Identity Content Research Articles

National Attachment and Patriotism in a European Nation: A British Study

This study explores identification with one's national using two distinct but interrelated concepts: identity content and relational orientation. Theoretical distinctions were drawn between two forms of identity content: traditional-cultural and civic, and between two forms of relational orientation: blind and constructive. The multidimensionality of both identity content and relational orientation and the relationships amongst these components were examined in a British sample: positive relationships were hypothesized between blind orientation and traditional-cultural content and between constructive orientation and civic content. Principal components analyses confirmed the hypothesized factor structures, and the resulting scales were highly reliable. Relationships amongst the resulting factors were explored using regression analyses. The overall results indicate support for the orthogonality of both the two orientation dimensions and the two content dimensions. Moreover, the hypothesized relationships between forms of orientation and content were largely supported. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of looking at the relationship between identity content and relational orientation. The implications of these observations for theory and research are discussed with reference to using categories to group participants in research, citizenship education, and more general attitudes towards social change. Language: en

Towards a Typology of General Aims of Christian Adult Education

This article deals with the variety of general aims of Christian adult education in a pluralist society. The authors propose a theoretical framework of possible aims to Christian adult education. This framework consists of two dimensions: a formal dimension consisting of the goals or orientations of Christian adult education, and a material dimension that concerns the content of the (religious) identity formed by the education process. Based on these two dimensions a typology of aims to Christian adult education is presented. This typology proved to be very helpful in describing the mindset of Christian adult educators within the Catholic Church in the Netherlands. The empirical research shows that these educators have a positive attitude with regard to educational orientations of self-direction and transformation. Educational aims focussing on the supra-personal aspect of religious identity are largely rejected. This may give rise to tensions considering the institutional context in which Christian adult educators carry out their work.

The New Jewish and German Questions and the Transatlantic Alliance

The New Jewish and German Questions and the Transatlantic Alliance Yossi Shain (bio) and Tanja Flanagan (bio) In understanding the current state of international affairs, including transatlantic relations, one needs to look at the role the continued existence of the "Jewish question" plays in relations between Germany, Europe, the United States, and Israel. In the larger international debates on civilizational conflict, terrorism, and cultural/religious rifts, the "Jewish question" seemed once again to be on the forefront of international focus and analysis. In the context of inter-European, European-American relations, as well as Europe's anticipated role in international affairs, one must recognize that the "Jewish question" is intrinsically tied to the "German question." The two questions constantly interact, impose on, and feed each other because of the strong currency of the Holocaust for world affairs. The nuances of this larger context have indeed captured the attention of many commentaries. Yet many overlook the strong ties between the Jewish and German questions and their consequences for a number of issues: the European role in the Middle East; European internal relations with its minorities and, in particular, its Islamic communities; transatlantic relations; the tie between anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism; and, the critical role of diasporas in world affairs, especially in terms of American Jewry as a guardian of and voice for Jewish kinship. The symbolism and historical memory attached to the reality of the existence of the Jewish community inside Germany today constitutes both a sixth dimension and a common link between the issues. It is our contention that the importance, stature, and meaning assigned to Jewish life in Germany by a variety of international actors has consequences for the conduct of international politics exemplified by the five dimensions mentioned above. [End Page 188] For all practical purposes the Jewish community in Germany is marginal to international affairs in numbers, political influence, and societal position; yet, through its continued existence in the "land of the perpetrators" alone, it has gained a symbolic worth that allows for its instrumentalization and involvement far beyond its actual relevance. Its symbolic value is not only limited to the German context, but extents to the European realm, relations between the West and the Islamic world, and the transatlantic alliance. Indeed, the Jewish community in Germany is important on a domestic (and, by extension, international) level precisely because of its vulnerability, because it is perceived as an abnormality attempting to normalize its place in German society and, by extension, impacting on Germany's and Europe's role in world affairs, in particular vis-à-vis the United States. I The last few years have thrown into sharp relief the fact that the "Jewish question" is still alive and relevant. Indeed, in many world conflicts and dilemmas, Israel and the Jews have been inserted and have become a focal point of controversy in civilizational issues and discord. The eruption of the "Jewish question" into the international arena is even more dramatic after a decade during which there was a growing sense that Jews had achieved a certain degree of normalization in both Israel and the Diaspora. In the 1990s, the years of the Oslo peace process and the concomitant Israeli drive for normalization, the premier question among Jews, inside and outside Israel, became the content of Jewish identity. Israeli Jews confronted mainly cleavages over growing trends of fundamentalist Jewish religious identity vs. the universal pressures of globalization. Internal debates over religious values and definitions, the challenges of peace, post-Zionism, relations between the homeland and the Diaspora, and so on, prevailed over traditional questions of security vis-à-vis the world at large. During the Oslo years, many Israelis and Diaspora Jews believed that comprehensive Middle East peace would alter fundamentally both Israel's Jewish character and the relations between the sovereign Jewish state and Jewish communities in the West. Peace would have enabled Israel to achieve a level of normalization that would have loosened the bonds of involvement with and responsibility for the Diaspora, while releasing the Diaspora from burdensome entanglements with Israeli security issues that had overshadowed their lives in their countries of domicile for over a generation. [End Page 189] Until very recently many observers...

