Transformation Of Social Identity Research Articles

Exploring Social Identity Transformation: A Journey through Delia Owen’s Where the Crawdads Sing

This study examines the social identity transformation of the Where the Crawdads Sing main character by using Social Identity Theory (SIT) proposed by Henri Tajfel and Turner. Tajfel and Turner divided SIT into self-categorization, social identification, and social comparison to show how these events alter the identity of Kya (the main character) transformation. This study used a qualitative approach to analyze Delia Owens' novel Where the Crawdads Sing, focusing on character development and social interactions. Secondary sources, such as literary criticisms and reviews, supplement primary data. Data analysis identifies recurring patterns and critical themes of societal identity transformation, including isolation, resilience, exclusion, and integration. This study found that Where the Crawdads Sing explores Kya's self-categorization in Barkley Cove, North Carolina. She forms a strong bond with her black friend Jumpin' and the marsh as her in-group, providing comfort and connection to the marsh. The novel contrasts Barkley Cove's out-group social identification with the marshlands, highlighting the importance of acceptance, forgiveness, and embracing one's identity in navigating complex human relationships. The social comparison explores Kya Clark's struggle for acceptance in a small town, contrasting it with the marshlands and highlighting themes of isolation and resilience.

‘Where Others are not Able to Safeguard the Rights of Children’: Legitimizing Transformation of Social Identity and Practice in Save the Children Sweden

The aim of my study is to describe how a change within Save the Children Sweden (SCS), formerly working only with advocacy, but lately working also with welfare services, was legitimized. Secondly, I investigate how van Leeuwen’s (2008) framework for recontextualization may be used to highlight legitimation of social identity. I collected a one-million-word text corpus complemented by ethnographic field notes (240,000 words) and performed a legitimation analysis to investigate how social identity and practice were justified. For this purpose, intertextual and interdiscursive elements in the legitimation criteria were included. Results show that van Leeuwen’s framework may indeed be used for legitimation of social identity if intertextual and interdiscursive elements are added. In the corpus for this study, only the strategies of authorization and rationalization were used to legitimize identity. I attribute this finding to the close links between authority (tradition, habit etc.) and identity, and to the fact that the new identity of SCS seems rational in terms of attracting more funds and of finding new solutions to old problems.

Editorial

Editorial Margherita Zanasi This October 2022 issue presents four articles spanning the first two-thirds of the twentieth century and addressing varied themes including the impact of the global commercial trends on Chinese performing arts (Yu Shi), the construction of the huaqiao (華僑 overseas Chinese) identity (Rachel Leow), the socialist transformation of the Chinese bicycle industry (Yujie Li), and the experience of rusticated youth in Maoist China (Yi Ren). Shi analyzes 1907 recordings of Chinese folk performers by the French company Pathé Records to explore the tensions between the global “modern commercial media and Chinese native performers.” Shi argues that the process of selecting which performers to highlight in the recording project reflected the logic of global capitalism and technological advances in the recording industry. Ultimately the “grand, linear, and progressive narrative of modernity” that inspired the Pathé recordings led to the marginalization of female performers as they came to be increasingly identified with eroticized courtesan singers. Through an exploration of the work of the prominent sociologist Chen Da (陈达 1892–1975) on Nanyang Chinese communities, Leow’s article offers an insight into the construction of the idea of huaqiao in the early twentieth century. Leow argues that despite Chen’s call for more rigorous studies of Chinese society based in social sciences, his work betrays “deep racial and gendered assumptions about the huaqiao.” As a result, Chen produced a unifying understanding of immigrant communities as sharing patriotic and patriarchal values that overlooked more nuanced and diverse realities. The third and fourth articles shift their focus to the early decades of the People’s Republic of China. Li explores the transformation of the Shanghai bicycle industry from the early 1950s to the 1960s as local independent factories merged into a single, state-owned industry better suited for a centrally planned economy. Li focuses on the experience of private owners of bicycle factories, mostly small-scale proprietors highly involved in production and repair work. Ultimately, Li argues, these “entrepreneur-technicians” came to be condemned as “petty capitalists” and lost their identity as businesspeople, even as their technical skills continued to be valued. They, in fact, proved crucial to successfully standardizing manufacturing methods and laying the groundwork for later mass production. The article contributed by Ren also addresses the issue of the socialist transformation of social identities: moving away from industrial Shanghai, Ren explores the experience of the rural educated youth sent back to their countryside homes in Southeast Shanxi between 1961 and 1965. Yi’s article contributes to complicating a narrative that emphasizes the returned youth’s hardship in readjusting to the rural environment and their growing discontent at the lack of opportunities there. Yi argues that, by participating in [End Page 221] the rural clubs (农村俱乐部 nongcun julebu) organized by the government to facilitate their reintegration into rural life, Southeast Shanxi returned youth were actually able to leverage “their literacy for better positions in the party, wielding their education as a tool for self-emancipation.” Contributing under the Note on Archives and Sources rubric of Twentieth-Century China, Covell F. Meyskens comments on a recently published collection of archival documents titled Xin zhongguo xiao sanxian jianshe dangan wenxian zhengli huibian (Compilation of archival documents about New China’s Small Third Front; Shanghai: Shanghai kexue jishu wenxian chubanshe, 2021), which Meyskens describes as a “rich resource for the study of political dynamics and socioeconomic patterns in Mao’s China and the early years of the Reform era.” Three book reviews are available at Project MUSE (https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/390). Finally, Rachel Leow is the author featured for this issue in our interview series, available at http://hstcconline.org/interviews-with-authors/. The interview includes a link for free access to her article. [End Page 222] Copyright © 2022 Twentieth Century China Journal, Inc

