Article published In: Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 24:2 (2014) ► pp.386–407
Positioning oneself in relation to larger collectivities in expatriates’ workplace narratives
Published online: 24 November 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.24.2.11sch
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.24.2.11sch
This article aims to explore narratives as sites for identity construction by employing the concept of positioning to analyse some of the discursive processes through which identity construction is accomplished in institutional contexts. Our specific foci are i) the ways in which individuals position themselves in relation to larger collectivities in their narratives about being expatriates living and working in Hong Kong, and ii) how they construct their professional identities in the tension that may arise due to their membership in different social groups. Drawing on data from a corpus of interviews with professionals in multicultural workplaces in Hong Kong, we provide an in-depth analysis of two case studies of expatriates who take very different stances towards their company and the cultural groups with whom they interact, and who, as a consequence, construct remarkably different identities for themselves, the people they work with and also their organisation. Our analyses illustrate some of the intricate ways in which identities are closely intertwined with and feed off individuals’ membership in different collectivities, which surfaces especially when zooming in on the different levels of positioning in the interviewees’ narratives.
Keywords: workplace, expatriate, identity construction, positioning, narrative
References (29)
Bamberg, M. (1997a). Language, concepts and emotions: The role of language in the construction of emotions. Language Sciences, 19(4), 309–340.
. (1997b). Positioning between structure and performance. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 71, 335–342.
. (2006). Stories: Big or small; Why do we care? Narrative Inquiry, 16(1), 139–147.
Bamberg, M., De Fina, A., & Schiffrin, D. (2011). Discourse and identity construction. In S. Schwartz, K. Luyckx & V. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of identity theory and research (pp. 177–199). Berlin/New York: Springer Verlag.
Baynham, M. (2006). Performing self, narrative and commuity in Moroccan narratives of migration and settlement. In A. De Fina, D. Schiffrin & M. Bamberg (Eds.), Discourse and Identity (pp. 376–397). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 71, 585–614.
Carranza, I.E. (1998). Low-narrativity narratives and argumentation. Narrative Inquiry, 8(2), 287–317.
Daly, N., Holmes, J., Newton, J., & Stubbe, M. (2004). Expletives as solidarity signals in FTAs on the factory floor. Journal of Pragmatics, 361, 945–964.
Davies, B., & Harré, R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 201, 43–63.
Lucius-Hoene, G., & Deppermann, A. (2004). Narrative Identität und Positionierung. Gesprächsforschung, 51, 166–183. Retrieved from [URL] (last accessed 17-09-2014).
Deppermann, A. (2013). Editorial: Positioning in narrative interaction. Narrative Inquiry, 23(1), 1–15.
De Fina, A. (2009). Narratives in interview - The case of accounts; For an interactional approach to narrative genres. Narrative Inquiry, 19(2), 233–258.
. (2010). The negotiation of identities. In M. Locher & S. Graham (Eds.), Interpersonal pragmatics (pp. 205–224). Berlin: de Gruyter.
. (2013). Positioning level 3: Connecting local identity displays to macro social processes. Narrative Inquiry, 23(1), 40–61.
De Fina, A., & Georgakopoulou, A. (2012). Analyzing narrative: Discourse and sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
De Fina, A., Schiffrin, D., & Bamberg, M. (2006). Introduction. In A. De Fina, D. Schiffrin & M. Bamberg (Eds.), Discourse and identity (pp. 1–23). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Georgakopoulou, A. (2013). Building iterativity into positioning analysis: A practice-based approach to small stories and self. Narrative Inquiry, 23(1), 89–110.
Harré, R., & Van Langenhove, L. (1999). The dynamics of social episodes. In R. Harré & L. Van Langenhove (Eds.), Positioning theory (pp. 1–13). Oxford: Blackwell.
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J. (1966). Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts (pp. 12–44). Seattle: Universiy of Washington Press.
Locher, M. (2008). Relational work, politeness, and identity construction. In G. Antos & E. Ventola (Eds.) in cooperation with T. Weber, Handbook of interpersonal communication (pp. 509–540). Berlin: de Gruyter.
Pomerantz, A. (1986). Extreme case formulations: A way of legitimizing claims. Human Studies, 9(2), 219–229.
Schnurr, S., & Zayts, O. (2012). ‘You have to be adaptable, obviously’. Constructing cultural identities in multicultural workplaces in Hong Kong. Pragmatics, 221, 279–299.
Van De Mieroop, D., & Clifton, J. (2012). The interplay between professional identities and age, gender and ethnicity: Introduction. Pragmatics, 221, 193–201.
Cited by (5)
Cited by five other publications
Guberman, Ainat & Ruth Zuzovsky
Clifton, Tim, Jonathan Clifton & Natalia Velikova
Ciepiela, Kamila
Laskey, Brenda & Stirling, Lesley
Schnurr, Stephanie & Dorien Van De Mieroop
2017. Introduction. In Identity Struggles [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 69], ► pp. 1 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.