Annual Bibliography of Works about Life Writing, 2002-2003

The fragility of the notion of identity can be seen in the fact that it is never simply enough to be what one is, rather one must become what one is in order to give shape to that identity, or make it function effectively in political contexts. Yet this is to open up a dangerous gap between identity and identification, for identification in its emphasis on becoming what one is now has the capacity to change the content of identity into virtually anything. —Richard F. Calichman Books Alcock, Susan E. Archaeologies of the Greek Past: Landscapes, Monuments, and Memories. New York: Cambridge UP, 2002. Focusing on Hellenistic and early Roman Greece, considers how monuments and material culture reflect both collective memory and amnesia. Auyero, Javier. Contentious Lives: Two Argentine Women, Two Protests, and the Quest for Revolution. Durham: Duke UP, 2003. Through oral histories, diaries, interviews, public records, and official documents, focuses on two participants in 1990s protest movements in Argentina to show how popular protests are experienced and remembered, individually and collectively. Banks, Elizabeth L. Campaigns of Curiosity: Journalistic Adventures of an American Girl in Late Victorian London. Intro. Mary Suzanne Schriber and Abbey Zink. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2003. Reprint of the 1894 autobiography of an American journalist who went undercover to [End Page 625] investigate the conditions of poor working women in London; the introduction situates Banks and her text in the context of journalism, travel writing, and the "New Woman." Bauer, Ralph. The Cultural Geography of Colonial American Literatures: Empire, Travel, Modernity. New York: Cambridge UP, 2003. Compares colonial prose narratives in Spanish and British America from 1542 to 1800, focusing on shipwreck, captivity, and travel narratives, and imperial and natural histories, to ask how knowledge can be centrally controlled in expanding empires. Beran, Michael. Jefferson's Demons: Portrait of a Restless Mind. New York: Free Press, 2003. Account of the "strangeness and originality" of Jefferson. Bernardin, Susan, Melody Graulich, Lisa MacFarlane, and Nicole Tonkovich. Trading Gazes: Euro-American Women Photographers and Native North Americans, 1880-1940. Piscataway: Rutgers UP, 2003. (Reviewed in Biography 26.4.) Biographical studies of four amateur women photographers—Jane Gay, Kate Cory, Mary Schäffer, and Grace Nicholson—who used photography to establish relations of exchange with Native peoples that challenged the traditional gaze of the dominant culture. Blackmore, Josiah. Manifest Perdition: Shipwreck Narrative and the Disruption of Empire. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2002. Shows how Portuguese shipwreck narratives from the 1600s and 1700s present an alternative historical record to the official chronicles of the empire. Blanton, Casey. Travel Writing: The Self and the World. New York: Routledge, 2002. Focuses on the development of the Anglo-American travel writing tradition, from Boswell through Chatwin. Bloch, R. Howard. The Anonymous Marie de France. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2003. Argues that the first female writer in French was keenly aware of the social and political powers of writing and of its role in preserving cultural memory. Brown, Cecil. Stagolee Shot Billy. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2002. Traces the growth of the Stagolee legend and musical variants back to Stack Lee and a murder in St. Louis in 1895. Bruner, Jerome. Making Stories: Law, Literature, Life. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2003. Through autobiography, legal cases, and literature, explores how people make stories to make sense of their lives and of the moral and psychological issues that animate them. [End Page 626] Burton, Antoinette. Dwelling in the Archive: Women Writing House, Home, and History in Late Colonial India. New York: Oxford UP, 2003. Extending the understanding of archival material to the physical spaces of houses and memories of home, examines how women wrote about colonialism, partition, and nation building in India. Couser, G. Thomas. Vulnerable Subjects: Ethics and Life Writing. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2003. Explores ethical implications of life writing involving vulnerable subjects, such as those involved in intimate or trust-based relationships, unable to represent...