El lugar de las emociones en la emergencia, consolidación y transformación de las identidades sociales. El caso de trabajadores y trabajadoras de la industria del procesamiento del pescado de la ciudad de Mar del Plata

Para que un grupo pueda dominar a otro no basta con la amenaza y/o utilización de la coacción física, para lograr ese fin, dicho grupo debe lograr el monopolio en la internalización, a nivel subjetivo y emocional, de un conjunto de representaciones, creencias y valores. Sin embargo, ello no está exento de confrontaciones.Abordaremos las confrontaciones sociales en un ámbito considerado muchas veces como “privado”, como es el de las emociones. Lo que los seres humanos son capaces de experimentar afectivamente tiene que ver con el tipo particular de configuración social, el entramado de interdependencias sociales y las relaciones de poder en las cuales se hayan imbricados. Nuestro universo de estudio, está formado por trabajadores/as de la industria del pescado de Mar del Plata, quienes ven sus condiciones materiales de existencia amenazadas por la precariedad, desgaste, inestabilidad e inseguridad laboral. Particularmente, reflexionaremos sobre la diversidad de emociones suscitadas ante el “olor a pescado”, marca que caracteriza a este grupo debido a su actividad productiva, según la edad y el sexo del/a entrevistado/a. Para finalizar nos interesa conocer cómo se relacionan las emociones frente a la estigmatización con el valor atribuido a la tarea realizada.

Factors influencing the process of religious conversion and related typology of religious conversion

The article examines one of the phenomena of personality transformation called religious conversion. Increasing scientific interest to the phenomenon of religiosity, in particular to religious conversion, has been observed in the last decade in Kazakhstan. The current religious situation in our country, namely, the growth of new religious movements, an increase in the number of adherents of traditional religions, including Islam, makes it makes it necessary to comprehend the rapid transformation processes of religiosity, and as a result, the transformation of social identity. This article describes the main types of the changes in the semantic sphere, namely ascetic, crisis and positive types. Their key characteristics are presented. As a result of religious conversion, transformation of social identity occurs. Due to this the convert focusing on Islamic moral values ​​in everyday life rebuilds identifications in the self-image according to the religious beliefs and ideas of the Muslim about himself or herself and the reality around. Thus, religious conversion is a long-term, multi-level process of conscious transformation of personality due to the emergence internal craving for the search for truth within the religious vision of the world, which leads to the transformation of social identity through a change in the hierarchy of its elements. The new converts who took part in this study correspond to the dominance of religious identity over its other elements. Keywords: transformation, religious conversion, semantic sphere of personality, religiosity, religious socialization.

THE DISCREPANCY OF SOCIAL IDENTITY WITH ARABIC COMPETENCE AND THE STUDENTS’ RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE

The organization of Indonesian Muslim Student Action Union (KAMMI) of UIN Mataram is one of the student organizations that often use some Arabic vocabularies in its communication. The research would see the existence of Arabic language in this organization including competence, transformation of social identity and the relationship of the religious attitude of its members. The study used the social identity theory and the models of religious attitudes. The result showed that the Arabic competence of KAMMI members was not very high. The Arabic language frequently used by KAMMI members becomes their social identity even though it is only at a limited level of communication. Their religious attitude was categorized as an exclusive category with accompanying attributes such as code switching of Arabic language in daily dialogue, wearing labelled syar‘i clothes and make themselves feel to be more Islamic with these attributes.

