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Becoming oneself through trials: a framework for identity work research

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  • Stéphan Pezé

    (IRG - Institut de Recherche en Gestion - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12)

Abstract

This paper aims to offer a new way to think and to study identity work in relation with organizational identity regulation attempts and a deeper understanding of both the several facets of materiality of identity work and the agency/structure interplays in this process. The current growing body of studies about identity work is useful to understand how the self become. However, these studies encounter some limits, especially the lack of contextualization of individuals' identity work vis-à-vis broader cultural and social structures and their organizational diffraction or the overemphasis on discourses at the expense of other identity resources, whereof material artefacts and embodied practices. To overcome these limits, this paper intends to offer a framework based on the concept of trials designed by the French sociologist Danilo Martuccelli, which are ‗historical challenges, socially produced, culturally represented, unequally distributed, that individuals must face' (Araujo and Martuccelli, 2010:8). I argue that when facing an identity trial, an organizational member measure himself and this can be a useful framework to think identity work and to overtake the limits underlined above. Methodological implications of this perspective - identity trials as analytical lens to study identity work - are further discussed.

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  • Stéphan Pezé, 2011. "Becoming oneself through trials: a framework for identity work research," Post-Print hal-00608893, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00608893
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00608893
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bourguignon, Annick & Chiapello, Eve, 2003. "The Role of Criticism in the Dynamics of Performance Evaluation Systems," ESSEC Working Papers DR 03017, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    2. Mats Alvesson & Hugh Willmott, 2002. "Identity Regulation as Organizational Control: Producing the Appropriate Individual," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 619-644, July.
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    Keywords

    Identity work; trials; identity regulation;
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