What Transits in an Identity Status Transition?

This article examines the question of what transits in an ego identity status transition. It is argued that Marcia's (1966, 1967) ego identity statuses have different underlying structural organizations in the tradition of neo-Piagetian structural stage models (Snarey, Kohlberg, & Noam, 1983). It is also argued that it is necessary to differentiate structure underlying the ego identity statuses from identity content to understand the meaning of ego identity status transitions during adolescent and adult life. Processes of change for both identity structure as well as identity content are proposed on the basis of qualitative case studies. Means of best assessing structural organizations underlying the ego identity statuses are proposed. Defining the actual organizational structures underlying the ego identity statuses presents a challenging and fruitful direction for future identity research.

Looking Forward to the Past: National Identity and History in Malta

Critiques of the essentialising tendencies of nationalist discourse are well established in the social sciences—particularly in anthropology. This article builds on the calls for a more processual approach to national identity. It focuses not only on the problematic essentialism of discourses of national identity, but also on their inherent teleology. Social scientists have shared with nationalists a view of national identity as a problem that needs to be solved, and in doing so have adopted a teleological view that assumes that at some point in the future resolution is both possible and desirable. Picking up on recent theorisations of identity, the article argues that identity is inherently irresolvable, and for this reason we are better off investigating not the content of particular national identities, but the processes through which identities are debated—or indeed identity itself as a category is debated. The article concerns national identity in Malta, particularly the role of historians in articulating the identity debates. It links controversies within the historical community to the distinctive polarities of Maltese party politics, which developed in colonial Malta and continue into the post-colonial era. Although initially concerned with defining the content of national identity, political and historical debate shifted in the late twentieth century to focus on how it should be defined—and indeed whether identity was a useful category for describing Malta and its people. The article argues that this shift from content to process should be acknowledged by analysts of national identity, who should revise their analyses accordingly.

Mark Bassin, Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840–1865. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999, xv, 329 pp. + maps.

For the Russians, Siberia has always been “Other” and, as a result, it has often been imagined as something other than what it is. As Mark Bassin argues in this richly detailed book, this habit of the Russian imaginaire was on full display during the mid-1800s when hopeful Russian observers and statesmen envisioned the Russian Empire's latest territorial acquisition—the Amur river in far eastern Siberia—as a new Mississippi and the region around it as a potential second America. Ultimately, of course, these geographical analogies proved well off the mark. The region of the Amur never went on to experience the prosperity of the United States and the Amur river never even remotely rivaled the importance of the Mississippi as an artery of trade and settlement. And what is so interesting about all this is that the Russians themselves began to have their doubts about the Amur within just a few years of annexing it. Bassin's work, in fact, concentrates on explaining this strange shift. It is a study of why the Russian vision of the Amur that began so hot ended up turning so cold so quickly and what the vision itself seems to reveal about the content of Russian national identity.

Interrelationships Among Identity Process, Content, and Structure: A Cross-Cultural Investigation

This study was designed to investigate hypothesized relationships among identity process, content, and structure with youth living in three different cultural contexts: the United States, Finland, and the Czech Republic. Results indicated that youth who used an informational identity processing style had well-structured identities that were rooted in personal self-elements. Youth who used a normative processing style also had well-consolidated identities but ones anchored in collective self-elements. Youth who relied on a diffuse/avoidant identity processing style lacked firm identity commitments and emphasized social self-components in defining their sense of identity. This pattern of relationships was found for both male and female youth living within all three cultural contexts.

Advertising National Pride: The Unifying Power of Cricket Fever, Kashmir, and Politics

