TY - JOUR

T1 - Articulating identities

AU - Ybema, Sierk

AU - Keenoy, Tom

AU - Oswick, Cliff

AU - Beverungen, Armin

AU - Ellis, Nick

AU - Sabelis , Ida H. J.

PY - 2009/3

Y1 - 2009/3

N2 - One symptom of individualism in liquid modernity is the search for `identity'. Using the five theoretically discrete articles in this special issue as both a `rich' discursive resource and a point of departure, we develop a supplementary reading of the narratives which appear to inform identity research. We suggest that, while social agents in pursuit of `identity' draw on a cacophony of discursive sources, it is the varieties of `self—other' talk which emerge as the critical ingredient in processes of identity formation. The dualities that all such self—other talk articulate can be seen as discursive reflections of the more fundamental relationship between the individual and sociality. In turn, this is seen to refract one of the persistent problems of organizational analysis: the agency—structure issue. In addition, while we argue that deploying a discursive perspective to analyze identity work offers distinctive insights, such an approach carries with it an epistemological consequence. For what the articles also indicate is that in any attempt to delineate the `identity of identities', researchers need to be aware of not only the reflexivity displayed by social actors constructing `identity' but also of their own role in `re-authoring' such scripts. We briefly explore the implications of this for identity theory and organizational analysis more generally.

AB - One symptom of individualism in liquid modernity is the search for `identity'. Using the five theoretically discrete articles in this special issue as both a `rich' discursive resource and a point of departure, we develop a supplementary reading of the narratives which appear to inform identity research. We suggest that, while social agents in pursuit of `identity' draw on a cacophony of discursive sources, it is the varieties of `self—other' talk which emerge as the critical ingredient in processes of identity formation. The dualities that all such self—other talk articulate can be seen as discursive reflections of the more fundamental relationship between the individual and sociality. In turn, this is seen to refract one of the persistent problems of organizational analysis: the agency—structure issue. In addition, while we argue that deploying a discursive perspective to analyze identity work offers distinctive insights, such an approach carries with it an epistemological consequence. For what the articles also indicate is that in any attempt to delineate the `identity of identities', researchers need to be aware of not only the reflexivity displayed by social actors constructing `identity' but also of their own role in `re-authoring' such scripts. We briefly explore the implications of this for identity theory and organizational analysis more generally.

KW - Management studies

KW - agency discourse identity

KW - self structure

KW - reflexivity

KW - Literature studies

KW - Cultural studies

KW - Digital media

KW - Digitale Kultur

KW - Digitale Kulturen

KW - Netzkultur

KW - Medienkultur

KW - Medienkulturen

KW - Medienwissenschaften

KW - Neue Medien

KW - Soziale Medien

KW - Medientheorie

KW - Digital Culture

KW - digital Cultures

KW - net culture

KW - media culture

KW - media cultures

KW - media studies

KW - new media

KW - social media

KW - media theory

KW - Media and communication studies

KW - Transdisciplinary studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=61449157728&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0018726708101904

DO - 10.1177/0018726708101904

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 62

SP - 299

EP - 322

JO - Human Relations

JF - Human Relations

SN - 0018-7267

IS - 3

ER -