Narrative Identity Research Articles

Exploring the development of narrative identities in emerging adults who have been in foster care

Foster care involvement is often marked by being in a frequent state of disruption, resilience, disempowerment, and self-protection (e.g., Mitchell, 2016). Although over 400,000 children are in foster care at any given time in the U.S. (Children’s Bureau, 2021), foster youth are a relatively understudied population, especially regarding their own meaning-making and the development of their sense of self. The purpose of the present study was to understand the psychological experiences that shape the construction of self-narratives in young adults who have been in foster care. The sample included nine young adults (18–24 years old) who had been in foster care at some point in their childhood; all participants identified as women. The sample was diverse in terms of racial and ethnic identities. Participants completed brief surveys and an interview regarding their background, foster care experiences, and hopes for the future. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Study findings highlighted how foster youth navigated uncertainty, instability, and isolation in their interpersonal relationships, as well as ambiguity in understanding their past, present, and future. Findings further highlighted the process of managing dialectics throughout development, especially regarding adverse experiences, and how youth are shaped by their past to create their future. While these themes were not exhaustive of the complete process of self-narrative development, they did provide a starting point for understanding and empowering foster youth to own their stories. The primary implication of this study is that the unique developmental context of foster care shapes the self-narrative processes and meaning-making experiences of youth.

From the Sidelines to the Frontlines: Black Student-Athlete Organizations as Counterspaces at Predominantly White Institutions

Abstract: Significant moments of Black college athlete activism and mobilization marked 2020. One noticeable way Black college athletes mobilized was by creating Black student-athlete organizations (BSAOs). Given college athletics’ long-standing relationship to racism and racial capitalism, it is important to understand how BSAOs function within the athletic subculture and how they may facilitate belonging and community for Black college athletes. Thus, this study explored the purpose and function of BSAOs and the impact of engagement in these organizations on Black college athletes’ experiences at PWIs. Grounded in Case and Hunter’s (2012) conceptualization of counterspaces, the findings reveal insights related to acts of resistance, narrative identity work, and direct relational transactions. The paper concludes with implications for student leaders, practitioners, and future research.

I Felt Like I Was Getting to Be My Own Person: Exploring the Impact of Cultural Master Narratives on Identity Development During Student Exchange

International mobility experiences such as student exchange can promote identity development and cultural awareness. However, little research has assessed such processes using a master narrative framework. This study explored undergraduate student perspectives on how changing cultural contexts and the associated cultural master narratives influence identity development during university exchange experiences. Twenty interviews were conducted with Australian and U.S. exchange students aged 21-22 years. Thematic analysis identified a process model of master narrative awareness and associated responses incorporating three key elements: contexts of awareness, identity responses, and experiences of self-transformation. A fourth theme highlighted the influence of individual identities as interaction effects in these processes. The findings show that exposure to diverse master narratives during student exchange enhances students’ awareness of their own and other master narratives, which supports identity development. The study provides new insights into the ways intercultural experiences shape master narrative awareness and identity in emerging adults.

Endangered words, threatened worlds: Sapara identity in dialogue with UNESCO

ABSTRACT This article explores the self-representation practices of the leaders of the Sapara Nationality of Ecuador in response to UNESCO’s cultural policies and the recognition of their oral traditions and cultural manifestations as Masterpieces of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity (2001). Through critical discourse analysis, the author elucidates how Sapara leaders’ identity narratives engage with UNESCO’s discourses on endangered languages. The analysis revolves around three linguistic ideologies strongly present in UNESCO’s discourses: the metonymic relation between language and territory, the co-occurrence between biological and cultural diversity and the objectification of language as a universal possession. The author argues that supranational institutions like UNESCO are influential in defining notions of indigenous ‘authenticity,’ to which Sapara leaders adapt, negotiate and resist.

