Summary All articles - Identity, Diversity and Inclusion
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Course
Identity, Diversity And Inclusion
Institution
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
This is a summary of all articles from the course Identity, Diversity and Inclusion (2021). It mainly consist of quotes from the articles which highlights the most important things to know for the exam. I also added parts from the lecture at the end of an summary article so you can see where the fo...
Identity, Diversity
and Inclusion
All literature 2021
1
,INHOUD
Concept 1: What is identity? .................................................................................................................................. 3
Woodward (2003) – what is identity? ................................................................................................................. 3
Anzaldua – unnatural bridges unsafe spaces (2018) ......................................................................................... 10
Hoskin – can femme be theory? Exploring the epistemological and methodological possibilities of femme.
(queer, trans & femme – identities and activism) ............................................................................................ 11
Concept 2: Intersectionality ................................................................................................................................. 14
Cooper – intersectionality (2015) ..................................................................................................................... 14
De antsiss & ziaian – mental health help-seeking and refugee adolescents: findings from a mixed-methods
investigation - migrant health (2010) ............................................................................................................... 18
Concept 3: Migrant identity ................................................................................................................................. 21
Marnell, oliveira & khan – ‘it’s about being safe and free to be who you are’: exploring the lived experiences
of queer migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in south africa - migration and identity (2020) ................... 21
haile & siegmann – masculinity at work: intersectionality and identity constructions of migrant domestic
workers in the netherlands - care work and class: migrant domestic workers (2014) ..................................... 27
concept 4: superdiversity / assimilation .............................................................................................................. 31
crul – super-diversity vs. Assimilation: how complex diversity in majority–minority cities challenges the
assumptions of assimilation - superdiversity in european contexts (2016) ...................................................... 31
Concept 5: Identity politics .................................................................................................................................. 37
Young – Social movements and the politics of difference. In Justice and the politics of difference - Identity
politics (1990) .................................................................................................................................................... 37
Megan Underhill – “Diversity is important to me”: White parents and exposure-to-Diversity parenting
practices - white middle-class parenting (2019) ............................................................................................... 46
Concept 6: Religious identity ............................................................................................................................... 50
Beekers & Schrijvers – Religion, sexual ethics, and the politics of belonging: Young Muslims and Christians in
the Netherlands - religious identity (2020) ....................................................................................................... 50
2
,CONCEPT 1: WHAT IS IDENTITY?
WOODWARD (2003) – WHAT IS IDENTITY?
1. What is identity?
Identity is different from personality in important respects. We may share personality traits with other people,
but sharing an identity suggests some active engagement on our part
This chapter will address the relative importance of structures, the forces beyond our control which shape our
identities, and agency, the degree of control which we ourselves can exert over who we are
- identity requires some element of choice (agency)
- We may be characterized by having personality traits, but we have to identify with—that is,
actively take up—an identity.
- those identities are necessarily the product of the society in which we live and our relationship
with others
In such situations we are trying to find out what makes up this person and also what makes them the same as
us—that is, what we have in common—and what makes them different > Identity is marked by similarity, that
is of the people like us, and by difference, of those who are not.
What information do we use to categorize others and ourselves? what is often important is a symbol, like a
badge, a team scarf, a newspaper, the language we speak, or perhaps the clothes we wear
- multiple identities: student, daughter, employee etc. at the same time.
o This can cause conflicting identities as sometimes you’re all at once
This process of stereotyping certain groups as criminal also illustrates some of the imbalances and inequalities
in the relationship between the individual and the world outside.
- The subject, ‘I’ or ‘we’ in the identity equation, involves some element of choice, however limited
(structure vs agency).
The concept of identity encompasses some notion of human agency; an idea that we can have some control in
constructing our own identities.
Identity involves:
• a link between the personal and the social;
• some active engagement by those who take up identities;
• being the same as some people and different from others, as indicated by symbols and representations;
(similarities, differences)
• a tension between how much control I have in constructing my identities and how much control or
constraint is exercised over me (agency vs. structure)
From the lecture (lecture 1):
Identity involves:
- Social categorization: (a difference and) a link between the personal and the social: individual and
social identity
- Social comparison: being the same as some people and different from others
- Social identification: identification as active engagement
3
, - Agency and structure: a tension between how much control I have in constructing my identities
and how much control is exercised over me
2. Who Am I?
• The passport example illustrates the tension between how I see myself and how I am seen by others,
between the personal and the social.
