Ethnic identity descriptions can be viewed as `subject positions' (Davies and Harré, 1990) that are dynamically adopted and discarded for pragmatic purposes through the medium of socialinteraction.Inthe present paper, we use positioning theory to explore the multiple ways our participants—South Asian-Canadian women—positioned themselves and others in conversations about their ethnic identity. A discourse analysis of participants' talk revealed a tendency to privilege a `hybrid' Canadian/South Asian identity over a unicultural one. Moreover, in the rare instances when participants positioned themselves with a unicultural identity, subtle social pressure from conversational partners seemed to induce them to reposition themselves (or others) with a hybrid identity. We conclude by giving possible reasons for such a preference and by discussing the ways in which the current study corroborates and expands on the extant literature.
Archer, L. (2001). `Muslim brothers, Black lads, traditional Asians': British Muslim young men's constructions of race, religion and masculinity . Feminism & Psychology, 11, 79-105.
2.
Ash, M.C.T. (2004). But where are you REALLY from?: Reflections on immigration, multiculturalism, and Canadian identity. In C.A. Nelson & C.A. Nelson (Eds.), Racism, Eh?: A critical inter-disciplinary anthology of race and racism in Canada (pp. 398-409). Concord: Captus Press.
3.
Bannerji, H. (1993). Popular images of South Asian women. In H. Bannerji (Ed.), Returning the gaze: Essays on racism, feminism and politics (pp. 176-186). Toronto: Sister Vision Press.
4.
Berry, J.W., & Kalin, R. (1995). Multicultural and ethnic attitudes in Canada: An overview of the 1991 national survey. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 27, 301-320.
5.
Burdsey, D. (2006). `If I ever play football, Dad, can I play for England or India?': British Asians, sport and diasporic national identities . Sociology, 40, 11-28.
6.
Butler, J. (1997). Excitable speech. New York : Routledge.
7.
Canada Parliament House of Commons. (1971). Debates. October 8, 1971. Ottawa: Canadian Government Publishing.
8.
Clemént, R., & Noels, K.A. (1992). Towards a situated approach to ethnolinguistic identity: The effects of status on individuals and groups. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 11, 203-232.
9.
Condor, S. (2006). Public prejudice as collaborative accomplishment: Towards a dialogic social psychology of racism. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 16, 1-18.
10.
Dasgupta, S.D. (1998). Gender roles and cultural continuity in the Asian Indian immigrant community in the U.S. Sex Roles, 38, 953-974.
11.
Davies, B., & Harré, R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of self . Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20, 43-63.
12.
Edwards, D., & Potter, J. (1992). Discursive psychology. London : Sage.
13.
Ethnic Diversity Survey. (2002). Treasury Board of Canada Performance Report 2005 Supplementary Indicator on Discrimination and Racism. Retrieved from http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/report/govrev/05/ann302_e.asp .
14.
Ghosh, R. (1984). Education, gender, and the immigrant experience . In R.J. Samuda, J.W. Berry, & M. Laferriere (Eds.), Multiculturalism in Canada: Social and educational perspectives. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
15.
Harré, R., & Moghaddam, F. (2003). Introduction: The self and others in traditional psychology and in positioning theory. In R. Harré & F. Moghaddam (Eds.), The self and others: Positioning individuals and groups in personal, political and cultural contexts (pp. 1-11). Westport, CT: Praeger.
16.
Henry, F., & Tator, C. (1999). State policy and practices as racialized discourse: Multiculturalism, the charter, and employment equity. In P.S. Li (Ed.), Race and ethnic relations in Canada (2nd ed., pp. 88-115). Don Mills: Oxford University Press.
17.
Henry, F., & Tator, C. (2002). Discourses of domination: Racial bias in the Canadian English-language press. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
18.
Henry, F., Tator, C., Matthis, W., & Rees, T. (1998). The colour of democracy: Racism in Canadian society (2nd ed.). Scarborough: Nelson.
19.
Howarth, C. (2002). Identity in whose eyes? The role of representations in identity construction. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 32, 145-162.
20.
Hyers, L. (2001). A secondary survey analysis study of African American ethnic identity orientations in two national samples. Journal of Black Psychology, 27, 139-171.
21.
Inman, A.G. (2006). South Asian women: Identities and conflicts. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 12, 306-319.
22.
Jones, R.L. (2006). `Older people' talking as if they are not older people: Positioning theory as an explanation. Journal of Aging Studies, 20, 79-91.
23.
Kalin, R., & Berry, J.W. (1996). Interethnic attitudes in Canada: Ethnocentrism, hierarchy and reciprocity. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 28, 253-261.
24.
Kurien, P.A. (1998). Becoming American by becoming Hindu: Indian Americans take their place at the multicultural table. In S. Warner & J. Wittner (Eds.), Gatherings in diaspora: Religious communities and the new immigration (pp. 37-70). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
25.
Kurien, P.A. (2005). Being young, brown, and Hindu: The identity struggles of second-generation Indian Americans. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 34, 434-469.
26.
Lehman, D.R., Chiu, C., & Schaller, M. (2004). Psychology and culture. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 689-714.
27.
Li, P.S. (1999). Race and ethnicity. In P.S. Li (Ed.), Race and ethnic relations in Canada (2nd ed., pp. 3-20). Don Mills: Oxford University Press.
