Choice and Chance: Negotiating Agency in Narratives of Singleness

Abstract

This article presents a discursive analysis of interview material in which single women reflect on their relationships and reasons for being single. Despite changing meanings of singleness, it remains a 'deficit identity' (Reynolds and Taylor, 2005) and the problem for a woman alone is to account positively for her single state. Our analysis challenges theorisations which would suggest autonomy and agency in how identity and self are constructed. It employs the methodological approaches developed in critical discursive psychology (for instance Wetherell, 1998) to look at the detailed identity work of speakers as part of the identity project proposed by Giddens (1992Giddens ( , 2005, Bauman (1998) and other writers associated with the 'reflexive modernisation' thesis (Adkins, 2002). By approaching 'choice' as one of the cultural resources available to speakers, we present a more complex view of the dilemmas around a speaker's identity work in her accounting for her relationships and the course her life has taken.

‘I’d just lose it if there was any more stress in my life’: Separated Fathers, Fathers’ Rights and the News Media

“…To identify and interrogate the meaning given by the news media to the three cases under examination, I undertook a narrative-discursive analysis (Reynolds, Wetherell and Taylor 2007) that was supplemented by a deconstructive reading. This involved reading for the social discourses (that is, regularised sets of statements that provide interpretative repertoires) and cultural narratives (that is, plots that link events and characters into a story that takes place over time) contained within newspaper articles about these two abductions.…”

The effortful citizen: Discursive social psychology and welfare reform

“…Although, as Potter (2007c) has recently pointed out, a focus on interpretative repertoires is less a feature of current work in DP, they remain central to much discursive work addressing social psychological issues (e.g. Croghan & Miell, 1999;Lawes, 1999;Reynolds & Wetherell, 2003;Reynolds, Wetherell & Taylor, 2007;Riley, 2002).…”

Identidades Desafiadas: Individualización, Managerialismo y Trabajo Docente en el Chile Actual

“…Para ello se optó por un modelo investigativo del tipo narrativo discursivo (Reynolds, Wetherell & Taylor 2007;Taylor, 2007), lo que permitirá penetrar en las narrativas canónicas en torno a las cuales los profesores construyen su identidad.…”

“…Se utilizaron las estrategias propias del análisis del discurso, tal como han sido propuestas por la psicología discursiva (Potter & Wetherell, 1987), atendiendo en particular a las estrategias analíticas desarrolladas para abordar narrativas identitarias (Reynolds et al, 2007;Sisto & Fardella, 2008). Cada entrevista fue codificada en función de cómo los relatos, descripciones y juicios, entre otros, aparecen conformados a partir de repertorios interpretativos específicos, es decir, en tanto estos dan cuenta de "sistemas de términos usados recurrentemente para caracterizar y evaluar acciones, eventos y otros fenómenos" (Potter & Wetherell, 1987, p. 149).…”

“…En este contexto, no es de extrañar que el modo de alcanzar credibilidad no sea mediante relatos factuales, sino mediante narraciones en primera persona, relevando ese posicionamiento local como fuente de verdad. Otros analistas han señalado que este tipo de descripciones suele emerger en posiciones de enunciación con menor poder, en este caso, en relación a la construcción de la política pública (Reynolds et al, 2007).…”