorías y los objetivos con los que nos gobernamos a nosotros mismos de acuerdo con los intereses políticos del orden social dominante”

"As tecnologias do eu nos dão a base para reconhecer que a busca de nossa própria identidade é constituída por práticas de individualização que nos fornecem as categorias e os objetivos com os quais nos governamos de acordo com os interesses políticos da ordem social dominante "

This article analyses a non-fictional narrative from Nigeria, In the Shadow of a Saint by Ken Wiwa, which thematises, among other things, the discursive negotiation of ethnic and national identity during periods of transition. I interrogate how marginal subjects from peripheral sites of nationalist expression – in this case Ogoniland in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta – are positioned within dominant national narratives, and how the author uses public memory in (re)imagining Nigerian history and Ogoni identity. The overarching objective of this inquiry is to make evident the specific ways in which Wiwa’s text (as a veritable form of cultural expression and literary historiography) portrays the (re)construction and naturalisation of ethnic and national subjects and their ‘others’ within particular periods of critical socio-political transformation.

Neste estudo, procurou-se discutir o papel da Discrepância na Percepção e Discriminação Pessoal/Grupal na  explicação da acção colectiva, inserindo a variável no modelo da Teoria da Identidade Social. Num estudo correlacional efectuado com jovens negros residentes na área da Grande Lisboa, estudantes do 3º Ciclo e Secundário, verificou-se que as relações entre percepção de discriminação e as restantes variáveis do modelo diferem de acordo com a nacionalidade (portuguesa ou estrangeira) dos participantes. Apenas para os estrangeiros se confirmou que a percepção de discriminação - grupal - contribui de modo significativo para a explicação da acção colectiva. Também se encontrou apoio, embora só no caso dos portugueses, para a tese de que quanto mais os indivíduos acreditam na permeabilidade das fronteiras intergrupais, menos discriminação percebem conta si (Major et al., 2002).

Does the interaction between context and individual-level features affect political attitudes? By using the case of Catalonia, a receiver municipality of international and national migration since the fifties, this paper intersects a classic acculturation model and a newly reemerging literature in political science on contextual determinants of political behaviour to analyze how context affects subjective national identity. Results reveal that environment matters. The Percentage of Spain-born population in the municipality is statistically significant to account for variance in the subjective national identity, even after controlling for age, sex, origin, language and left–right orientation and other contextual factors. This conclusion suggests that researchers should not underestimate the direct effect of the environment on feelings of belonging in contexts of rival identities.

By the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, strong Cretan influence was evident in the material culture of sites across the southern Aegean. The nature and degree of this influence and the processes by which aspects of Cretan material culture were spread and adopted have been widely debated. Recent approaches to this ‘Minoanising’ phenomenon have examined the choices made by both producers and consumers within southern Aegean communities, in order to develop new interpretations regarding local social and economic strategies. This presentation will discuss the insights that have been gained by applying such an approach to the uptake and use of Cretan weaving technology in southern Aegean settlements during the Middle and early Late Bronze Age (contemporary with the MM I-LM I period on Crete).
Among the ‘Minoanising’ objects present at the southern Aegean sites are discoid loom weights of Cretan type. These were the first loom weights of any form to appear at most of the sites, and represent the adoption of a new loom type: the warp-weighted loom. This form of loom had been in use on Crete since the Neolithic period. Evidence for the adoption and use of warp-weighted loom technology at various sites will be compared and, drawing on recent advances in textile experimental archaeology, the types of textiles that could have been made using the Cretan-style discoid loom weights will be discussed.
Weaving is a complex skill that requires contact between novice and expert practitioner over an extended period of time, and the implications of this with regard to the acquisition of non-indigenous textile craft knowledge and know-how will be examined. Finally, the evidence for the production of textiles will be considered within the context of associated questions of dress and identity, in order to explore possible motivations for the adoption of the new loom type.

In order to understand how communities of learning and network formation occur, we need to acknowledge the importance of the situational role of identities within a particular professional development activity and its link to learning and knowledge building. The fundamental idea behind Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) is to improve student learning by improving teacher practice (Vescio et al. 2008). In fact, learning communities which make up successful professional development lead to improved student learning (Lomos, Hofman & Bosker, 2011). PLCs which help teachers challenge assumptions, negotiate meaning, raise awareness, and engage in critical reflection are important components to transformative teaching practices (Kooy & Hughes, under review), as teachers need to feel empowered and needed within the community.
The aim of this study is to understand how individuals manage their identities as an integral part of an ongoing teacher professional development. The study will examine how teachers establish links between their professional identities and new knowledge, generated through sharing, reflection and collaborative discussions in a blended-learning environment. In particular, the participants in this project move newly introduced theoretical notions by filtering them through their own classroom experience and professional identities. They use various processes on an interpersonal level (micro-level) and on a community level (macro-level) to co-construct new knowledge and understanding of classroom practice and implications. The participants compare, problematize, and discuss their understanding of the course material and continue a bi-weekly reflective cycle.
Ultimately, this study will provide teachers, educators and policy makers with a better understanding of the key role played by negotiated identities in network formation and maintenance, and knowledge sharing and building.

