Flexible Identity Research Articles

Negotiating Narrative Identity in Intercultural Contexts - the Role of Applied Theatre

The purpose of this study has been to investigate whether applied drama and theatre can facilitate arenas and methods to support identity-construction, particularly favorable to an intercultural context, investigated through the concept of narrative identity. Identity and identity processes may be extra challenging to people with intercultural backgrounds. Research underpin that how you master your identity affects how you master your life. A participatory action research design, emphasizing the negotiation between theoretical and practical perspectives and different stakeholders was used to address the research question within the setting of intercultural applied theatre projects and aesthetic teacher education. The interpretations and analysis show that aesthetic processes of staging life stories (narratives), facilitate exploring, constructing, re-constructing and meta-reflecting on one's own identity, suggesting that a flexible identity may be an essential tool, a life skill, for people that live in an intercultural context so that they can participate in society in a meaningful and autonomous way.(Published: 13 January, 2017)Citiation: H.M. Haraldsen and S. Ingul. Negotiating Narrative Identity in Intercultural Contexts - the Role of Applied Theatre. Journal for Research in Arts and Sports Education, Vol 1, 2017, pp 69-82. http://dx.doi.org/10.23865/jased.v1.536

TRANSFORMATION OF IDENTITY IN SOCIETY

The paper investigates transformation of identity and specifies peculiarities of philosophic, sociological and psychological reflection of the concept in accordance with historic periods of society development. The authors highlight scientific views on the evolution of identity, contradiction in its formation, critics of existing concepts and results received in Philosophy, Sociology and Pedagogics. The authors see current conditions of identity formation as completely different. This results from globalization process, virtualization, creating net communities etc, that is why the authors focus on the types of various and flexible identity that corresponds to modern life and diversity of net communities (from professional and socio-demographic communities to affinity communities). The paper analyzes the functions of culture in these processes and new means of communication. The authors make case about virtualization of society, reflection and creation of new concepts of modern transformation society. This results from wide-spread screens (cinemas, TV-sets, computers, smart phones, tablets, e-books etc.) and forms of interaction among them (WEB2.0, cloud technologies etc).

Self-Concept Clarity and Online Self-Presentation in Adolescents.

The Internet may be conceptualized as a social laboratory, providing freedom to experiment with different presentations of self. Adolescence is an important time in the development of self-concept; however, little is known about how clarity of self-concept relates to online behavior. The principal aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that self-concept clarity would be associated with adolescents' inclination to experiment with online self-presentation. One hundred forty-eight participants aged 13-18 completed the Self-Concept Clarity Scale, the Facebook Intensity Scale, and the Presentation of Online Self Scale (POSS). Adolescents possessing a less stable sense of self reported experimenting with online self-presentation more regularly, presenting an idealized version of self and a preference for presenting themselves online. Adolescents with a more stable self-concept reported presenting an online self which was more consistent with their offline self-presentation. Younger adolescents were more likely to present an inconsistent self, whereas older adolescents presented themselves more consistently across different communication contexts. Finally, adolescents who spent more time on Facebook and had fewer Facebook friends were more likely to present multiple versions of self while online. The implications of these findings will be discussed in terms of the development of self-concept during adolescence and the potential for the online world to facilitate flexible identity construction and self-presentation.

The issue of identity: From urban tribes to political consumerism to sharing fashion

Abstract Identity is acquiring a new importance in fashion studies that goes beyond the sphere of personal consumption. The aestheticizing climate of postmodernity has justified consumer activity in the name of a flexible identity, while clothing has been confirmed as an aesthetic resource for self-presentation. Some young consumers – the so-called urban tribes – have made their mask a flag, creating peculiar ways of dressing during leisure time. For particular cultural minorities, a true political antagonism is at stake and the flag stands for a declaration of an open will to emancipate from the dominant culture. Increasing consumers’ awareness of fashion-sustainability problems and their expectations towards the production system have led to the necessity of considering together the different actors in the fashion chain. In fact, the reflexive identities of late modernity are concerned dialectically with the construction of a social imaginary that does not exclusively pertain to consumers or producers; nor does it concern the mere aesthetic enrichment of the image, but rather the complex arena where meanings are built. In this same frame, a very recent variation of responsible fashion aims at reducing the distance between production and consumption in view of a sharing of practices, technologies and products. The ethical dimension of fashion widens to include values that transcend individual self-presentation to encompass images of collective identities and convivial communities.