DARI ISOLASI KE AKULTURASI (STUDI TENTANG PEMBENTUKAN DAN PENGEMBANGAN KAMPUNG TRANS DI DESA KURAU)

This study exposes about society changes when the formation and development of Trans Village program from isolation to acculturation. Its purpose is to identify how the community change from isolated to acculturated and changes then forms a social identity in Trans Village. The Theory used in this field is Henri Taifel’s social identity theory that stated the individual concept forms by their experience in the group by acknowledging and applied the social values, participate, and develops their sense of care and pride of their group. This research uses descriptive qualitative research. Data collection techniques through observation, interviews, and documentation. This study also uses data analysis techniques by reducing data, displaying data and drawing conclusions. The number of informants used is 9 people filtered through purposive sampling. The results of this study indicate that the process from isolation to community acculturation occurred at the time of the formation and development of the Trans Village in Kurau Village. At first, the transmigrant communities are isolated from the local community so there are no interactions. Then by the time being, Trans Village leads to the transformation of social identity. Social identity is formed starting from the awareness, relationships, collaboration and harmonization among the people. People who were initially isolated have now become acculturated in Kampung Trans. This condition can be seen from the merging of the community, namely the local community and transmigrants in Trans Village which caused mixing between cultures so that new cultures are formed while still preserving old cultures. People live mingled by promoting the values ​​and rules that exist in Kampung Trans.

The role of identity transformations in comparative victim beliefs? Evidence from South Sudanese diaspora

There has been a growing interest in the study on collective victimhood and this research has increased our knowledge on how victim groups construe their victimization relative to other groups. However, most of this research has assumed that the groups involved in these construals were pre-existing prior to the conflict and remained fixed during and after the conflict. This study aimed to examine how conflict facilitates the transformation of social identities (i.e., how ingroups and outgroups are construed) and how these transformed social identities are used by group members in their construals of comparative victim beliefs. Eighteen South Sudanese immigrants were interviewed about their experiences during the Sudan civil wars. Thematic analysis revealed two broader themes: “1) “who is ‘us’ versus ‘them’?” (i.e., identity transformation in light of collective victimization and privilege; 2) “what happened to us?” (i.e., construal of ingroup victimization relative to other groups). These findings demonstrate the complexity in how immigrant groups construe social identities constructed in the context of intergroup conflicts, and how these transformed identities are then used in their construals of collective victimhood.

Library science in the Komi region in the second half of XIX – early XX Centuries and its impact on public consciousness

Introduction. The aim of this work is to examine librarianship in the Komi region, and its influence on the formation of public consciousness in the second half of XIX—early XX centuries. Currently, the history of libraries is considered in general and special papers. However, a number of questions remained outside the scope of researchers, namely the data on the history of librarianship in Komi region in the context of studying issues related to the impact of the development of librarianship on social consciousness Materials and Methods. To achieve the goal, the author used both unpublished historical sources, and published works. Archival documents are known to specialists, who studies the history of culture of the Komi people, as well as the history of Orthodoxy. However, for the first time they are considered from the perspective of the formation and development of civil society in the region. Results and Discussion. In the second half of XIX-early XX centuries in the region there were private, social, clerical, monastic libraries and libraries of educational institutions. Replenishment of the latter was at the expense of the Ministry of Public Education and donations, and of the clerical and monastic libraries through the Vologda spiritual Consistory, the Synod and the Ministry of Public Education. Private libraries were replenished independently, at the expense of personal funds. All of them allowed the population to meet cultural needs and interests, to build communication, as well as to form independent judgments. With the help of volunteers, the libraries carried out cultural and religious functions, educated the population of the region. All this led to the transformation of forms of social consciousness, which was an indicator of the development of civil society. The transformation of social identity has led to the development of civil society and the revitalization of its activities. Conclusion. The creation of a wide network of libraries contributed, to a certain extent, to the destruction of the cultural isolation of the Komi region and its inclusion in the intercultural communication of Imperial Russia.

