Natural english conversation between friends over

natural English conversation between friends over drinks) show speakers not only
avowing contradictory identities but also invoking both group distinctiveness and
similarity. They argue strongly for working from participants’ own orientations
to identity, rather than analytically derived social categories. Verkuyten’s (1997)
study of how ethnic minority identity is presented in natural talk, based on focus
groups of Turks living in the Netherlands, suggests the fruitfulness of this approach.
Critiquing social identity theory, Verkuyten shows that people construct and cross
borders of various categories in defining themselves; respondents did not use fixed
categories, and differentiations were not always oppositional.
Language thus links the cognitive and interactive traditions. Hermans (1996)
proposes development of a voiced conception of identity that integrates these tra-
ditions, a conception that points to collective voices (social dialects, professional
Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2000.26:367-393. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org
by Columbia University on 02/14/05. For personal use only.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF IDENTITIES
373
jargons, languages of generations and age groups) and facilitates greater recog-
nition of the dynamics of dominance and social power. Rapley (1998) aptly il-
lustrates this last point in his analysis of Australian MP Pauline Hanson’s first
speech to the Australian Parliament (in 1996). Rapley addresses three questions:
how speakers construct themselves as representative of the audience they wish
to influence, how the appearance of truth/fact is constructed in political rhetoric,
and how Hanson constructed her case as representative of and credible for her
audience. Rapley shows how Hanson treats identities as discursive resources in
her strategic manipulation of identity claims to membership category entitlement,
claims that contributed to the mobilization necessary to her election. Rapley makes
the intriguing point that identity work and facticity work are mutually supporting,
and often inseparable, components of successful mobilization discourse.
Other scholars in this tradition extend the terrain to other forms of discourse,
especially visual media. Epstein & Steinberg (1995) analyze the feminist potential
of the Oprah Winfrey show through deconstructions of the show in relation to two
themes, a presumption of heterosexuality, and the use of a therapy discourse. They
note the show’s emphasis on individual pathology (rather than social processes).
Hollander’s (1998) analysis of a dating game show, “Studs,” shows how both ver-
bal and nonverbal gestures do the identity work of gender, most obviously, but also
of heterosexuality, race (in the show’s homogeneity), and class. In one of the few
empirical studies of discourse about social class, Bettie (1995) analyzes the class
dynamics of sitcoms. Bettie suggests that a pattern of recent shows, in which work-
ing class women are cast as lead characters and men are either absent or buffoons,
reflects demographic shifts toward more women in poverty. Analyses of media