Making “Sense” of Identity

Abstract

This article expands the recent sensorial turn in identity studies. It illustrates how individuals embody and link together multiple identities through the multivocality of a particular sensory experience as well as the various meanings encapsulated within the sensory experiences of a particular event. Through a case study of King and Queen celebrations in Santa Catarina, Brazil, this article investigates the social meanings associated with the aesthetics of one of the oldest German traditions in the country. While on the surface the King and Queen celebration appears to be solely a celebration of German roots, a focus on the multivocality of the sensory experiences reveals a more complicated situation where the hosts are claiming not just a German ethnic identity but a Brazilian national identity by drawing upon the multiple social meanings associated with certain sensory experiences and foregrounding particular aesthetics.

Grounding Childhood (Trans)National Identities in the Everyday

“…In this paper, drawing on a grounded methodology and insights from the sociology of childhood, we set off to explore one child's everyday (trans)national identity practices. National identity is acquired in early childhood (Ricke, ), the salience of ‘the national’ changes over time, as well as the changes themselves, vary considerably across different groups of children and across national borders (Barrett, , ). In line with the idea that the nation and its symbols are not natural entities or merely cognitive structures (Fox and Miller‐Idriss, ), this paper has taken a bottom‐up, grounded approach to analysing the way national belonging is part of the contextual, spatial and temporal rhythms of everyday life.…”

“…Taking our cue from sociological theories of childhood (James and others, ), we have put Ardian's experience at the centre of the analysis, exploring his ecological niche and everyday life, as well as his relationships to people and places, as these unfold at a socioeconomic juncture of ‘crisis’. In this final section of the paper we think about how interdisciplinary theorising on national belonging can further support the understanding of children's (trans)national identity practices (Ricke, ).…”

“…Looking at the migrant experience from a child's perspective we learn that other stories of transnational belonging are possible and actually exist in everyday life. Ardian's narrative reveals his subjective sense and practices of belonging and the ongoing and dynamic processes of negotiating, constructing and reconstructing his (trans)national identity in his everyday life (Ricke, ; Sutton, ). While he engages in the project of constructing his identity in a context of hyphenation, he masterfully enlists various discursive and non‐discursive agents rooted in different aspects of the transnational social field to narrate himself to the researcher (Levitt and Glick Schiller, ).…”