Advertising National PrideThe Unifying Power of Cricket Fever, Kashmir, and Politics Kimberly A. Wright (bio) Abstract This article is a critical analysis of three public events in India in 1999, each of which played a distinctive role in making consumerism central to the definition of Indian national identity. I argue that this definition resulted from the production of social energy in a public cultural zone, which was initially constituted by advertising for the 1999 World Cup Cricket Tournament, but was then extended into other social fields as well. My exploration of this topic extends beyond the advertisements that were produced for the World Cup Cricket Tournament and focuses attention on the production of the urban social phenomenon, “cricket fever” (as it is called). The dynamic social energy produced through this phenomenon during the World Cup spilled over into other public cultural spaces and continued to reinforce the connection between Indian national identity and patriotism1 through the market. Throughout my discussion, I attend to how advertising and marketing technologies and messages are a crucial mode of producing and expressing social energy and its meaning. Introduction In 1999, three events occurred that help illustrate the way definitions of Indian national identity were changed. These were the World Cup Cricket Tournament, the Kashmir border conflict in Kargil, and the national elections. The material presented follows the chronology of these events. First, I carefully examine the dynamics of the World Cup cricket phenomenon. Second, I illustrate how this dynamic and tone of public energy was replicated in the attention given to the Kargil conflict. And third, as a contrasting example, I discuss how attempts to arouse nationalist sentiment around the national elections and associated principles of electoral democracy ultimately failed to appeal to the Indian public. In the end, I argue that that the representations and imagery used to evoke Indian national identity in the World Cup and Kargil conflict changed the form and content of national identity in India to the point where consumption became the preferred mode of expressing national pride and patriotic duty, and corporate advertising became the preferred medium. The chronology of these three events is crucial because the first (the World Cup) was the most obviously and acceptably commercialized, thus allowing for the association between consumption and national identity to be naturalized and carried over into the other two arenas that were less (but still slightly) commercial. In this process, not only is national identity produced in relation to consumerism, but additionally, Indians who would be otherwise excluded from advertising messages are brought into the realm of consumption. They are being prepared for the day when they can express their patriotism through purchase. The powerful convergence of cricket, advertising, marketing, nationalism, consumerism, and generalized imagery2 works together to produce social energy that spreads consumerism and its associated aspirations of global modernity to the masses. The events from May to October, 1999, provided advertising with the opportunity to produce highly localized versions of global India3 through messages of unity and national pride. Cricket: From Imperial Tool to National Unifier In Bombay during the summer of 1999, the World Cup Cricket Tournament was inescapable. Every television channel, newspaper, magazine, restaurant, bar, club, and street corner flashed a reminder of the great expectations the nation had for the Indian team. Every corporation seemed to be sponsoring, endorsing, or associating in some way with the tournament and wishing the team “all the best” (as one commercial jingle refrain put it). Though they beat Pakistan in an early match, the Indian team performed poorly and was eliminated from the tournament before the finals. In the final match between Australia and Pakistan, Indians showed their patriotism by supporting Australia and hailing their ultimate victory over India’s enemy neighbor. Still, despite the team’s performance, the degree to which this sporting event had pervaded the lives of Indians of all classes and locales was evident. As a common denominator of Indians, cricket seemed to offer an ideal platform from which advertisers could address a wide range of the Indian public. Before discussing the details of how advertisers exploited this event, it is crucial to understand the importance of cricket in India...

Use and validation of NMR assays for the identity and O-acetyl content of capsular polysaccharides from Neisseria meningitidis used in vaccine manufacture

We describe a validated NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopic assay for the identity of the capsular polysaccharides (CPSs) from Neisseria meningitidis Groups A, C, W135 and Y used in vaccine manufacture, and to determine the proportion of residues carrying an O-acetyl substituent. Proof of structural identity and quantitation of the O-acetyl content are key control parameters for these vaccines. The meningococcal CPSs have variable levels of O-acetylation, present at multiple sites in the repeat unit, leading to complex NMR spectra. Base-catalysed de- O-acetylation of the Groups A, C, W135 and Y CPSs yields simplified and reproducible spectra suitable for comparison with reference data. The degree of O-acetylation of the original CPS can be determined by integration of the acetate anion resonance and a suitable resonance from the saccharide moiety. The assay was validated using 46 independent samples from five manufacturers, and is shown to be robust and reproducible.

Memories of Nations and States: Institutional History and National Identity in Post-Soviet Eurasia

The national identities of post-Soviet societies profoundly influenced the politics and economics of Eurasia during the 1990s. These identities varied along two distinct but related dimensions: their content and contestation. Nationalist movements throughout post-Soviet Eurasia invoked their nations in support of specific purposes, which frequently cast Russia as the nation's most important “other” and the state from which autonomy and security must be sought. Nationalists therefore offered specific proposals for the content of their societies’ collective identities. But not everyone in these societies shared the priorities of their nationalist movements. Indeed, the international relations among post-Soviet states often revolved around one central question: did post-Soviet societies and politicians agree with their nationalists or not? The former Communists played a decisive role in contesting the content of national identity. One of the defining differences among post-Soviet states during the 1990s was the political and ideological relationship in each one between the formerly Communist elites and the nationalists—whether the former Communists marginalized the nationalists, arrested them, coopted them, bargained with them, or even tried to become like them. These different relationships revealed different degrees and kinds of societal consensus about national identity after Soviet rule.

