Identity Struggles
Evidence from workplaces around the world
This collection provides a kaleidoscopic view of a range of identity struggles in the workplace context. It features twenty-two case studies that present an eclectic mix of workplaces in different socio-cultural contexts. They include, among others, household workers in Peru and Hong Kong, female professionals in India and the UK, social workers in Botswana and on Canadian reserves, tourist guides in Europe and construction workers in New Zealand. The volume addresses important questions on professional competence, group membership, (sometimes competing) expectations, and identity boundaries. The chapters establish that identity struggles are a reflection of issues of knowledge, competing norms and attempts for social change.
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 69] 2017. xi, 457 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements | p. xi
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Chapter 1. Introduction: A kaleidoscopic view of identity struggles at workStephanie Schnurr and Dorien Van De Mieroop | pp. 1–18
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Part I. Struggling to construct professional competence
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Chapter 2. Coping with uncertainty: Gender and leadership identities in UK corporate lifeJudith Baxter | pp. 21–38
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Chapter 3. Constructing a “competent” meeting chair: A study of the discourse of meeting chairing in a Hong Kong workplaceAngela Chan | pp. 39–56
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Chapter 4. Juggling “I”s and “we”s with “he”s and “she”s: Negotiating novice professional identities in stories of teamwork told in New Zealand job interviewsSophie Reissner-Roubicek | pp. 57–78
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Chapter 5. Epistemic “Struggles”: When nurses’ expert identity is challenged by “knowledgeable” clientsOlga Zayts and Stephanie Schnurr | pp. 79–94
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Chapter 6. Who’s the expert? Negotiating competence and authority in guided toursElwys De Stefani and Lorenza Mondada | pp. 95–124
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Part II. Struggling to (de-)construct in-group membership
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Chapter 7. You’re a proper tradesman mate: Identity struggles and workplace transitions in New ZealandJanet Holmes and Meredith Marra | pp. 127–146
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Chapter 8. Indian women at work: Struggling between visibility and invisibilityAbha Chatterjee and Dorien Van De Mieroop | pp. 147–164
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Chapter 9. The dynamics of identity struggle in interdisciplinary meetings in higher educationSeongsook Choi and Keith Richards | pp. 165–184
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Chapter 10. Laughables as a resource for foregrounding shared knowledge and shared identities in intercultural interactions in ScandinaviaLouise Tranekjær | pp. 185–206
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Chapter 11. Workplace conflicts as (re)source for analysing identity struggles in stories told in interviewsMarlene Miglbauer | pp. 207–224
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Chapter 12. Identities on a learning curve: Female migrant narratives and the construction of identities of (non)participation in Communities of PracticeJonathan Clifton and Dorien Van De Mieroop | pp. 225–240
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Part III. Struggling to combine (sometimes competing) expectations
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Chapter 13. Managing patients’ expectations in telephone complaints in ScotlandBethan Benwell and May McCreaddie | pp. 243–262
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Chapter 14. Identity work in nurse-client interactions in selected community hospitals in KenyaBenson Oduor Ojwang | pp. 263–280
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Chapter 15. ‘Even if there were procedures, we will be acting at our own discretion…’ : General practitioners’ struggle about identityAgnieszka Sowińska | pp. 281–298
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Chapter 16. A kind of work: Narratives from Canadian indigenous womenMaria I. Medved and Jens Brockmeier | pp. 299–316
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Chapter 17. Adapting self for private and public audiences: The enactment of leadership identity by New Zealand rugby coaches in huddles and interviewsKieran A. File and Nick Wilson | pp. 317–334
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Chapter 18. “I speak French=eh”: Multilingualism and professional identity struggles in LuxembourgAnne Franziskus | pp. 335–352
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Part IV. Struggling to define identity boundaries
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Chapter 19. The discursive accomplishment of identity during veterinary medical consultations in the UKRobin Burrow | pp. 355–370
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Chapter 20. Embracing a new professional identity: The case of social work in BotswanaUnity Nkateng and Sue Wharton | pp. 371–386
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Chapter 21. Identity and space: Discourse perspectivesGerlinde Mautner | pp. 387–406
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Chapter 22. Household workers’ use of directives to negotiate their professional identity in Lima, PeruSusana de los Heros | pp. 407–426
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Chapter 23. ‘We’re only here to help’: Identity struggles in foreign domestic helper narrativesHans J. Ladegaard | pp. 427–444
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Chapter 24. Epilogue: Identity struggles as a reflection of knowledge, competing norms, and attempts for social changeDorien Van De Mieroop and Stephanie Schnurr | pp. 445–454
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Index
“
Identity Struggles offers a refined view of how interactants negotiate their roles in the workplace. Generally following a constructivist approach to identity construction, it draws on a rich set of methodological and theoretical approaches and offers insights derived from the study of an impressive range of cultural and linguistic contexts. It is a must-read for scholars of workplace interaction and analysts interested in the intricate interplay of language and action resulting in interpersonal effects.”
Miriam A. Locher, University of Basel
“The reader should be assured that the investment required in terms of time will pay dividends in terms of knowledge gained. The volume is one to which the reader will continually return as there is much to be gleaned from the individual chapters. The book is delivered in such a way that it does not presuppose detailed knowledge of identity research. Therefore, both novice as well as seasoned researchers will find this volume beneficial. In closing, the editors and contributors alike should be congratulated for enriching the field of identity research with such a rich mine of inspirational ideas, methods, and analytical tools.”
Jamie McKeown, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in Pragmatics and Society 9:1 (2018)
Cited by (12)
Cited by 12 other publications
Holmgreen, Lise-Lotte
Darics, Erika & Jonathan Clifton
2023. Tracking the Identity of the Organisation via Twitter: Metadiscourse Analysis. In Organisation, Communication and Language [New Perspectives in Organizational Communication, ], ► pp. 105 ff. 
Nissi, Riikka, Mona Blåsjö & Carla Jonsson
2023. Workplace communication in flux: from discrete languages, text genres and conversations to complex communicative situations. Applied Linguistics Review 14:4 ► pp. 679 ff.
Sung, Chit Cheung Matthew
2022. Identity Conflicts and Negotiations: Narratives of Asian International Students’ Experiences in Hong Kong. Journal of Intercultural Studies 43:5 ► pp. 639 ff.
Tranekjær, Louise, Brian L Due & Mie Femø Nielsen
2022. Constructing and negotiating the professional identity of ‘leader’ by suggesting and challenging improvement of professional practices: Deontics in a four-part sequential structure. Discourse Studies 24:5 ► pp. 640 ff.
Marra, Meredith & Shelley Dawson
2021. Workplace and Institutional Discourse. In The Cambridge Handbook of Sociopragmatics, ► pp. 475 ff.
Clifton, Jonathan, Dorien Van De Mieroop, Prachee Sehgal & Aneet
2018. The multimodal enactment of deontic and epistemic authority in Indian meetings. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 28:3 ► pp. 333 ff.
Van De Mieroop, Dorien, Marlene Miglbauer & Abha Chatterjee
2017. Mobilizing master narratives through categorical narratives and categorical statements when default identities are at stake. Discourse & Communication 11:2 ► pp. 179 ff.
[no author supplied]
2016. Not so ‘innocent’ after all? Exploring corporate identity construction online. Discourse & Communication 10:3 ► pp. 291 ff.
[no author supplied]
2017. Publications Received. Language in Society 46:4 ► pp. 619 ff.
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
2021. Topics and Settings in Sociopragmatics. In The Cambridge Handbook of Sociopragmatics, ► pp. 247 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Communication Studies
Main BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009030: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Pragmatics