Another in Oneself: Hybridity of the narrative identity and followability as narrative hospitality for others

The following article investigates the hybridity of narrative identity. It explores how idem-identity and the ipse-identity interrelate through time and otherness and illustrates the process of self’s reflexive re-cognition via others. It posits that narrative identity encompasses both private and public dimensions, requiring a co-authorship that integrates collective identities. This article argues for an ethical dimension to this identity, emphasizing the reciprocal movement between self and other. It introduces the concept of followability, which involves reconstructing narratives in a resonance relationship, fostering narrative hospitality and mutual transformation. The study concludes by proposing an eschatological perspective as a horizon for followability, enhancing narrative refiguration through future-oriented imagination.

Narrative value theory: an educational biography as an iterative theory-of-self

ABSTRACT Personal narratives can be seen as iterative theories-of-valued-selves: thick, deliberate outlines traced over and selectively enhancing and obscuring the finer details of life as lived. Through telling such stories we represent and orient ourselves towards certain potential actions while turning away from others. Biographical narration is in this way a mobilisation of our pasts to identify valued futures. This article draws together narrative theory, identity psychology and educational philosophy to submit a tentative theory of educational narratives as iterative theories of personal value. The author’s autoethnographic account of completing a postgraduate course online throughout the COVID pandemic is then used as the basis for an inductive analysis of narrative features and their felt and represented significance. This process highlights the ways in which the author’s personal narrative can be read as a theory-of-valued-self, identifying key moments of interaction which characterise the narrator’s valued identity and open causal pathways to future valued action. Such practices may have potential in application with so-called ‘lifelong learners’, adults who continually engage with education throughout life particularly in response to major professional and personal disruption which can otherwise result in a lack of continuity and identity coherence.

Las formaciones identitarias y sus diversas perspectivas entre los inmigrantes polacos en Misiones (Argentina) durante el periodo 1930–1940: el caso de Casimira Kotur

The paper discusses the identity of Polish immigrants in the province of Misiones, Argentina. The first part of the article presents the historical context, while the second one comprehensively analyses the identity of one of the residents of Posadas, Casimira Kotur, based on interviews conducted with her. The working methods is based on the following theoretical concepts: narrative identity according to Paul Ricoeur, review of social roles of social actors and Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of polyphony.

Against observation: the panoramic legacy of Sergei Loznitsa

ABSTRACT Critical reception of Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa’s documentary films typically concludes that the director privileges observational techniques to depict historical events and political movements, resulting in conflicting judgements on his films’ significance and reducing Loznitsa’s own involvement in the depicted events. This article addresses the techniques and visual grammar of Loznitsa’s 2014 film Maidan and challenges the film’s status as an example of the observational documentary mode. This article proposes approaching Maidan through a recognition of the influence of the panorama on realist representation from its inception in the late eighteenth century to its transformation of cinema in the twentieth century, showing how Loznitsa has developed a panoramic filmmaking language since his early short films. Maidan contrasts the ideas of objectivity and passivity typically assigned to observational films by constructing a historical narrative about the events that occurred in Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti during the Euromaidan movement of 2013–2014. This renegotiation of Loznitsa’s filmmaking mode reveals Maidan’s unique contribution to non-fiction representational forms as well as to narratives of national identity within the post-Soviet context.

Specificity and integration of meaning in self-defining memories of breast cancer survivors: clinical reflections to promote a narrative identity integration.

Potential traumatic events, such as breast cancer, can influence autobiographical memory (AM), interrupting the continuity of narrative identity. AM is based on a hierarchical search across different levels of specificity that are indexed from top to bottom when a memory is retrieved. In the breast cancer field, non-specific AMs are an observed clinical phenomenon. In particular, breast cancer survivors report issues related to self-defining memories (SDMs), specific and significant AMs that evoke strong emotions and sensory details at the time of memory. SDMs are linked to life goals and facilitate adaptation to critical experiences, preserving the continuity of identity. This study explored the narrative identity integration process of breast cancer survivors, analyzing themes, specificity, and integrative meaning in SDMs. Ten women participated in an online group support program centered on the integration of AMs linked to the cancer journey. Participants were asked to assess their body image perceptions, filling out an online survey three times, in which they had to report three SDMs each time. A reflexive thematic analysis of the SDMs identified three main themes: the onset of breast cancer; the labeling of negative emotions, and changes in the body. The results indicated inhibited retrieval of specific episodes, fostering a progressive failure in memory characterization and the concurrent meaning-making process. Participants struggled with connecting the memories to insights regarding their self and life, as well as relating the memories to external conditions and other individuals. Further studies might examine the impact of these difficulties on the psychological adjustment of BC long-term survivors. They could also explore cognitive reconstruction by reframing the memories and re-evaluating their traumatic meanings.