The Educational Aspirations and Expectations of Japanese Immigrant Mothers: Narratives of Raising Bicultural Nikkei Children in the Post-1965 Diaspora

ABSTRACTThis qualitative case study analyzed the diverse narratives of 10 Japanese immigrant mothers who reared their second-generation children in a midsize metropolitan community in the Midwest. The primary research questions are as follows: How have Japanese immigrant mothers envisioned academic success in relation to contemporary interpretations of diasporic Nikkei identity? How have the participants made sense of and negotiated their educational aspirations against the expectations of U.S. K–12 schools? Based on focus groups, individual interviews, and narrative analyses, this study captured the multiple ways by which Japanese immigrant mothers facilitated opportunities for their children to maintain a distinct but flexible Nikkei or diasporic Japanese identity (Nukaga, 2012; Takamori, 2010) that was centrally focused on rearing academically successful children who also exhibited cultural competence and confidence as bicultural Americans.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Aging and Bisexuality: Can These Complex Life Patterns Be an Impetus for Identity Flexibility and Growth?

abstractWhat happens to identity when life challenges include two major individual characteristics that are often considered negative: identifying as bisexual and identifying as an older adult? In this issue we learn more about the varieties of lived experience of older bisexuals. In the larger society, and even within smaller affinity groups, these labels often include social stigmas and challenges to whatever identity a person formed earlier in life. Some larger questions arise. How can adults think of themselves as having a fully formed identity when that identity is challenged? Could accepting and incorporating these labels help an adult grow and learn to cognitively conceptualize personal identity in a more complex, flexible, growing way? Creating and re-creating the concept of the self, the identity, over the course of adulthood is a cognitive and a personal challenge and a potential source of growth. This article introduces the five articles in this special issue, broadens our view of aging bisexuals, and examines the possible cognitive aspects of creating a flexible identity. Societal changes and the growth potential for dealing with the dual life challenges of bisexuality and aging are considered.

Antiflexible Latin directed triple systems

It is well known that given a Steiner triple system one can define a quasigroup operation $\cdot$ upon its base set by assigning $x \cdot x = x$ for all $x$ and $x \cdot y = z$, where $z$ is the third point in the block containing the pair $\{x,y\}$. The same can be done for Mendelsohn triple systems, where $(x,y)$ is considered to be ordered. But this is not necessarily the case for directed triple systems. However there do exist directed triple systems, which induce a quasigroup under this operation and these are called Latin directed triple systems. The quasigroups associated with Steiner and Mendelsohn triple systems satisfy the flexible law $y \cdot (x \cdot y) = (y \cdot x) \cdot y$ but those associated with Latin directed triple systems need not. In this paper we study the Latin directed triple systems where the flexible identity holds for the least possible number of ordered pairs $(x, y)$. We describe their geometry, present a surprisingly simple cyclic construction and prove that they exist if and only if the order $n$ is $n\equiv 0$ or $1\pmod{3}$ and $n\geq 13$.

Positions of Sinophone Representation in Jin's (金庸) Chivalric Topography

In his article "Positions of Sinophone Representation in Jin's (金庸) Chivalric Topography" Weijie Song examines Yong Jin's post-1949 Hong Kong chivalric imagination of imperial Beijing and beyond during the Ming-Qing Dynastic transition and the dialects of inclusive exclusion and exclusive inclusion. In Cold War Hong Kong, Jin charted a wide range of chivalric activities: intruding into the political center embodied by the Forbidden City (the "Great Within") and fleeing to peripheral regions such as Xinjiang's Islamic community, the overseas kingdom in Brunei in Southeast Asia, and an unknown place somewhere inside Yangzhou. Song argues that Jin's literary topography suggests a frustrated yet flexible identity and a supplementary yet self-sufficient "republic of letters" in his remapping of China's past for the possible positions of contemporary Sinophone representations.