The Social Identity Change of Little Bee as the Main Character in Chris Cleave‟s The Other Hand

Chris Cleave‟s novel entitled The Other Hand pictures an African refugee‟s life in the United Kingdom and her struggle to survive in the country. As an illegal refugee from Africa who smuggles herself into a tea ship, Little Bee, the refugee, has to stay in the immigration detention center when she arrives in the United Kingdom. She deals with identity issues during her two-year-stay in the immigration detention center. The questions such as „why don‟t British people treat her in a good way‟ and „why do British people get respect and she does not‟ make her want to be treated like a British, which she assumes, being treated nicely in the United Kingdom. Under the paradigm of social identity theory which contains the three stages of identity formation proposed by Henri Tajfel and John Turner, this study attempts to explain Little Bee‟s process of identity formation. Focusing on Little Bee‟s struggle in the United Kingdom as an illegal refugee from Africa, this study analyzes the three stages of identity formation that Little Bee has been through during her social identity transformation, as well as the factors influencing her and her struggle during the process.

Pathways to recovery: recovery housing models for men who have sex with men (MSM)

Background & Aims: Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) face distinct recovery challenges. This mixed-methods study examines the service needs and help-seeking pathways of MSM (N = 25) living in a group of recovery residences operated in Texas, one of which is a home specifically designated for gay and bisexual men.Methods: Upon intake, adult MSM were recruited to complete an interview assessing the extent of their service needs as well as their recovery goals and expectations about their stay. Men were recruited regardless of whether they moved into the home designated for gay and bisexual men or into another one of the men’s homes.Results: MSM in the sample reported high rates of health conditions, depression, victimization, and sex risk behaviors. A greater number of them entering the gay and bisexual men’s home reported being in recovery from amphetamine use, having a chronic medical problem, and being physically assaulted as an adult. The majority of MSM, regardless of home type, were seeking emotional and social support as well as accountability in their recovery home experience, but MSM in the gay and bisexual men’s home talked about emotion and social support most frequently and within the context of emotional safety.Conclusions: MSM entering recovery housing have complex service needs. Recovery housing may play an important role in supporting recovery among MSM. Residences specifically for them could be tailored to address their unique needs by fostering connections to other sexual minorities in recovery and facilitating social identity transformation.

Expatriates adjustment through transformation of social identity of Chinese expatriates working in Pakistan

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the process of Chinese expatriates’ adjustment in Pakistan through integrating the U-curve model and social identity theory. It has also highlighted the importance of engaging in strong social ties and their contribution in expatriates’ adjustment.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through semi-structured interviews from 30 Chinese expatriates working as directors, deputy directors, senior managers, managers and assistant managers in Chinese organizations in Pakistan. After verbatim transcription of all the interviews, data were analyzed using the NVivo software.FindingsThe findings of this paper indicate that expatriates’ identities somewhat changed in terms of their behaviors and work habits, while fewer changes were observed in their belief and value system. These changes were related to expatriates’ perceptions of host country groups, attraction to these groups and similarity in beliefs, which resulted in the development of interdependent beliefs and depersonalization. However, a few Chinese expatriates predominantly interacted among themselves at work, and their reduced socialization with Pakistanis lessened their chances of change.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of the study suggest that expatriates’ adjustment is a multi-stage process and social identity change is one of the powerful mechanisms through which they adjust in the host country’s environment; hence host organizations should facilitate expatriates in strengthening their bond with local people.Originality/valueThis paper has proposed a model that explains the mechanism of Chinese expatriates’ adjustment in Pakistan through improved interactions between expatriates’ and host country nationals, resulting in minor social identity changes, leading to further positive relationship building, and then major social identity changes.

ЖИЗНЕННЫЕ СТРАТЕГИИ В РЕГИОНАЛЬНОЙ ИДЕНТИЧНОСТИ СЕЛЬСКИХ ЖИТЕЛЕЙ РЕСПУБЛИКИ КОМИ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ ИЖЕМСКОГО РАЙОНА)

Цель. Данная статья представляется значимой как с точки зрения теоретического осмысления процессов трансформации социальной идентичности, так и с точки зрения практического решения проблем, связанных с социальным поведением человека и социальных групп. Автор ставит целью раскрыть категорию региональной идентичности через призму жизненных стратегий информантов.Метод. Основу исследования образует метод полуструктурированного интервью.Результаты. Результаты исследования заключаются в том, что региональная идентичность в Республике Коми носит слабо выраженный и отрицательный характер в силу неблагоприятных факторов формирования территориального сообщества. Осознание комплекса проблем, связанного с экономической и транспортной раздробленностью региона, делают необходимым формирование региональной идентичности как механизма интеграции регионального сообщества в российский социум. Региональная идентичность выражается в жизненных стратегиях населения, которые выстраиваются вокруг региона по принципу пассивного наблюдателя, замкнувшегося только на решении своих проблем, или по принципу выезда из региона.Область применения результатов. Материалы исследования могут быть использованы на уровне деятельности федеральных, региональных и муниципальных органов государственной власти при выработке управленческих решений, разработке планов развития территорий.