The writing on the wall: Identity, placemaking and territoriality in Karachi's graffiti culture

This article explores the spatiality of political graffiti and urban murals and the role they play in placemaking, territoriality and identity building amongst Karachi's migrant communities. From Independence in 1947 to the present day, the city has been the site of several waves of in-migration, both domestic and international, resulting in a migrant megacity. Through shared migration experiences and cultural heritage, political patronage and spatial clustering, communities have consolidated and reimagined ethnic identities into political ones. These ethno-political entities demarcate territories of dominance and spaces of tension using political graffiti. This tool for placemaking and territory marking is an urban declaration of power on the walls of the city. More recently, political graffiti has been deliberately replaced by civil society actors in the form of murals changing the provocative ethno-political sloganeering to a nationalistic counter narrative. With multiple actors – political and apolitical - sentiments and stories now vying for space through their occupation of the city's walls, these surfaces become spaces of declaration, dialogue and at times, erasure. Through a process of diachronic documentation, this article shows that the walls of the city are a palimpsest of political opinion and identity; each subsequent layer in dialogue with the layer that precedes it. The authors of each layer through a process of placemaking, construct, deconstruct and reconstruct narratives of identity, ownership and belonging.

Narratives of and for survival in family firms: family influence on narrative processing

PurposeResilience of long-lived family businesses has been widely acknowledged but the mechanisms enabling longevity need to be further investigated. This can be done by examining how narratives about crisis situations are processed in family firms.Design/methodology/approachBased on narrative interviews, this qualitative study examines how crisis situations have been dealt with and narrated by long-lived German family firms.FindingsNarratives of survival can have a strengthening effect so they become also narratives for survival. The analysis reveals how the constructive management of crises contributes to emotional attachment, identification and commitment and also strengthens resilience and longevity.Originality/valueThe study contributes to narrative identity theory by answering calls for narrative analysis and capturing the influence of narratives on family firms and business families. The discussion of the findings leads to the narrative processing model showing how past crises are processes to gain identity and resilience in the future and how the business family can influence this process.

Narrative identity disturbances in psychopathology: An ecologically valid transdiagnostic framework.

This article presents an ecologically valid transdiagnostic framework regarding narrative identity disturbances in psychopathology. Problems with self and identity are distressing, disruptive to everyday functioning, and central to theoretical models of recovery. Yet these problems are sorely understudied, in part due to differences in concepts, theories, and measurement models across disorder-specific literatures. Disorder-specific theories are useful for understanding the etiology of disturbances to self and identity. However, while root causes may vary across disorders, their effects on explicit, conscious, reflective experience share important transdiagnostic parallels. These problems affect the extended sense of self as an individual with memories, a present identity, and future expectancies. By extension, these problems are developmental, reflecting an ever-evolving conception of oneself across the life course. Finally, these problems are contextual and intersubjective, constructed over time through interactions with others in the family, community, and society. A unified transdiagnostic model for reflective self-disturbances should therefore be idiographic and grounded in developmental and personality theory, with a strong emphasis on ecological validity. Narrative identity is emerging as a coherent, cross-cutting framework for understanding problems with self and identity across diagnostic boundaries. Important current research directions include transdiagnostic samples and clinical control groups; more diverse samples; expanding on the latent structure of narrative identity in clinical populations, and developing new assessment techniques to supplement trained raters. These directions will further enhance narrative identity's utility for idiographic, developmental, and ecologically valid clinical research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Holy Land of Saints: The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Life Story of St. Marie Alphonsine