‘Talent circulators’ in Shanghai: return migrants and their strategies for success

This paper argues for a flexible identity and citizenship framework to explore how return migrants, haigui, have readapted and re-established themselves back into Shanghai society, and how they have used their talents, knowledge and guanxi networks to optimise their chances of success. It argues that these return migrants, as talent circulators in their circulatory migration process, have adopted a flexible identity and citizenship, to confront their conflicting emotions and negotiated sacrifices for the well-being of their individual self and family as they expand their socio-economic and territorial space.

The Composition Specialist as Flexible Expert: Identity and Labor in the History of Composition

This history explores the early growth of composition faculty between 1960 and 1990, arguing that composition has historically functioned as a site of flexible expertise. As archives of the Modern Language Association’s Job Information List attest, early job advertisements for composition “specialists” defined the work of composition in terms antithetical to specialization, expecting a compositionist to perform a variety of administrative work and to teach comfortably in multiple areas. The flexible identity of the field’s faculty aided its growth during a period when tenure-track faculty waned; composition thrived because faculty could serve multiple institutional roles. This essay calls readers to investigate the ways that composition’s flexibility has impacted and continues to impact the field’s identity and labor structures.

Understanding glocal learning spaces. An empirical study of languaging and transmigrant positions in the virtual classroom

The use of digital tools like computers and tablets in institutional learning arenas give rise to forms of flexibility where time and space boundaries become diffuse. Online learning sites are understood as being crucial today, especially in large parts of the Global North, where anyone anywhere potentially can become a student and have access to educational opportunities.This study focuses on the analysis of recorded sessions, part of an ‘Italian for (adult) beginners' online course. Our interests relate to accounting for how students negotiate different language varieties, including modalities, and how communication in virtual learning settings enables both flexible participation trajectories and identity positions in and across the boundaries of time and space.The sociocultural and dialogical analyses here are framed in terms of fluidity of ‘glocal' positions and (trans)languaging that emerge in and across time and space in Technology Mediated Communication. Our findings suggest that online environments support meaning-making where it is possible to identify alternative ways of (co)constructing and mediating learning. Such hybridity as well as the performative character of learning and identity display have important implications for online glocal communities.

The National Tale and the Pseudonymous Author: Mobile Identity in the “Rosalia St. Clair” Novels

The novels of Scottish writer Agnes C. Hall, pseud. “Rosalia St. Clair,” have received no critical attention. Hall, however, interestingly revises the national tale to envision a flexible familial and national identity, chosen in a cosmopolitan context. Hall's vaguely but non-specifically ethnic pseudonym presents her first argument for such an identity. Hall adopts from Sydney Owenson's novels an interest in the ways in which characters move across boundaries in order to recover their birthright, but rejects the national tale's use of history and inheritance to define cultural identity. She suggests that only the freedom to change family name and nationality will allow individuals to evade tyrannical parents and governments. In deemphasizing history, she also redefines authenticity to privilege sympathy with one's audience over verisimilitude or faithfulness to origins. Her changing portrayal of characters named “St. Clair” and “Byron” demonstrates her increasing advocacy for a cosmopolitan, freely chosen identity.

A Study on Flexible Identity for the Expansion of Brand Experiences(Sense, Feel, Think, Act, Relate)

A Study on Flexible Identity for the Expansion of Brand Experiences(Sense, Feel, Think, Act, Relate)

Media modeling of cultural identity

Contemporary society propagates flexible identity, which is susceptible to trends and images of the world created by the media. The media have an increasing role in shaping people, especially young people, which are one of the most important consumers of content placed in media. Young people become just one of the expedient of manipulation controlled by the media, and as such they are a perfect target for shaping. Style of life that propagates main stream culture is widely accepted because it is closely related to consumer society and capitalism that are our everyday life. The globalization of the media industry has brought negative changes when it comes to the quality of media content, such as globalization of taste and unification of product, all of which are a result of commercialization and monopolization in the sphere of media content distribution. The personality of the modern age is a kind of' ''electronic individual'' whose identity is shaped by the media. Technological advancement and profitability as the underlying logic of capital, particularly contribute this. Since the media are not a passive reflection of society, but its active and dynamic factor instead, it is important to study the mass media feedback to society as well. The goal of any society should be to create a media-conscious individual able to critically observe the forms of mass culture. That individual becomes an active member of society who deliberately uses forms of mass culture in order to achieve progressive social change.

