Browsing by Subject "identiteettineuvottelut"

The aim of this study was to examine identity narratives and membership narratives of religious minority youth. The theoretical framework for identity consisted of both postmodern identity theory and post-positivist realistic identity theory, thus identity is seen as changing and selectable though guided by social categories. Additionally, the aim was to examine how the youth narrate memberships and negotiate their religious values and social identity in the social context of school. The goal of the study was to analyze how young people who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints narrate identities, memberships and identity and membership negotiations at school. Previous studies have shown that youth belonging to religious minorities often face negotiations at school, concerning their values, lifestyle and worldviews. The data consisted of five interviews of young people belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The study was conducted using qualitative methods and analyzed with theme analysis of narratives. The analysis included characteristics of both narrative methods and content analysis method. Based on the results, identity and membership narratives of the youth belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were found to emphasize the importance of their religious membership. However, self-definition of being an ordinary young person and having many other identities besides religious identity were also highlighted. In identity and membership negotiations special importance was given to the optimization of the conditions of situations in which membership of the religious group was being discussed. The goal of the optimization was to maintain identity of an ordinary young person and to defend the multidimensionality of one's identity. The study suggests that other peoples' partly negative attitudes towards the religious group of the youth guided their agency in identity and membership negotiations. Being different was more likely to be seen positively in an in-group setting than in an out-group setting. Thus, the outcomes of the negations were influenced by the nature of the relationship the people included in the negotiations had. According to the study, youth belonging to a religions minority see their position in school positively. However, they face negotiations concerning their differing views on values and lifestyle.