Who is expected to make contact? Interpretative repertoires related to an intergroup encounter between Finnish majority mothers and immigrant mothers

Abstract

Although the benefits of contact for positive intergroup relations are widely acknowledged, less is known about how group members construct the agency and responsibility of contact participants in intergroup encounters. Using critical discursive psychology, we analysed the interpretative repertoires that Finnish majority mothers (N = 13) and mothers with an immigrant background (N = 10) used when talking about a hypothetical intergroup encounter among Finnish and immigrant mothers in a ‘family café’ (a group for mothers and children). Our analysis identified five interpretative repertoires that differed in terms of the levels of categorization used (individual, group, motherhood) and how agency and responsibility for initiating contact were discursively attributed to the parties in the intergroup encounter. Overall, constructing someone as agentic did not automatically result in their being portrayed as more responsible for making contact. Respondents described contact to occur with only two repertoires, in which both agency and responsibility for initiating contact were discursively attributed to the same party. This highlights the need to consider both agency and sense of responsibility as possible factors preceding intergroup contact.

‘Hey, teach these kids to eat their own food!’: Institutional intergroup contact in immigrant mothers' talk

“…The power imbalance inherent in institutional contact seems easily to frustrate the intergroup contact opportunity, as the professionals apply a dual approach of care and control in their dealings with service users (Bendixsen & Danielsen, 2020;Erstad, 2018), meanwhile representing the majority ethnic group. In peer contact (e.g., between mothers; see Riikonen et al, 2023), a shared identity may be employed to facilitate contact, but this seems unlikely in institutional contact because of power and role differences.…”

“…The power imbalance inherent in institutional contact seems easily to frustrate the intergroup contact opportunity, as the professionals apply a dual approach of care and control in their dealings with service users (Bendixsen & Danielsen, 2020; Erstad, 2018), meanwhile representing the majority ethnic group. In peer contact (e.g., between mothers; see Riikonen et al, 2023), a shared identity may be employed to facilitate contact, but this seems unlikely in institutional contact because of power and role differences. Prior social psychological contact research studying group hierarchy and intergroup power relations has showed that a typical mismatch between advantaged and disadvantaged groups is their differing interest to discuss power disparities; the advantaged groups tend to have less interest to discuss group‐based power and are more willing to find commonalities among groups to maintain the status quo (Saguy et al, 2008).…”

“…Being a mother often leads to changes in social relationships of a woman and increases the need for peer support and, therefore, this stage of life could also afford opportunities for intergroup contact among mothers in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods. When conducting an ethnography as a part of this project, however, we observed that intergroup contact among mothers was rare or described as improbable, and that in the absence of these peer contacts less optimal types of everyday contact became meaningful to many mothers with immigrant background (Paajanen et al, 2022, 2023; Riikonen et al, 2023). In the interviews, which we started at the same with ethnography, we aimed to investigate the everyday life and contacts by asking the respondents about their social relations (e.g., ‘Describe the friendships and relationships you have currently/you have had since the last interview’), everyday life in the neighbourhood (e.g., ‘How the ways and places of spending time have changed when your baby has grown?’), motherhood (e.g., ‘Where and how do you spend time with your child(ren) in the neighborhood?’), and diversity (e.g., ‘Have you got to know mothers from other cultures?’), but not specifically about their encounters with kindergarten and playground workers.…”

“…In the area of intergroup contact, and using CDP, Riikonen, Finell, Suoninen, Paajanen, and Stevenson (2023) analysed how local and immigrant mothers discursively constructed contact participants' agency and responsibility in intergroup encounters at meetings for mothers and children in Finland. Their findings on the rhetorical attribution of agency in intergroup contact situations was in line with Kerr et al's (2017) study based on accounts of intergroup conflict in a South African farming community.…”

Intragroup contact with other mothers living in the same neighborhood benefits mothers' life satisfaction: The mediating role of group identification and social support

“…As mothers' daily life with young children is often located close to home, the local community of mothers is perceived as a potential source of company and social support (Strange et al, 2015; Varin et al, 2020; Wood et al, 2011). Although motherhood is found to increase interest in social connectedness with other local mothers (Riikonen et al, 2022; Seppälä et al, 2021), studies report diverse lived experiences among mothers.…”