Соціальні стереотипи в реаліях сучасного суспільства

У статті автор аналізує соціальний стереотип як стійке емоційно­образне оціночне уявлення про явища соціальної дійсності, яке в умовах сучасного інформаційного суспільства є одним з поширених та ефективних маніпулятивних політтехнологічних засобів впливу на соціум, трансформації соціальних ідентичностей, поширення міжособистісних, міжгрупових й інших форм нетерпимості, творення фантомного світу. Аналіз цього явища соціальної дійсності, механізмів запуску стійкого зв’язку між сприйняттям об’єктів під певними суб’єктивними аспектами і відповідною повторюваною поведінкою, є необхідністю й одним з вагомих реальних способів зменшення непередбачуваних соціальних ризиків та конфліктів. Зазначається, що соціальне стереотипне мислення більшою мірою ускладнює об’єктивне сприйняття дійсності, пропонуючи натомість ілюзію реальності. Їх слід розпізнавати і усвідомлено відмовлятися від них на користь сприйняття дійсності в її неспотвореному і необмеженому соціальними стереотипами вигляді, що виходить за рамки звичних понять або суперечить їм. Проте, це явище соціальної дійсності амбівалентне й має не тільки негативні сторони. Позитивним проявом стереотипного мислення є те, що воно значно спрощує процеси пізнання і творчості, дозволяючи широко використовувати наявні знання, які є фактично складним комплексом стереотипів.

“We are all Zanzibari!” Identity formation and political reconciliation in Zanzibar

Zanzibari social relations were long characterised by disruption and antagonism around election time, between followers of the incumbent Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and opposition party Civic United Front (CUF). In November 2009, with a top-level political meeting between the leaders of CUF and CCM, this started to change. Based on field interviews and observations, this article argues that Zanzibari politics – over the period from July 2009 to November 2010 – moved from a hostile and polarised political environment, via a limbo period, to a widely supported reconciliation process, and that over these three phases, intergroup relations changed. Using social identity theory, we argue that the shared Zanzibari identity increased in salience, and intergroup animosity decreased, a process likened to the social psychological dual recategorisation. Second, reasons for this change in intergroup relations are discussed, comparing this recent process to former failed peace processes, stressing shared goals, intergroup communalities, leadership dialogue and cooperation, and focus on the superordinate identity. The material demonstrates that elite-led political discourse can increase or decrease political tension and thus initiate social identity transformation. We argue that this process further created room for the peaceful 2010 elections and the establishment of the current Zanzibar Government of National Unity.

Reconstructing Social Identity for Sustainable Future of Lumpur Lapindo Victims

Sustainability of a community's life is not only determined by the quality of the neighborhood environment but also by social identity of the community which is considered more fundamental. Damage or loss of a territory is frequently accompanied by the disappearance of material things and the social identity on the physical space. Social identity is the main consciousness structure of people to operate an everyday life. A variety of previous studies have shown that the presence of a disaster on the environment has led to the transformation of social identity. Whether the damage of the physical space always brings damage to the social identity of the victims is an interesting problem to be questioned in this study through the case of Lumpur Lapindo in Sidoarjo. The research question of paper is to analysis how Lumpur Lapindo disaster affects the victim's social identity. The finding that can be figured out from this paper, first, there are four social identities identified in the victims of Lumpur Lapindo; second, the efforts of the victims are viewed from two sites, i.e. Siring and Renokenongo Villages; third, social identity can raise solidarity among the victims in several ways; and fourth, each site makes social identity build a negotiation that is found to have two different roles.

