Open AccessSocial Identities of Children in different Institutional Contexts
Author(s) -
Susanne Højlund
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
outlines/critical social studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1904-0210
pISSN - 1399-5510
DOI - 10.7146/ocps.v3i2.5139
Subject(s) - identity (music) , ethnography , identification (biology) , relation (database) , social identity theory , space (punctuation) , sociology , position (finance) , social psychology , psychology , developmental psychology , social relation , social position , social group , gender studies , anthropology , aesthetics , linguistics , ecology , philosophy , finance , database , computer science , economics , biology
Based on an ethnographic fieldwork the article analyses the experiences of 8-10 year old children in three different institutions. It is shown how the children create and maintain different social landscapes in each setting. This means that children's experiences are related to the position they have in the landscape. The notion social identity is used to discuss and explain these findings. With this notion identity is explained as an interplay between internal and external factors: between group-identification and categorisation. Children's different identities in different settings are not created by children themselves, but must bee seen in relation to the categorisation used by the adults to classify children. The professional categorisations of children are a central part of the social space in relation to which children act, talk, and play.