• Institutions such as the state play an important role in constructing identities.
• Difference is very clearly marked in relation to national identity.
• Such official categories contain omissions and cannot fully accommodate the personal investment we have in
our identities, nor the multiple identities we have
3. Who are you? What can social science tell us?
identity possessed the following characteristics:
• It links how I see myself and how others see me.
• It links the individual and the social.
• It is marked by similarity and difference.
• It involves some active engagement on our part and a tension between human agency and social structures.
• There are single and multiple identities.
• Identities can be seen as fixed or fluid and changing
The work of George Herbert Mead: used in thinking about identity because he offered useful insights into the
link between how we see ourselves and the ability of human beings to imagine how others might see us (Mead,
1934). Mead focuses on the processes that are involved in linking the internal and the external. We have to
think about how others see us and to be self-conscious.
Symbolizing: Making one object, word or image stand for or signify another. For example, a red light at traffic
lights symbolizes ‘stop’, and green means ‘you can go’ - A symbol stands for something else.
Symbols and representations are important in the production of identities. This is how we signal our identities
to others and how we know which people we identify with and those who are distinguished as being different.
Williamson suggests that we can choose the image that we present to others. She assumes that we have a
choice, and that we know other people will understand our choices.
The ability to visualize ourselves and to represent ourselves gives us some degree of agency (but symbols can
be limited).
This approach to the notion of identity puts more emphasis on the control which individuals have, rather
than the constraints which they experience (agency vs. structure)
Sum up:
• In constructing identities we imagine ourselves.
• We do this by visualizing ourselves, thinking in symbols.
• Who I am is dependent on how I am seen by others as well as how I see myself
Goffman’s original theory
dramaturgical—that is, based on the idea of a performance. What we are is not given (that is, there already), it
must be created.
4
, Roles: The society into which we are born presents us with a series of roles, which are patterns of behaviour,
routines and responses, like parts in a play.
Sum up important aspects Goffman’s original theory to understand identity presentation in linking the
personal to the social:
• All performances are addressed to an audience.
• Information can be given intentionally or given off, where we might reveal things unintentionally
The unconscious
What mechanisms, of which we might not be consciously aware, determine our identities? Freudian
psychoanalysis theory.
Unconscious: the unconscious mind is the repository of repressed feelings and desires—often from childhood.
These feelings can emerge, for example, in dreams. They can influence the choices we make in later life.
Psychoanalytic theory
“Who we are is not given in advance, we are not born with an identity, but it emerges in a number of different
forms through a series of identifications which combine and emerge in an infinite number of forms so there is
never one fixed, coherent identity but several in play”
Identification: The psychological process of association between oneself and something else (originally
someone else). a term often associated with psychoanalysis. Identification does not just involve copying; it
involves taking that identity into yourself.
Psychoanalysis is one of the social theories which is organized around a concern with sex, sexuality and gender
The importance of psychoanalytic theory for our investigation of identity can be summarized as follows:
- The identity positions which we take up may be the result of unconscious feelings which we may
try to rationalize but which we do not know for sure.
- Many aspects of identity derive from childhood experience so that identity is constructed by the
past as well as through the present.
- Identity is not fixed and unchanging, but the result of a series of conflicts and of different
identifications.
- Both gender and sexuality are important to our understanding of identity. Our sense of who we
are is most significantly linked to our awareness of our identities as women or as men.
Structure and agency
identity presents a link between the personal—that is, individuals taking up identities—and the social—that is,
the social situations in which people find themselves, including social roles, everyday interactions with others
and the language which we use.
From the lecture:
Social sciences accounting for identity
- Mead: we construct our identity by imagining ourselves thereby using symbols
o Agency: we have autonomy in imagining ourselves
o structure: we have to use existing language and symbols –
- Goffman: identity is, we act out a role in a play where the scripts have already been written o
o Agency: negotiation of roles, we can interpret the parts we play
o Structure: the parts of the scripts have already been written for the roles we play
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