Utilizing the lens of new historicism, this study examines how hagiographers Stolz, Duvignau, and Khoury, from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, have constructed and modified the narrative identity of St. Marie Alphonsine through different periods—1936, 1989, and 2012–2015. This approach illuminates the complex relationship between religious storytelling, cultural identity formation, and perceptions of “otherness”. The chronological dissection of St. Marie Alphonsine’s portrayal uncovers the hagiographers’ efforts to recalibrate her image in response to the changing cultural, spiritual, and communal demands within the Patriarchate’s jurisdiction and among the faithful. Highlighting the hagiographers’ instrumental role on behalf of the Patriarchate in molding religious and cultural discourses, the article explores the profound impact of saintly veneration on shaping the religious identity and cultural narratives of the Catholic community in the Holy Land. It underscores the essential function of the Patriarchate in steering the Catholic community through the complexities of the evolving socio-religious landscape.

“The Real Kazakh is a Dombyra”?: Musical Instruments and Nation Branding in 21st-Century Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT Although both the two-string plucked lute dombyra and two-stringed horsehair fiddle qyl-qobyz possess strong ties to the nomadic heritage of the Kazakhs, the dombyra embodies a much more public, accessible, and officially endorsed musical representation of Kazakh-ness than the mysterious and complicated qyl-qobyz. This article will explore the characteristics that have come to define the dombyra and qyl-qobyz in the Kazakh national imagination, and how musical instruments participate in “nation branding” by reinforcing a desirable image of the nation-state – and by extension promoting a particular narrative of national identity – while also complicating that image by embodying complex and occasionally difficult histories.

Narrative Identity of Christian College Students in Western New York

<i>Narrative identity has proven valuable in understanding identity development. However, its application to emerging adults in college settings has been limited. This qualitative research explored the narrative identity of Christian college students in Western New York through a life story analysis. </i><i>Ten in-depth interviews with students were recorded and transcribed, resulting in 173 pages of transcripts that were analyzed using seven coding categories. </i><i>The study revealed that the participants’ identities were shaped by a complex interplay of factors, including their Christian faith, interpersonal connections with family and peers, academic and professional aspirations, and challenges related to physical and mental well-being. The findings highlight the dynamic nature of identity, constantly evolving as individuals interact with their surroundings. The participants’ rich life stories painted a vivid picture of who they were, and their identity evolved as their stories unfolded. </i><i>These findings can illuminate future research on the identities of Christian college students and guide them in navigating their journey of self-understanding and positive identity <b>development</b>. This research can also inform the development of programs and support services that address the specific needs and challenges faced by Christian college students as they navigate their identities. Understanding the sources of social support these students value can be crucial in creating a more supportive campus environment.</i>

Explaining the Unexplainable: Balancing Responsibility, Expectations, and Identity in Narratives of Sexual Recidivism.

When someone is caught and punished for a sexual offense, recidivism prevention is of high priority. While a growing body of qualitative research has investigated the desistance process of those who have sexually offended, few studies have examined the narratives of individuals who have sexually recidivated in order to understand how they make sense of their reoffending. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by exploring the recidivism process and broader life stories of 16 imprisoned men through semi-structured interviews. The results demonstrate how these men explain their recent "failures," the obstacles they face when doing so, and how they attempt to overcome these obstacles in their narratives. Thus, the analysis in this study is both thematic and narrative. Finally, the findings' practical implications are discussed to show how ambiguity in narratives can be a powerful tool in correctional and clinical interventions.

Using structural topic modeling to understand ethnicity-related narratives.

Narrative identity is a promising approach for understanding the content of individuals' ethnic identities but can be limited by the time-intensive nature of human coding and the reliance on preestablished coding systems. The aim of our preregistered study is to elucidate the content of individuals' ethnicity-related experiences using a novel statistical approach. We applied structural topic modeling (STM), a natural language processing tool, to narratives written by an ethnically diverse sample of 1149 young adults about a moment they felt aware of their ethnicity. We identified 14 topics within ethnicity narratives and analyzed how each topic related to both the participant's ethnicity and the human-coded themes of agency and communion. For example, the topic Gained perspective of structural inequality was associated with greater agency, whereas Peer dynamics was associated with greater communion. Ethnic/cultural celebration was associated with both. This study introduces STM as a useful tool for extracting topic content in narrative data and demonstrates how the multi-method assessment of ethnicity narratives provides greater insight into the content of ethnic experiences. These findings contribute to our understanding of contextualized aspects of personality, including the innovative ways we might examine them.

