Loughborough University
Browse

The construction of ethnic minority identity: a discursive psychological approach to ethnic self-definition in action

Download (281.21 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2011-12-13, 11:04 authored by Maria-Eugenia Merino, Cristian TileagaCristian Tileaga
The present article intends to examine how ethnic minority group members account for their ethnic identity as part of a series of interviews with young Mapuches on what it means to be Mapuche in contemporary Chilean society. The focus is on the actual accomplishment and display of ethnic self-definition and group identification. We draw on insights from discursive psychology to explore some features of common-sense practical reasoning that ethnic minority group members use to negotiate, self-ascribe or resist a particular sense of identity, and to produce observable and reportable identities. We have a particular interest in illustrating how ethnic self-definition can be seen as the contingent outcome of a practical and interpretive issue for members of society, with a special focus on how ethnic minority identity is constructed through the flexible use of group-defining attributes and characteristics, categories and common-sense categorial knowledge. We suggest that understanding the complex significance and meaning of ethnic self-definition for minority group members is dependent on engaging closely with its occasioned context of production and treating social identities as a feature of how people describe themselves. It is argued that this view of ethnic minority self-definition as a practical and interpretive issue and as a discursive product in action can provide a further contribution to literature of both discursive and intercultural studies of ethnic identification of minority groups, intercultural and interethnic relations.

History

School

  • Social Sciences

Department

  • Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies

Citation

MERINO, M., TILEAGA, C., 2011. The construction of ethnic minority identity: a discursive psychological approach to ethnic self-definition in action. Discourse and Society, 22 (1), pp. 86 - 101.

Publisher

Sage Publications Ltd. © The Author(s)

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publication date

2011

Notes

This article was published in the journal, Discourse & Society [Sage Publications © The Author(s)] and the definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926510382834

ISSN

0957-9265

Language

  • en