AbstractsSociology

Woher kommst du wirklich? Exploring identity, strategy and belonging in Afro-German narratives of everyday life in and outside of Germany

by Georgina Ingeborg Viita




Institution: University of Helsinki
Department:
Year: 2015
Keywords: Sosiologia: Yleinen sosiologia
Record ID: 1142631
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/153078


Abstract

This thesis interrogates the category of Afro-German, towards gaining a better understanding of how individuals interpret their position within and outside of this category. Their narratives can help us understand how they perceive of themselves and society at large- how they frame and interpret their relationship with their environment and what implications this might have for dominant, normative identity categories such as ‘German’, ‘African’, ‘Black’, ‘White, within/across which they mediate their lives. Eight qualitative interviews with individuals of both African and German parentage provide the empirical basis for this study. Themes were analysed after a process of both open coding and followed by thematic coding Participants’ experiences outside and inside of Germany highlight the complexities of dislocation, identity formation in liminal spaces, the ambiguity of analytical delineations between liminal and encircling spaces, assumptions of normal and different and dualisms such as Black/White, German/African or German/Black. In addition, it becomes clear, that interrogating the category of Afro-German reinvigorates the discussion on contemporary notions of German national identity today. German ethnic identity and historical amnesia (Müller, 2011; Tiβberger, 2005; Schneider, 2001), identity construction and negotiation (Goffman, 1959, 1963, 1967), narratives as frames for identity (May, 2002; Martin, 2010; Lyng and Franks, 2002), cultural/historical/social dislocation (Asante, 2009), Others-from-Within and Others-from-Without (Wright, 2003) and textured identities (Campt, 1993) are the central theoretical underpinnings facilitating the analysis and interpretation of interview data towards giving the reader an insight into the richness and complexity of how these eight individuals perceive identity, challenge dislocation, strategize between identities and change the meanings of categories in everyday interactions.