28.
Linville, P.W. (1987). Self-complexity as a cognitive buffer against stress-related illness and depression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 663-676.
29.
Mackey, E. (2002). The house of difference: Cultural politics and national identity in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
30.
Malhi, R., & Boon, S.D. (in press). Discourses of democratic racism in the talk of South Asian-Canadian women. Canadian Ethnic Studies.
31.
Modood, T. (1998). Anti-essentialism, multiculturalism and the `recognition' of religious groups. Journal of Political Philosophy, 6, 378-399.
32.
Moghaddam, F.M., & Taylor, D.M. (1987). The meaning of multiculturalism for visible minority immigrant women. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 19, 121-136.
33.
Mukherjee, A. (1994). The `Race consciousness' of a South Asian (Canadian, of course) female academic. In C.E. James & A. Shadd (Eds.), Talking about difference: Encounters in culture, language and identity (pp. 201-207). Toronto: Between The Lines.
34.
Phinney, J.S. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: Review of research. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 499-514.
35.
Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. (2001). Legacies: The story of the immigrant second generation . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
36.
Rajiva, M. (2006). Brown girls, white worlds: Adolescence and the making of racialized selves. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 43, 165-183.
37.
Ralston, H. (1997). The lived experience of South Asian immigrant women in Atlantic Canada: The interconnections of race, class, and gender . Toronto: Edwin Mellen Press.
38.
Robinson, L. (2005). South Asians in Britain: Acculturation, identity and perceived discrimination. Psychology and Developing Societies , 17, 181-194.
39.
Rosenthal, D., & Hrynevich, C. (1985). Ethnicity and ethnic identity: A comparative study of Greek-, Italian-, and Anglo-Australian adolescents. International Journal of Psychology, 20, 723-742.
40.
Samuel, E. (2004). Racism in peer-group interactions: South Asian students' experiences inCanadian academe. Journal of College Student Development, 45, 407-424.
41.
Statistics Canada. (2001). 2001 Census of Population. Retrieved from http://www.statscan.ca .
42.
Sumara, D., Davis, B., & Laidlaw, L. (2001). Canadian identity and curriculum theory: An ecological, postmodern perspective. Canadian Journal of Education, 26, 144-163.
43.
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J.C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behaviour . In S. Worchel & W.G. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7-24). Chicago, IL: Nelson .
44.
Taylor, D.M., Bougie, E., & Caouette, J. (2003). Applying positioning principles to a theory of collective identity. In R. Harré & F. Moghaddam (Eds.), The self and others: Positioning individuals and groups in personal, political and cultural contexts (pp. 197-215). Westport, CT: Praeger.
45.
Tran, K., Kaddatz, J., & Allard, P. (2005). South Asians in Canada: Unity through diversity . Canadian Social Trends, 74, 20-25. Statistics Canada, Catalogue no. 11-008.
46.
Treasury Board of Canada. (2004). Annual report to parliament - Report of the President: Views on multiculturalism . Retrieved from http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rma/eppi-ibdrp/cp-rc-04/cp-rc_e.asp .
47.
Tsang, A.K.T., Irving, H., Alaggia, R., Chau, S.B.Y., & Benjamin, M. (2003). Negotiating ethnic identity in Canada: The case of the `satellite children'. Youth & Society, 34, 359-384.
48.
Ullah, P. (1990). Rhetoric and ideology in social identification: The case of second generation Irish youths. Discourse & Society, 1, 167-188.
49.
Van Langenhove, L., & Harré, R. (1999). Introducing positioning theory. In R. Harré & L. van Langenhove (Eds.), Positioning theory (pp. 14-31). Oxford : Blackwell.
50.
Vassanji, M.G. (1996). Life at the margins: At the thick of multiplicity . In D. Bahri & M. Vasudeva (Eds.), Between the lines: South Asians and postcoloniality (pp. 111-120). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
51.
Verkuyten, M., & de Wolf, A. (2002). Being, feeling and doing: Discourses and ethnic self-definitions among minority group members. Culture & Psychology, 8, 371-399.
52.
Visweswaran, K. (1994). Fictions of feminist ethnography. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
53.
Walton, C., Coyle, A., & Lyons, E. (2003). `There you are man': Men's use of emotion discourses and their negotiation of emotional subject positions. In R. Harré & F. Moghaddam (Eds.), The self and others: Positioning individuals and groups in personal, political and cultural contexts (pp. 45-60). Westport, CT: Praeger.
54.
Warikoo, N. (2005). Gender and ethnic identity among second-generation Indo-Caribbeans. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28, 803-831.
55.
Weisskirch, R.S. (2005). Ethnicity and perceptions of being a `typical American' in relationship to ethnic identity development. Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29, 355-366.
56.
Wetherell, M., & Potter, J. (1992). Mapping the language of racism: Discourse and the legitimation of exploitation. New York: Columbia University Press.
57.
Williams, T.K. (1992). Prism lives: Identity of binational Amerasians . In M. Root (Ed.), Racially mixed people in America (pp. 280-303). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
58.
Wood, L.A., & Kroger, R.O. (2000). Doing discourse analysis: Methods for studying action in talk and text. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
59.
Worchel, S. (1999). Written in blood: Ethnic identity and the struggle for human harmony. New York: Worth Publishers.
