Mary Jane Collier

Context, Privilege, and Contingent Cultural Identifications in South African Group Interview Discourses

Issues of context, levels of privilege, and the contingency of cultural identifications are addressed in this study of South African group interview discourses in 1992 and 1999. A Critical/Interpretive perspective revealed that histories, socioeconomic positioning, and political policies differentially enabled and constrained the actions and views expressed by the participants. The persistence of whiteness ideologies and prevalence of enacted privilege emerged in the group interviews with participants identifying as ‘white’ and Afrikaner, with ambivalence becoming marked in the 1999 group discourse. Changes in the sociopolitical landscape are also reflected in the group discourses of participants identifying as ‘black’; discourses in 1999 included overt resistance and exerting agency through critique of ‘blacks’ who were complicit and ‘whites’ who perpetuated race and class privilege.Issues of context, levels of privilege, and the contingency of cultural identifications are addressed in this study of South African group interview discourses in 1992 and 1999. A Critical/Interpretive perspective revealed that histories, socioeconomic positioning, and political policies differentially enabled and constrained the actions and views expressed by the participants. The persistence of whiteness ideologies and prevalence of enacted privilege emerged in the group interviews with participants identifying as ‘white’ and Afrikaner, with ambivalence becoming marked in the 1999 group discourse. Changes in the sociopolitical landscape are also reflected in the group discourses of participants identifying as ‘black’; discourses in 1999 included overt resistance and exerting agency through critique of ‘blacks’ who were complicit and ‘whites’ who perpetuated race and class privilege.

Intercultural Identity Positioning: Interview Discourses from Two Identity-Based Nonprofit Organizations

This study examines interview discourses from board members/volunteers, staff, and clients in two nonprofit organizations in the U.S. Southwest. Extending cultural identity theory constructs of avowal, ascription, and salience, the study used aspects of critical discourse analysis to thematically determine what the interview discourses revealed about identity positioning, negotiation of cross-status relationships and hierarchies, and how ideologies such as Asians as the model minority and individual meritocracy were implicated. The analysis demonstrated that contradictory avowals and ascriptions impacted levels of agency, and that avowals, as well as ascriptions, acted to subjugate already marginalized clients.

Contextual Negotiation of Cultural Identifications and Relationships: Interview Discourse with Palestinian, Israeli, and Palestinian/Israeli Young Women in a U.S. Peace-Building Program

Abstract An integration of critical and interpretive perspectives frames the analysis of interview discourse from participants in a U.S. peace-building dialogue program during 1997–1998. Israeli, Palestinian, and Palestinian/Israeli identified participants’ discourse reveals that they negotiate multiple and contextually contingent cultural identifications, and that the context both enables and constrains their relationships with each other. Discursive themes demonstrate the complexity and struggle in which participants position themselves and exercise levels of agency, and negotiate their cultural and intercultural relationships. The findings of the study substantiate calls by scholars and practitioners to incorporate contextual factors such as history, politics, social hierarchies, and agency into research and training models of intergroup dialogue.

Culture, Communication, and Peacebuilding: A Reflexive Multi-Dimensional Contextual Framework

Abstract This article argues that intercultural communication scholars should play a central role in advancing the study and practice of peacebuilding. A reflexive, multi-dimensional and contextualized framework for viewing peacebuilding is proposed, with a focus on personal, relational, and structural dimensions. Three topical areas—community engagement, intercultural dialogue, and alliance building—are used to illustrate the framework and point to possibilities for additional research and development. Seven strategies for applying this framework in the complex arena of intractable conflicts are proposed and described.

Critically reflexive dialogue and praxis: Academic/practitioner reflections throughout a formative evaluation of Circles® USA

ABSTRACT Reflections about the use of critically reflexive praxis by academic/practitioners are offered based on a case study of a formative evaluation of Circles® USA, a nonprofit organization coordinating initiatives across the U.S. working to move families out of poverty. Critically reflexive praxis is theorized as featuring several themes including acknowledging different levels of context, critical dialogue with collaborators, engaging cultural difference and intersectionalities, problematizing power relations and relationships among researchers and collaborators, and occurring throughout the research project. Examples of critical dialogic reflexivity and navigating common tensions that emerge throughout such community engagement projects are detailed during three phases: planning and design; fieldwork and interviews; and outcomes, applications, and implications.

Partnering for Anti-Poverty Praxis in Circles® USA: Applications of Critical Dialogic Reflexivity

The value of critical dialogic reflexivity is demonstrated through analysis of interview conversations between academic and practitioner partners in Circles® USA, a national nonprofit organization working to ameliorate poverty. The partnerships include the academic/practitioner author with six others: Circles founder and CEO, a lead trainer and codeveloper of training curriculum, and four individuals working to move out of poverty. The analysis features examples of critical dialogic reflexivity related to negotiating macro-, meso- and microcontextual structures, cultural identifications, status locations, privilege, and ideologies that impact their relationships and work to end poverty. Caveats and implications for critical community engagement, intercultural alliances and engaged scholarship are discussed.

A Call for Critical Reflexivity: Reflections on Research with Nongovernmental and Nonprofit Organizations in Zimbabwe and Kenya

A theoretically grounded framework for critical reflexivity relevant to international (and national and local) research with nongovernmental and nonprofit organizations is applied in two case studies in Zimbabwe and Kenya. We illustrate four moves in critically reflexive research praxis: 1) acknowledging historical, economic, social, and political contextual structures; 2) negotiating contextually contingent identifications, representations, and positionalities; 3) problematizing power relations, status hierarchies, and agency; and 4) assessing outcomes, differential benefits and consequences. We discuss how these critically reflexive moves are dances with difference, reflect convergent and divergent political itineraries, and implicate de-colonizing knowledge processes and productions.

Negotiating Contextually Contingent Agency: Situated Feminist Peacebuilding Strategies in Kenya

ABSTRACT This study identifies an emergent framework for situated feminist peacebuilding based on interviews with representatives of community-based organizations in Kenya. We offer situated examples and firsthand accounts of how these women navigate different challenging spaces, wrestle with the relationships between macro-, meso-, and microcontextual factors, and negotiate agency- and systems-level change within patriarchal and politically changing contexts. We also demonstrate the necessity for international collaborators to apply critical reflexivity throughout all phases of research praxis. Our analysis has important implications for studying feminist peacebuilding situated in Kenya in particular, as well as for analyzing agency, structural and systemic change, patriarchy, the navigation of intersectional cultural differences, and intercultural relations more generally.