Year: 2005
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Work in narrative and discursive psychology offers a theoretical and analytic \napproach to the meaning of place for identity in contemporary society. The \nconventional ‘born and bred’ or nativeness connection between place and \nresidence based on long-term personal and family connection can be \nunderstood as a canonical narrative (Bruner, 1987) and a resource for speakers \nin their identity work in relation to place. Wetherell (1998) and others have \nsuggested that speakers engage actively in such identity work, for example, by \ntaking up subject positions, but they are also constrained, for example, by the \nresources and positions made available by larger discourses. This constraint \ncan appear as ‘trouble’, when an identity is potentially challengeable as \nimplausible or inconsistent. In a society characterised by increased mobility \nand instability of residence, such trouble can occur in conventional positioning \nin relation to place. Analysis of interview data from women speakers reveals an \nalternative positioning in relation to a chosen place of residence. The emphasis \non choice and opportunity in their talk is consistent with the reflexive project \nto construct an individual identity of self and achievement associated with a \ncontemporary or neo-liberal subject (Rose, 1996; Walkerdine, 2003). However \nthe analysis suggests that this alternative identity work is also constrained, and \nthat trouble occurs in relation to a gendered identity.
Author: Taylor, Stephanie
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7010524526