Title: Agency and social identity: Resistance among Pakeha New Zealand mothers
Abstract: This paper is based in analysis of texts of interviews with 21 urban Pakeha mothers of young children. It argues that the Pakeha mother identity, understood as the point of suture between subjectivity and social processes of representation [Hall, Stuart (1996a). Who needs identity? In: Stuart Hall & Paul du Gay (Eds.), Questions of cultural identity (pp. 1–17). London: Sage], is formed in processes of mastery, discourses of difference and self-surveillance. The author argues that the interplay of identity and regulation is internally contradictory because identification and reflexive guilt are simultaneous processes and reflexivity introduces the possibility of resistance. She analyses the resistant talk of the respondents and shows that in the texts of their interviews, they both redefine and resist the category of Pakeha mother. Guilt is a persistent theme in resistant talk, and while guilt is a mechanism of self-surveillance, its very nature is reflexive, thus creating a certain distance from the identity category and creating space for subjective resistance.
Publication Year: 2002
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 13
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot