Investigating Structure and Agency in Chinese Indonesians' Identity Work

Abstract

Research shows that structure and agency are components of both micro and macro articulations of identity (Bucholtz and Hall, 2005). However, some scholars (e.g., Block 2013, 2015; Sealey and Carter 2004; Gao 2017) argue that structure and agency often receive unequal attention, with many studies focusing more on agency when examining identity work. This paper attempts to rectify this imbalance by adopting a chronotopic approach to examine quantitative variation in Chinese Indonesian college students' (non)‐use of the Chinese discourse particle a to construct interactional positions. The resulting analysis highlights how speakers' interactional positions align with established macro structures of Chineseness and Indonesianness, and also present new local structures. Patterns in different speakers' invocation of structures in interaction correlates with their socialization histories, involving exposure to particular social categories and ideologies. Ultimately, this approach better represents structure and agency as mutually constituted factors in identity work.