Identities and Diversities in the Making

2012-2018

The Institute for Gender Studies (former Radboud Gender & Diversity Studies) and the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (AISSR) cooperated in this innovative research programme on gender, diversity and identity formation and practices.

The daily practice of young people and their perspective on their social relations, gender and identity has received little attention. In societal and scientific debates, the social development of adolescents is often problematized or medicalized. Similarly, gender equality, identity formation and the attitude of young people towards homosexuality is seen as problematic, especially in relation to multicultural diversity. Quantitative research into behaviour and identity of adolescents fails to attend to the dynamics of identities by defining categories of diversity beforehand, therewith reproducing existing stereotypes.

This pioneering qualitative research programme investigates how young people in the Netherlands from different backgrounds enact their social relations and identity and the way this enactment is affected by and has an effect on the differences and similarities they produce among themselves. It examines how different spaces in which adolescents live their lives, in particular school and social media, limit or enable their possibilities to explore, experience, protect, develop or display their identity formation and practices.

Keywords: diversity, identity, development adolescents, spaces/practices, school, social media.

Participated researchers:

• Dr. Amade M'charek (AISSR)
• Willemijn Krebbekx, Msc (AISSR)
• Dr. Rachel Spronk (AISSR)
• Marijke Naezer (IGS)
• Dr. Els Rommes (IGS)
• Dr. Geertje Mak (IGS)
• Prof. dr. Willy Jansen (IGS)

Advisors to the project are:

• Dr. Stefan Dudink (IGS)
• Dr. Sébastien Chauvin (AISSR)

This research is externally funded and ran from October 2012 - October 2018.