Negotiating Multiplicity: Adaptive Asymmetries within Second-Generation Turks’ “Society of Mind”

Abstract

If identities are socially produced, what happens when individuals grow up participating in divergent or conflicting social contexts? This article reports on research with second-generation Turkish adolescents in London. Using the concept of the dialogical self, the research examines the dialogical structure of these young Turks’ selves. The analysis is Bakhtinian and seeks to identify the different discourses through which these young Turks talk about themselves. Three distinct discourses, or I-positions, are identified. These are then related to the sociocultural context within which these youth live, and specific attention is given to the constraints on these youth in expressing aspects of their identity. We demonstrate that the asymmetries and tensions within these adolescents’ dialogical selves are adaptive to the fractured and asymmetrical social contexts in which they are embedded.

Notes

1. The Turkish-speaking population consists of Turks, Kurds, and Turkish-Cypriots. Participants referred to themselves under the general category of “Turks”; thus, we follow their terminology. This does not include young Kurds, who constitute a more distinctive group within the Turkish-speaking community (see Enneli et al., 2005).

2. The recital of his pledge entails pledging to be hard working, honest, and respectful to one's elders and to protect those younger, and to be proud to be a Turk.