Who Are We? Producing Group Identity through Everyday Practices of Conflict and Discourse |
Who Are We? Producing Group Identity through Everyday Practices of Conflict and Discourse
Sociological Perspectives
Volume 54, Number 2 (Summer 2011)
pages. 139-162
DOI: 10.1525/sop.2011.54.2.139
Jennifer A. Jones, SBS Diversity Post Doctoral Fellow
Ohio State University, Columbus
Multiracials have the flexibility to opt out of multiracial identity, to shift identities depending on context and are characterized by in-group diversity. Given this fluid space, how do multiracials come to see themselves as a collective? This article describes an empirical example of collectivization processes at work. Specifically, the author observed the process of collective identity-building though ethnographic research in a mixed-race student-run organization. This case study indicates that group identity formation is a negotiated process involving strategies to achieve a sense of belonging and cohesion. The author shows that overtime, by using experiences of social conflict to construct shared experiences, the members of this mixed-race organization developed collective identity In so doing, their experience underscores how collective identity development is socially constructed and how micropractices are essential components of group formation.
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Tags: Jennifer A. Jones, Jennifer Anne Meri Jones, Jennifer Jones, Sociological Perspectives