A Model for Organizational Identity: Exploring the Path to Sustainability during Change

Mergers and other change events dramatically transform organizational life, often altering an organization’s essential nature—its identity. In an effort to more effectively manage the change process, it is important to understand the impact of change and those aspects that, ifchanged, put the organization’s identity at greatest peril. This study qualitatively explored these issues by examining the content of identity and the effects of change in a commercial aviation company that was undergoing a merger. Drawing upon Albert and Whetten’s definition of organizational identity, a model of organizational attributes emerged that consisted of core attributes and application attributes. The data illustrate that the organization’s core attributes—its central purpose and distinctive philosophy—constitute organizational identity. The second category of application attributes—priorities, practices, and projections—have varying degrees of fluidity and may be altered without losing the central, distinctive, and enduring essence of the organization. The article concludes with propositions for future research.

Scholarship in Student Affairs: Thinking Outside the Triangle, or Tabasco on Cantaloupe

How do we make meaning of the experiences and lives of our students, and how do questions of meaning relate to scholarship? This article expresses a concern about language and whether we as professionals examine the language we use. It explores a concern about the deafening silence on our campuses and in our professional organizations, about allies who do not speak out for the "other." And it ponders how we learned what we know about marginalization of populations on our campuses; or, more accurately, what we don’t know. This article then briefly explores eight areas within student affairs, specifically for sexual orientation and gender identity content: Curriculum, Staff and Administrator Training, Mentoring, Research, Development, Leadership, Service, and Balance and Renewal. It is a completely biased, onesided view as seen through the eyes, heart, and scholarship of one university's professional gay-for-pay.

Scholarship in Student Affairs: Thinking Outside the Triangle, or Tabasco on Cantaloupe

How do we make meaning of the experiences and lives of our students, and how do questions of meaning relate to scholarship? This article expresses a concern about language and whether we as professionals examine the language we use. It explores a concern about the deafening silence on our campuses and in our professional organizations, about allies who do not speak out for the "other." And it ponders how we learned what we know about marginalization of populations on our campuses; or, more accurately, what we don’t know. This article then briefly explores eight areas within student affairs, specifically for sexual orientation and gender identity content: Curriculum, Staff and Administrator Training, Mentoring, Research, Development, Leadership, Service, and Balance and Renewal. It is a completely biased, onesided view as seen through the eyes, heart, and scholarship of one university's professional gay-for-pay.

Global versus domain-specific statuses in identity research: a comparison of two self-report measures

The present study explored the potential usefulness of global identity statuses (ideological identity) as opposed to domain-specific statuses (occupation, religion, politics) using self-report measures rather than identity interviews. A total of 339 college students from two colleges in Belgium (Europe) completed both the Extended Objective Measure of Ego-Identity Status (EOM-EIS) and the Dellas Identity Status Inventory — Occupation, Religious Beliefs, Political Ideology (DISI-ORP). Four types of evidence argued in favour of domain-specific statuses (i.e. low convergence in identity status across domains, moderate convergence between global and domain-specific identity statuses, significant gender differences in domain-specific but not in global identity statuses, and significant associations between identity process and identity content in congruent but not in incongruent domains). In line with earlier research using identity status interviews, it was concluded that adolescent identity is not to be considered a unitary construct and the use of domain-specific identity statuses is recommended whenever possible. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed in terms of adolescents' temporal spacing of identity concerns. Finally, the limitations of identity questionnaires (additive approach to global identity statuses) are pointed out. Identity interviews (indicative approach to global statuses) can yield a very different picture of identity.