Depuis 1989, la question rom a suscité d’abondants débats en République tchèque et de nombreuses publications. Fondé sur un dépouillement systématique des périodiques roms et pro-roms pour les années 1992, 1997, 2002 et 2007, cette recherche analyse
l’évolution des cadres d’interprétation du mouvement rom et prorom durant cette période. S’appuyant sur une analyse en terme d’interprétation des cadres (frame analysis), il montre comment les cadres de diagnostic, de pronostic et de motivation se sont transformés au cours des quatre années étudiées en lien avec les changements de la politique d’intégration de l’État, le degré de violence de l’extrême-droite, les débats publics en cours et les possibilités de financer le mouvement. La recherche montre la prédominance des conceptions civiles et politiques de la question rom en 1992 puis leur effacement progressif au profit d’une vision
socio-économique des revendications.

Work motivation is critical for successful school-to-work transitions, but little is known about its determinants among labor market entrants. Applying a social identity framework, we examined whether work motivation and job searching are social-contextually determined. We expected that some job seekers are more sensitive to contextual influence, depending on their personality. Mediation analyses on 591 Dutch vocational training students indicate that the perception of more positive work norms in someone's social context was related to higher levels of intrinsic motivation, which in turn predicted higher preparatory job search behavior and job search intentions. Multi-group analysis shows that perceived work norms more strongly predict work motivation among overcontrollers compared to resilients and undercontrollers. In conclusion, work motivation and job searching appear contextually determined: especially among those sensitive to contextual influence, people seem to work when they believe that is what people like them do.

This essay offers a postcolonial reading of the Wisdom of Solomon in order to explore the processes of self-identification and self-validation within Alexandrian Diaspora Judaism. It focuses on the various ways that ‘us’ and ‘them’ are constructed, especially the way that each group is related to power. It concludes that the Wisdom of Solomon promotes a paradigm in which the universality and binary opposition that characterize empire are paradoxically transferred from a horizontal to a vertical plane, and that this shows both the usefulness and limits of a postcolonial reading for Wisdom.

Using an intergroup version of the trolley problem, we explored participants’ willingness to sacrifice their lives for their group.
In Study 1, Spaniards whose personal identities were fused with their group identity endorsed saving fellow Spaniards by
jumping to their deaths in front of a runaway trolley. Studies 2 and 3 showed that the self-sacrificial behaviors of fused Spaniards
generalized to saving members of an extended in-group (Europeans) but not members of an out-group (Americans). In Study 4,
fused participants endorsed pushing aside a fellow Spaniard who was poised to jump to his death and initiate a chain of events
that would lead to the deaths of several terrorists, so that they could commit this act themselves. In all four studies, nonfused
participants expressed reluctance to sacrifice themselves, and identification with the group predicted nothing. The nature of
identity fusion and its relationship to related constructs are discussed.

Although theory suggests individuals are more willing to incur a personal cost to benefit in-group members, compared to out-group members, there is inconsistent evidence in support of this perspective. Applying meta-analytic techniques, we harness a relatively recent explosion of research on intergroup discrimination in cooperative decision making to address several fundamental unresolved issues. First, summarizing evidence across studies, we find a small to medium effect size indicating that people are more cooperative with in-group, compared to out-group, members (d = 0.32). Second, we forward and test predictions about the conditions that moderate in-group favoritism from two influential perspectives – a social identity approach and a bounded generalized reciprocity perspective. Although we find evidence for a slight tendency for in-group favoritism through categorization with no mutual interdependence between group members (e.g., dictator games, d = 0.19), situations that contain interdependence result in stronger in-group favoritism (e.g., social dilemmas, d = 0.42). We also find that in-group favoritism is stronger when there is common (versus unilateral) knowledge of group membership, and stronger during simultaneous (versus sequential) exchanges. Third, we find support for the hypothesis that intergroup discrimination in cooperation is the result of in-group favoritism rather than out-group derogation. Finally, we test for additional moderators of in-group favoritism, such as the percentage of men in the sample, experimental versus natural groups, and the country of participants. We discuss the implications of these findings for theoretical perspectives on in-group favoritism, address implications for the methodologies used to study this phenomenon, and suggest directions for future research.

James was confused when he got home from school that day, he doesn’t know why. Nothing had changed from his usual day at school. He got up at seven thirty with a bright smile on his face; he knew it was Friday which meant pancakes for breakfast. His mum dropped him off at school, the sun was shining and he had his new football in his hand. James loved to play football before school, ‘the best part of the day, football with my friends’, he said grinning to himself. ‘See you later mum, love you’.

This syllabus is for a central course in the Foundational Studies Program at Boise State University. The course asks three primary questions. What do I believe? Why do I believe it? What am I going to do about it? Through exploring ethical frameworks, the components of one's social identity, and global issues, students learn to connect their understanding of ethical behavior with a sense of their position in the world and their responsibilities to the various communities they inhabit.