The Auditory Dimension of the Technologically Mediated Self

Abstract In this article, I aim to clarify some of the ways in which the auditory dimension of the self is constituted through the mediation of technology. I show that by excluding our immediate surroundings with mobile personalized and private auditory technologies, we are increasingly laying down a personal, inner spatial grid of acoustic memories that get integrated into our narrative identity and co-constitutes the space of familiarity and belonging that gives us a sense of who we are. To do so, I first lay out a clear ontological ground. Next, I outline how the auditory dimension of the self is constituted and subsequently mediated technologically. Finally, I bring to bear Erving Goffman’s theatrical framework of performative self-constitution as a useful framework to illustrate how, on one hand, the culturally available repertoire on which the imagination draws to constitute the self has augmented thanks to the contributions of other people in distal spatiotemporal contexts; on the other, the reconfiguration of how we listen to the world and the other people in it entails muting or blocking out of other voices. This can stunt how we conceive of ourselves, producing an epistemic bubble involving a tunnel “vision” or echo-chamber effect. In addition, due to the coupling of bodily and cognitive structures with mobile, privatized auditory technologies that thereby become transparent in experience, others, by listening in on us, acquire the ability to privilege certain types of behavior while suppressing others. Thus, there is a danger that the individual autonomous agency so important to self-constitution can be compromised.

Becoming oneself online: narrative self-constitution and the internet

This paper explores how self-identity can be impacted upon by the use of digital and social media. In particular, drawing on a narrative account of selfhood, it argues that some forms of activity and interaction on the internet can support the capacity to be oneself, and foster transformative processes that are self-enhancing.I start by introducing different positions in the philosophical exploration of identity online, critically outlining the arguments of those who hold a “pessimistic” and an “optimistic” stance respectively. I then expand on the narrative identity framework that has been used to support the optimists’ view, arguing that digital and social media use can foster forms of self-understanding that enable us to preserve or develop our identity. More precisely, exploring these dynamics also in relation to the lived experience of mental ill-health, I maintain that internet-enabled technology can support narrative self-constitution in three main ways: (1) by facilitating the processes through which we remember self-defining life-stories; (2) by enabling us to give salience to the stories that we decide should matter the most; and (3) by providing us with opportunities to obtain social uptake for our narratives. I then conclude by dispelling some possible objections to the use of a narrative approach to account for selfhood online.

Ready, Steady, No? The Contested Legitimacy of Weapon Deliveries to Ukraine in German Foreign Policy Discourse

AbstractHow were arms deliveries to Ukraine (de)legitimized in the German Bundestag? This paper is based on a discourse analysis of parliamentary debates held between December 2021 and January 2023 on the question of military support for Ukraine. It shows how the legitimization of arms deliveries and various identity narratives of German foreign policy are mutually constitutive but also reconfigured. Members of Alliance 90/The Greens, the Free Democratic Party, and the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union legitimized arms deliveries by referring to Germany’s identity as a European “shaping power” from which a “responsibility” to provide military support was derived. Ukraine had become part of the Western European community; therefore, arms deliveries were necessary to defend the European “we” against the Russian aggression. Criticism of arms deliveries was voiced by The Left, who emphasized Germany’s pacifist identity, which had been established as a lesson from National Socialism and should not be abandoned. The Alternative for Germany party also rejected any military support, pointing to the negative consequences for economic relations with Russia and openly questioning the legitimacy of Ukrainian statehood, as Putin derives geopolitical claims over Ukraine that “must be respected.” The most radical change was observed within the Social Democratic Party parliamentary group. Just a few weeks after his appearance in the Bundestag, Scholz and his parliamentary group mobilized a vocabulary that was less associated with “Zeitenwende” and more with Germany’s traditional identity as a “civilian power” in order to legitimize a “balanced” approach so that “Russia does not win” but Germany is not dragged into the war either.