The language of change? Characterizations of in-group social position, threat, and the deployment of distinctive group attributes.
A considerable body of research has shown that group members establish and emphasize characteristics or attributes that define their in-group in relation to comparison out-groups. We extend this research by exploring the range of ways in which members of the same social category (Welsh people) deploy a particular attribute (the Welsh language) as a flexible identity management resource. Through a thematic analysis of data from interviews and two public speeches, we examine how the deployment of the Welsh language is bound up with characterizations of the in-group's wider intergroup position (in terms of power relations and their legitimacy and stability), and one's position within the in-group. We focus in particular on the rhetorical and strategic value of such characterizations for policing in-group boundaries on the one hand, and for the in-group's intergroup position on the other. We conclude by emphasizing the need to (1) locate analyses of the uses and importance of group-defining attributes within the social setting that gives them meaning and (2) to appreciate such characterizations as attempts to influence, rather than simply reflect that setting.
Livingstone
Andrew G
AG
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK. LivingstoneAG@cardiff.ac.uk
Spears
Russell
R
Manstead
Antony S R
AS
D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology; D006126:Group Processes; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007802:Language; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012649:Self Concept; D012933:Social Identification; D014852:Wales / Q000208:ethnology; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology