Aantekeningen hoorcollege 2 - Cultural Diversity - Universiteit Utrecht (2022/2023)

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Cultural identity development

Erikson’s psycho-social theory of development

Erikson’s theory is foundational in the identity development of children. The theory follows a social and cognitive development of individuals. These 8 stages focus on collectedness, relatedness and the impact of our interactions in these processes 

• The lifespan is divided into 8 stages of development, from birth to death.
• Each stage has a crisis/tension that needs to be resolved and that resolution affects the next stage (the crisis is ‘necessary’ for each stage)
• How the challenge of each stage is solved impacts personality and identity development.
• Erikson: the first to recognize the role of social context in identity development. He introduced the term ‘identity crisis’

In de volgende 3 fases vind de ontwikkeling van identiteit plaats

Identification in childhood (ages 6-11)

• Starts when the children recognize themselves as a separate being from their parents (individuals from their parents)
• The processes of identification in this stage are primarily related to  copying (identyfing with) traits/characteristics of their parents or other significant others.
• This stage ends when the children experience a desire for uniqueness and greater differentiation from their parents, that’s expressed with a search of differentiation
• Kinderen hebben al een ego gevormd in deze fase

Identify formation during adolescence (ages 12-24)

In this stage there are a variety of different (intense) changes

• The stage is characterized by a search for a self-categorization/understanding and existential purpose in the world/role in society.
• Very important for the development of a sense of well-being, sense of belonging (to a place, group or to one’s body), and for a sense of direction in life.
• Identity crisis in this stage: sense of loss and confusion; the importance of having outlets of expression.    If you don’t express your identity you can develop an identity crisis
• You have more questions about who you are, what your purpose in life and your role in society is. Erikson conceptualized that search of purpose in life in terms of ‘occupational purpose.’

Identity development in adulthood (ages 25 and beyond)

• This stage is defined by a shift of focus from identity concerns towards intimacy issues and bonds with others » this does not mean that the concerns about identity disappear after young adulthood
• New life events and experiences can still have impact on identity development (e.g. migration, having children, coming out). If you are a parent you start asking yourself which norms, values etc. you want to reflect on your children
• Mid-life crises & identity development: related to examination and evaluation of one’s life path, and changing values & norms.

Beyond identity

• Brubaker & Cooper (2000)’s critique: Categories of practice and categories of analysis are often being conflated. The term ‘identity’ is used so much that it emptied it’s meaning
• Categories of practice: the ways in which identities are enacted (i.e. ‘what does it mean to be Dutch (in practice)?’)
• Categories of analysis: the meanings of all the actions » The meaning they have for the people who perform them and the meaning attributed by others to those actions

Hard/strong/essentialist understandings of identify

• Group members share fundamental characteristics with each other: sameness over persons and sameness over time.
• High homogeneity of group members, strong boundaries with other groups.
• This understanding of identity ignores the diversity which exists within the group members. This gives the idea that all of the group members are bound to each other by certain thing they do (i.e. ‘all Dutch people’)
• Problem with essentialist meaning of ‘identity’: some politicians can attribute biological understandings (i.e. women sharing same biological characteristics) to other categories too (i.e. nationhood).  

Soft/weak/constructivist understandings of identify

• Identities of people belonging to the same group may vary over time, over contexts and even from one group member to the other (i.e. to be Dutch in the Netherlands doesn’t mean the same as to be Dutch in Suriname)
• These understandings of the term identity are often used in theoretical discussions (i.e. in categories of analyses).
• There is a cultural attempt to reconstruct the hard/rigid understanding in cultural productions as well (i.e. in Disney films black girls as hero’s)

Brubaker & Cooper’s critique

• Their critique is also related to the fact that identity is often treated as an object and that it often is a focus of identity as a condition rather than a process people go through and that those processes can differ

 »  Three interconnected alternatives:

1. Identification & categorization
   • Talking about identification and categorization instead of ‘identity’ shifts the focus of identity as an object to identity as a process
   • Self-identification vs identification by others: Does not always match. What are the implications of a mismatch for identity development? Zelfidentificatie is moeilijk/lastig als er een mismatch is met hoe anderen je zien ten opzichte van hoe je jezelf ziet
   • The state as powerful identifier (and a gate-keeper). The state decides who can be Dutch and whether you can stop being ‘something’ (like double citizenship)
2. Self-understanding & social location
   
   • The focus is on a more emotional and self-reflective understanding of who you are. It is less explicitly articulated than self-identification and with a higher emotional & cognitive undertone.
   • One’s understanding of who they are changes per social location » ‘situated subjectivity’.
3. Commonality, connectedness, groupness
   
   • Instead of using (shared) ‘identity’, use groupness/commonality/connectedness
   • ‘The emotionally laden sense of belonging to a distinctive, bounded group, involving both a felt solidarity or oneness with fellow group members and a felt difference from or even antipathy to specified outsiders.’ (p.19)

Identity negotiation of Turkish-Dutch mosque students

• Based on fieldwork (2017) in the mosque classrooms of the two largest Turkish Islamic communities in the Netherlands (Diyanet (governed by the Turkish state) & Milli Görüs (op zichzelf staande organisatie)).
• Interviews with the students (ages 6-16) focusing on their self-identification and sense of belonging.
• Sense of belonging and future perspectives
  • Feeling a sense of belonging to the Netherlands without necessarily feeling Dutch
  • Netherlands-oriented future perspective (14 out of 29 students): perceived safety, educational and career opportunities.
  • Higher preference for co-ethnic friendships (91/39) but can be also due to school segregation.

The development of reactive identification

• The development of reactified identification is often the result of that mismatch external and self-identification
• Exposure to public discourses of fear,  experiences with discrimination and exclusion trigger the development of reactive identification » as a defense mechanism and a coping strategy.
• Risk of academic disengagement and disengagement with boundary crossing interactions
• More attention is needed for the protective role that can be played by schoolteachers, mosque educators and other pedagogic stakeholders.