Premium
Shifting Practices, Shifting Selves: Negotiations of Local and Global Cultures Among Adolescents in Northern Thailand
Author(s) -
McKenzie Jessica
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.13076
Subject(s) - negotiation , globalization , cultural globalization , sociology , gender studies , participant observation , psychology , social psychology , social science , political science , law
Around the world, adolescents increasingly grow up as members of local and global cultures. Little is known, however, about how precisely adolescents in rapidly globalizing societies blend local and global cultures. Interviews with 40 (16‐ to 19‐year old) Thai adolescents, evenly divided between rural and urban communities, were analyzed alongside participant observation data for the interplay between local and global linguistic and dietary practices. Results revealed that urban adolescents inhabited differentiated selves, alternating between local and global practices based on interactional partner. The activation of each assisted them in navigating—and in some cases, reshaping—hierarchies encountered in everyday relationships. Findings contribute to the developmental science of globalization and point to the utility of interrogating cultural practices as sites of self‐negotiation in rapidly changing cultural contexts.