The Gallic Village? identity projects and Austrian responses to Fukushima
Sprache des Vortragstitels:
Englisch
Original Tagungtitel:
4S Conference
Sprache des Tagungstitel:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
Identities both are about being and about becoming; as identity
entrepreneurs individuals and social groups advance and coconstruct
identities in the making. This perspective emphasizes
communication, social activity and agency. The specific choice
of categories for understanding self and others must be seen as
involving a strategic dimension. As such, future-oriented identity
projects are intended to mobilize the in-group and to mitigate
challenges by others. The conception of identity projects as
strategic efforts also opens the way to ask what makes such
projects successful: ?success in realizing one project over another
depends on imposing one version of identity over all other
versions. That is, the very contingency of identity requires that it
be presented as non-contingent, as self-evident, as not one
version among many but as the only possible version? (Reicher,
2004, p.938). Identity offers typically are justified by culturally
significant symbols, examples and metaphors, and by making
reference to historical events that are used with the intention to
give authenticity to proposed claims. Drawing on media,
interview and survey data this contribution sets out to analyse
Austrian responses to the Fukushima accident with a focus on
collective identity constructions. The dominant identity offer
manages to draw diverse concerns together under one banner,
mobilising considerable parts of the public to show resistance
against the technology. Reicher, S. (2004). The Context of Social
Identity: Domination, Resistance, and Change. Political
Psychology, 25(6), 921-945.
Sprache der Kurzfassung:
Englisch
Englischer Vortragstitel:
The Gallic Village? identity projects and Austrian responses to Fukushima