Perceptions of Social Security in Communist Romania

Different factors have been proposed to explain the longevity of the communist system in Romania: social control by the secret police, external pressures, or foreign control. However, the most common explanation is that of the Romanian people’s ‘passivity’. Many commentators distinguish between two groups in Romanian society, victims and collaborators, and hold the entire Romanian nation responsible for communism since it did not oppose the system and its authorities. Over the last few years, Romanian sociologists have begun to study communist society more systematically. They have developed new interpretations of the causes of the longevity of the system in terms of the transformation of social identity under communism and general fear. This article advances a complementary explanation, focusing on the perception of social security, and draws on a series of interviews conducted in the summer of 2009 in Romania and a number of public surveys conducted between 1999 and 2009.

The Angola Prison Rodeo: Inmate Cowboys and Institutional Tourism

This article examines Angola prison rodeo as a form of tourist performance and ritual. It argues that rodeo capitalizes on public's fascination with criminality through spectacle of animalistic inmate others subdued by a progressive penal system. essay introduces notion of institutional tourism in relation to polities of representation. (Tourism, performance, prison, spectacle, representation) ********** Every Sunday in October, thousands of people glut back roads leading to Louisiana State Penitentiary to be spectators at Angola Prison Rodeo. Hailed as The Wildest Show in South, rodeo features untrained inmates competing in events borrowed from professional rodeo and made unique to Angola Prison. rodeo thrives as a tourist attraction, not by virtue of its location but because it promises unparalleled spectacle. Spectators travel many miles to attend Angola rodeo and access one of society's most censored private realms. Indeed, prison is a space that defines itself by its ability to conceal. As a place that both hides offenders from public eye and restricts inmates from accessing public, penitentiary denotes layered meanings of concealment. United States' collective imagination of prison life implicates associations with private--hidden contraband, clandestine sexual relations, dark and sinister thoughts. Though few could actually describe an isolation cell, most people can conjure some version of the hole'--a deep and dark place that stores worst of humanity. Prisons are antipublic, institutional replicas of hell itself. It is thus, perhaps, surprising that when prison is made public, people line up to see. spectacle of Angola Rodeo is yet another example of contemporary popular culture's fascination with criminality, evident by overwhelming success of television crime shows, entrepreneurial efforts to commodify prison life (Wright 2000), and expanding industry of penal tourism (Adams 2001; Strange and Kempa 2003). Despite a robust anthropological literature on local and global dynamics of tourism, penal tourism has received little ethnographic attention. This essay aims to encourage considerations of penal tourism through discussion of Angola prison rodeo. Drawing from scholarship that understands tourism as ritualized interaction and performance, this article suggests that Angola rodeo, like many tourist sites, capitalizes on promise of cultural difference rendered through display of inmate cowboys participating in a rodeo on prison grounds. It argues that rodeo serves as a forum for display of animalistic inmate others who are effectively subdued by a progressive penal system that simultaneously ensures captivity, control, and rehabilitation. Angola rodeo is treated in this discussion as an officially sponsored tourist ritual that plays on public's fascination with criminality through spectacle of live inmates against a historical backdrop of deeply ingrained racial and sexual codes, violence, and state authoritarianism. RITUAL THEATER AND CONTEMPORARY TOURISM This analysis of Angola rodeo situates itself within ritual and performance theory with particular interest in how such theory informs tourism in contemporary world. Dealing primarily with non-Western cultures, Turner (1967, 1969) established significance and mechanics of drama of ritual. According to Turner, ritual serves a fundamental role in creation and transformation of social identities and relationships in all cultures. He argues that ritual involves a process through which individuals leave their normal, profane worlds to enter extraordinary, or sacred, realms of experience. It is through ritual passage into sacred that individuals enter into a state of liminality, characterized by Turner as a realm where conventional social norms dissolve in face of anomie, alienation, and angst. …

Rites of protection: Child protection conferences as social transformation

The author, a child psychiatrist working in Britain, attempted to understand his place in the state's protection of children by using an anthropological approach to analyse a state‐sanctioned process: the Child Protection Procedure. Essential to this Procedure is a multi‐professional meeting called the Initial Child Protection Conference. This can be seen as a significant event marking changes in the social identity of those involved. A model of the Conference was built up based on a series of ambiguities evident in the written Procedure and other available documentation. These ambiguities can be understood as essential to effective transformation of social identities. This social transformation may both facilitate the primary task of the Conference in the protection of the child while having the capacity to mask the limitations of the Conference in completion of this task.

Transformation of Social Identity: A Study of Chronic Mental Patients and College Volunteers In a Summer Camp Setting

Transformation of Social Identity: A Study of Chronic Mental Patients and College Volunteers In a Summer Camp Setting