Jewish Gay Men's Accounts of Negotiating Cultural, Religious, and Sexual Identity

Research on the construction of lesbian and gay identity has represented this process as carrying considerable potential for intrapsychic and interpersonal stress and conflict. This process may be rendered even more psychologically challenging for those whose identities feature salient components that are not easily reconciled with a lesbian or gay identity. An example of this is the simultaneous holding of Jewish and gay identities. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study of 21 Jewish gay men in Britain. Participants were interviewed about the development of their gay identity, the relationship between their gay identity and their Jewish identity, the psychological and social implications of holding these identities, and strategies for managing any difficulties associated with this. Data were subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis. All but one of the men reported experiences of identity conflict, arising mainly from the perceived incompatibility of Jewish and gay identities. This was said to have impacted negatively upon their psychological well-being. Those who had received negative reactions to the disclosure of sexual identity within Jewish contexts often attributed this to an anti-gay stance within Judaism and a concern with ensuring the continuation of the Jewish people. Various strategies were said to have been used to manage identity threat, including compartmentalizing Jewish and gay identity and revising the content or salience of Jewish identity. Recommendations are offered for psychological interventions which could help Jewish gay men manage identity conflict.

Ethno-Religious Mobilisation and Citizenship Discourse in the People's Republic of China

In the post-Cold War world, 'identity politics' is seen by many as posing the greatest threat to peace and political institutions, liberal or otherwise. In light of the carnage of Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda and former Soviet republics, cultural identity politics would seem to be a politics, or antipolitics, of the most virulent and savage sort. Yet research conducted among three Chinese minority nationalities - the Dai, Bai and Muslim Hui of Yunnan Province - reveals that the relationship between cultural activism and minority nationalist sentiment is not always so clear-cut. I show that such activism, which includes linguistic promotion and religious education, can in fact express claims derived from a national political identity, a conception of minority membership in the Chinese national community. Certain instances of minority cultural activism are efforts to put teeth into the party-state's promises of autonomy and to reject the stereotype of shaoshu minzu as backward and uncivilised. Such activism is thus a means of asserting minorities' rightful place in the contemporary Chinese body politic. At the same time, such cultural activism may cement cross-national ethnic and religious identities, thereby consolidating the material and ideological resources that make anti-state behaviour more feasible. Even when cultural activism shows acceptance of inclusive nation-state norms, minority inclusion may be limited by the behaviour and attitudes of the state, or by the content of national identity itself. In discussing these issues, minority cultural activism will also be juxtaposed with a very different sort of ethnic mobilisation, one which does pose a serious threat to the integrity of Chinese boundaries and the ability of the state to enforce its rule. The paper thus also shows how ethnicity within Yunnan Province can be a resource for anti-state behaviour, even when the aims of such actions are not ethnic in content.

An Organizing Framework for Specifying and Maintaining Catholic Identity in American Catholic Higher Education

All Catholic institutions are increasingly involved in discussions about what constitutes Catholic identity. It is a pressing question for schools, universities, hospitals, and social service agencies. As the debate proceeds on the possible implementation of formal norms for Catholic universities according to Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the question of Catholic identity becomes a most crucial for Catholic colleges and universities. Through a content analysis of literature on Catholic higher education, the author suggests a framework for specifying the content of Catholic identity. Within a structure of three major influences which are delineated in 18 categories, Catholic identity is described as a rich and multifaceted phenomenon.

German Identity and European Integration

Although the structural constraints facing Germany shifted dramatically with the end of the Cold War and reunification, the direction of its European policy did not. The more powerful Federal Republic continued to press for deeper economic and political integration, eschewing a more independent or assertive foreign policy course. Neorealism, neoliberalism and liberalism cannot adequately explain this continuity in the face of structural change. This article sets out a constructivist account centered around the effects of German state identity. It develops a two-step analytical framework designed to pinpoint the content of state identity and establish its effects on state action, and then applies it to the German case. In the wake of reunification, German leaders across the political spectrum identified the Federal Republic as part of an emergent supranational community. This European identity, with roots in the postwar decades, drove Germany's unflagging support for deeper integration across the 1989-90 divide.

Content and predictors of the ethnic identity of Russian-speaking immigrant adolescents in Finland.

The content and predictors of the ethnic identity of Russian-speaking immigrant adolescents (N = 170) in Finland were investigated. The ethnic identity of immigrants was found to be composed of two dimensions, one reflecting the cognitive, evaluative and emotional components of their Russian identity and the other reflecting those of their Finnish identity. The ethnic and linguistic self-identifications of adolescents were strongly related to the extent of and the value given to the Russian and Finnish identity, but neither to the frequency of using nor to their proficiency in the respective languages. The immigrants' perceptions of the relationships with parents were strongly related to their Russian identity. This association was, however, very different for girls and boys. In addition, the Russian contact orientation and Russian language use were strong predictors of the adolescents' Russian identity, whereas their Finnish contact orientation and Finnish language use strongly predicted their Finnish identity.