Increasing numbers of studies are identifying ‘identity work’ in research participants’ efforts to establish, maintain, deny or change the identity positions being ascribed to self and other. However, as authors variously emphasize how far identity is negotiated between people, on the one hand, and how far it is determined by prevailing discourses and local ideational notions of who people are, on the other, we are arguably no closer to understanding how identity work gets done in everyday organizational talk. To address this issue we present a conceptualisation of identity work that contrasts these two aspects. Through an analysis of talk in a mundane, everyday, meeting we identify and illustrate five prevalent identity work forms. Taken together, these forms and the conceptualisation represent an important first-step towards developing a more nuanced understanding of the different ways in which people's identities are engaged in, reproduced through, and altered by their participation in their everyday routine organizing practices

No abstract

Our aim is to elucidate a position that takes identity to be dynamic and changeable over time and to propose a conceptualisation that provides a way of mapping alternative imperatives and opportunities for identity work. It is argued that dynamic identity is inherently complex, being constructed through interaction between the self and others. These interactive activities are conceptualised as 'identity work' (Sveningsson and Alvesson, 2003). We regard an understanding of identity work to be significant both for the theorizing of identity and for those who work and manage in organisations, particularly where the organisational situation is itself dynamic.

As the lead, introductory, contribution to this special issue 'Exploring Registers of Identity Research', this paper offers a view of three different 'registers' that might be seen to characterize identity research and which feature, to a greater or lesser extent, in the selected papers. First, the paper offers a means to understand the different theoretical traditions used to explain what constitutes identity and how it might be known. Second, it considers the relationship between different levels of identity -individual, group, professional, organizational and societal. Third, it reviews the methodologies used to understand identities and examines key theoretical assumptions which feature in academic debates, and in the selected papers, around identity theorizing. Drawing on the papers included in this special issue we offer a framework as a heuristic device that might guide scholars looking to enter the field of identity research and enable those already familiar with particular theoretical traditions, levels or methods to explore possibilities for extending their research. As an enticement to tackle the challenges extension across-registers can present, we again turn to the special issue articles to examine -through a series of 'gets' -the different tactics authors might use to access the rich potential offered by cross-fertilization between registers. Our contribution then lies in advancing the potential for dialogue between registers of identity research.

This chapter is concerned with a relatively under-explored aspect of 'engaged research' -the nature of friendship relations between researchers and practitioners, and the ethical dilemmas that arise in such relationships. Attention has been paid to the relational aspects of research in the methodology literature, but this chapter focuses more closely on friendship in particular. The chapter is framed around two guiding concerns: how do friendships, formed in and around research, change over time; and in view of friendship conceived in this dynamic fashion, what ethical questions and dilemmas arise for the 'friends'?The chapter is structured as follows. Since the development of friendship might be expected to be more prominent in forms of research that presuppose a close engagement between researcher and research participant than those which are based on distance and 'objective' separation between researcher and subject, we start by briefly exploring the nature of 'engaged' forms of research. Second, we explore the friendship literature as it relates to the identities people construct for themselves and others in research relationships. Third, a phased model of research engagement is presented, highlighting the way the relationship between researchers and research participants develops over time. Finally, we present two 'tales from the field', of contrasting examples of friendship in research relationships, and we highlight some of the ethical questions that arise in such situations. Engaged Research'Engaged research' is a somewhat ambivalent term which carries several meanings. In essence, it is research which is close to practitioner concerns and aims. It incorporates ideas and practices from traditions such as Participant