패션 디자인에 나타난 가상공간의 페르소나 표현

Persona means the mask of personality where the internal ego exposes itself to the outside. The complicated structure and diversity of contemporary society has provided men with a more variegated and diversified persona; in addition, advancements in internet and information communications creates the possibility for the emergence of more variegated and new persona. This study probes the persona of virtual space expressed in fashion designs; subsequently, this study reviews the concept and various characteristics of persona and examines the type of persona in the virtual space from the perspective of the manifestation of identity. The type of persona in the virtual space canbe categorized into flexible identity and falsified identity; subsequently, the characteristics and meanings of virtual space persona in fashion designs are analyzed. Flexible identity-oriented personas expressed in fashion designs are revealed through the images of animals or dolls. This is a childlike persona expression that expresses ego through other substances in an effort to express infantile substances such as dreams and fantasy cherished in childhood. Falsified identity-oriented personas are expanded as a realm of expression of the body and the realities are camouflaged as transformed persona. Negating existence itself by covering the eyes or face as well as the concealment of the body with masks or veils is an expression of a self-denying persona.

An exploratory study on the applicability of flexible identity to the building of brand identity

Background Brand is no longer an assortment of attributes. Brand identity provides consumers with core values and signals which reflect the firm and the product. Consistent brand communication under volatile market environments can quite often cause fatigue about the product to consumers. Under such circumstances, consumers are more willing to try new brands. To avoid such risk, firms need to diversify communication with consumers. Firms need to at least slightly change their identity in a dynamic and interactive manner. In this regard, this study intends to propose flexible identity as a concept to build brand identity effectively. Methods As a research method, case studies offer a valuable tool for empirical inquiry to investigate contemporary phenomenon within real-life contexts; when the boundaries between the phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used (Yin, 1981). Case studies emphasize detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events and/or conditions and their relationships. This study introduces three cases relevant to flexible identity in the service sector. One is global TV channel MTV that offers diverse visual images to consumers. Another is Target, which provides a variety of marketing communication in its logo and its advertising campaign. We also deal with how Obama utilizes flexible identity in his 2009 Presidential Campaign. Results This study is an attempt to analyze three types of flexible identity. One is concerned with the flexibility of logo design. A notable example is MTV, an American cable TV channel specializing in music. Through its flexible logo design which reflects the characteristics of its diverse programs, MTV communicates effectively with its audiences. Another is the flexibility of visual expression. Target, a successful retail outlet in the United States, has strategically utilized its logo in a flexible manner and further implemented an advertising campaign with a flexible identity. The other is the flexibility of visual image. One notable example in this category is Obamas 2009 Presidential Campaign that utilized its campaign logo. Voters are allowed to freely modify and recreate the Presidential Campaign logo during the campaign period. Conclusion Under volatile market environments, consistent brand communication with a fixed brand identity can quite often cause fatigue about products and/or services to consumers. Under such circumstances, consumers are more willing to try new brands. To achieve greater communication effectiveness, firms need to diversify how they communicate with their consumers by at least slightly changing their brand identity in a dynamic and interactive manner. This study, based on three case studies (MTV, Target, and Obama Presidential Campaign), proposed flexible identity as a concept to effectively build brand identity.

A privacy preserving authentication scheme with flexible identity revocation in people-centric sensing

People-Centric Sensing (PCS) is a new sensing paradigm, in which people’s context information is described by attributes. However, due to the nature of “people centric” and dynamicity, the prevalence of PCS faces two main challenges, including authentication with privacy preservation and complex identity revocation.In this paper, we propose the ABS-KR, an attribute-based signature scheme supporting key revocation. ABS-KR inherits the advantage of most attribute-based signature schemes, that is, a signature only shows that whether the user owns attributes satisfying the verification policy, no more information about his identifier or attributes, implementing authentication with privacy preservation. Furthermore, we introduce a mediator responsible for the key revocation to reduce the workload of the attribute authority managing users’ attributes and generating secret key for them. The core idea of performing flexible revocation is to divide a user’s secret key into two shares, and give one part to the mediator, making the user asking the mediator for help to generate a valid signature. Before answering the user, the mediator performs a revocation check for the user’s identifier and claimed attributes. If and only if the signer owns unrevoked attributes satisfying the policy, he can generate a valid signature. In addition, the mediator realizes instantaneous key revocation through revocation check during signing a message. Moreover, our ABS-KR supports monotone policies in the form of attribute trees under the computational Diffie–Hellman assumption.

“Who are you?” – Constructing managerial identities in post-apartheid South Africa

This study focuses on the construction of identity concepts and values, in the process of developing managerial within a selected publically owned utility in South Africa. The methodology used is a multi-method case study approach which is conducted in the phenomenological, qualitative research paradigm. The findings show that managers define themselves in terms of intra-personal and social identities which are based on strong individual and socio-cultural value foundations. Data highlight that managerial are connected to the organisational identity. Seventeen years after the end of apartheid, managerial are no longer reduced and limited to fixed racial, cultural or professional founded on historic perspectives, but are rather viewed as a dynamic cross-cultural construct of interpersonal interactions. This article provides the reader with new insights into managerial identity constructions in a multicultural public utility setting in post-apartheid South Africa.Key words: identity, South Africa, management, ethnography, interviewer-interviewee interaction, values(JEL: F54, J17, J71, O10, O55)IntroductionThe question: Who are you? has gained particular interest in management sciences and organisational studies during the past years (Sveningsson & Alvesson, 2003). Thereby, identity concepts are often interlinked with managerial and organisational values which are usually associated with particular roles, managerial belonging, identification with the organisation and its history, the cultural context, imagination of the future and the organisational identity (Mayer, 2008a). However, narrating identity is a process of intra-psychological and socio-cultural reconstruction (Lindgren & Wâhlin, 2001).The South African societal context of contemporary organisations and public utilities is highly complex and fragmented regarding global, national, local and individ- ual influences (Albert, Ashforth, & Dutton, 2000). They provide space for individual and managerial identity (re-)construction as a process of intra- and inter-psychological, as well as socio-cultural reconstruction. In the South African context, identity constructions still refer to apartheid categories, current politically correct values and attitudes towards diversity (Mayer, 2008). This specific context increases the importance of interrelated, flexible identity constructions. Managers need to make sense of the inherent complexity and ambiguities of their (Keupp 2004, 2004a) beyond race, in order to manage and conduct themselves appropriately.Extensive research has been conducted on managerial identity constructions (such as Albert et al., 2000; Mayer, 2008). The importance of studying identity and values in South African management contexts is obvious: South African society has undergone tremendous change on societal, political, economic and individual levels since 1994 (Hart, 2002). The process of double transition (Webster & Adler, 1999), referring to the global impact of change on South African society as well as to intranational transformation, has affected identities, values and management in organisations and public utilities. New approaches, therefore, are required to understand the newly emerging and value concepts in South African organisations and public utilities to address and manage them adequately (Mayer & Louw, 2011). However, identity reconstructions have hardly been researched in the South African public utility context, which has undergone tremendous change in its organisational structure and in diversity during recent years.The contribution of this paper is therefore to increase the understanding of identity and value constructions in managers in the specific work context of a South African post-apartheid public utility, and thereby add to theoretical knowledge. It explores how managers define themselves and express their identity through narrations by referring to individual and organisational values. …

An Analysis of Web Flexible Identity Type and Consumer Needs - Mainly Domestic Portal Sites -

An Analysis of Web Flexible Identity Type and Consumer Needs - Mainly Domestic Portal Sites -

A Study for the Methodology of Establishing Flexible Identity System

A Study for the Methodology of Establishing Flexible Identity System