"It's Only Other People Who Make Me Feel Black": Acculturation, Identity, and Agency in a Multicultural Community. Issue 1 (18th February 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Howarth, Caroline; Wagner, Wolfgang; Magnusson, Nicola; Sammut, Gordon
• Is Part Of: Political psychology. Volume 35:Issue 1(2014:Feb.)
• Page Start: 81
• Page End: 95
• Publication Date: 2013-02-18
• Subjects: Political psychology -- Periodicals; Political sociology -- Periodicals; 320.019
• DOI: 10.1111/pops.12020
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0162-895X

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>This article explores identity work and acculturation work in the lives of British mixed‐heritage children and adults. Children, teenagers, and parents with mixed heritage participated in a community arts project that invited them to deliberate, construct, and reconstruct their cultural identities and cultural relations. We found that acculturation, cultural and raced identities, are constructed through a series of oppositional themes: cultural maintenance versus cultural contact; identity as inclusion versus identity as exclusion; institutionalized ideologies versus agency. The findings point towards an understanding of acculturation as a dynamic, situated, and multifaceted process: <italic>acculturation in movement</italic>. To investigate this, we argue that acculturation research needs to develop a more dynamic and situated approach to the study of identity, representation, and culture. The article concludes with a discussion on the need for political psychologists to develop methods attuned to the tensions and politics of acculturation that are capable of highlighting the possibilities for resistance and social change.</p> </abstract>