Nostalgia and the Narrativization of Identity: A Turkish Case Study

Abstract

This paper offers an interpretation of the collective identity-narrative of a Turkish faculty of vocational education. Particular attention is focused on the importance of nostalgia in acts of collective self-authorship. Nostalgia, it is argued, is key to the understanding of the dynamics of individual and organizational identity-construction in several ways: it can be a means of maintaining a collective sense of socio-historic continuity, a source of resistance to hegemonic influence and a defence against anxiety. The research contribution of this paper is threefold. First, it illustrates how groups assemble shared storylines that subjectively constitute their collective identity. Second, it analyses the different ways in which acts of collective nostalgia can inform the stories by which individuals and groups understand their present circumstances, preserve selfesteem, and react to perceived threats. Third, it theorises nostalgia as giving access to a shared heritage of apparently authentic and identity-relevant values and beliefs, as an emotional support during periods of organizational change, and as a form of uniqueness claim central to processes of individual-organization identification.

Collective Memory Meets Organizational Identity: Remembering to Forget in a Firm's Rhetorical History

“…The studies therefore focus more on individuals' ex-post exploration of the past than the ongoing study of a constructed collective memory. As illustrations, past scholarship has emphasized the importance of considering organizational "biographies" (Kimberly, 1987) or "nostalgia" (Brown & Humphreys, 2002) when analyzing organizations. Yet these and other studies typically rely primarily on a set of individual interviews conducted over a short period of time to study history (for other examples see Biggart (1977), de Holan andPhillips (2004) and Kimberly and Bouchikhi (1995)).…”

What's left behind: Identity continuity moderates the effect of nostalgia on well-being and life choices.

“…For instance, experimental studies have shown that people who were asked to recall nostalgic experiences report a heightened perception of continuity between their past and present selves compared with people who were asked to recall ordinary experiences (Routledge et al, 2006). Qualitative analyses of organizational change also suggest that nostalgia allows individuals to develop a sense of identity continuity (Brown & Humphreys, 2002;Milligan, 2003).…”

Nostalgia, reflexivity, and the narratives of self: reflections on Devine's “Removing the rough edges?”

“…Cultural places such as museums are one of the main areas where individuals (re)appropriate objects and images to (re)construct their sense of self and identity (Boym 2001;Goulding 1999aGoulding , 1999bJoy and Sherry 2003). Nostalgia-based experiences in museums provide individuals with a process of 'sense making' (Brown and Humphreys 2002) through which they can relate to broader meanings of life and being. Realization of the potential meanings embedded in the museum exhibits, therefore, depends on individuals' past knowledge of the context to which the texts (the exhibits) belong and also the conditions in which these individuals themselves are presently contextualized.…”

“…The museum becomes a workshop of identity and 'self-discovery' (Poulot 1994) where, upon turning the pages of their diary, participants recall their 'inspiring' or/and 'despairing' (Bonnell and Simon 2007) past. Based on visitors' individual and collective narratives of self (Brown and Humphreys 2002), such a workshop can create a variety of conflicting feelings of happiness, sadness, loss, reunion, rejuvenation, aging, pity, fear, pride, shame, guilt, absurdity, hope, esthetic pleasure, and recreation, to name but a few. These diverse feelings can also occur for those who have 'vicarious' experiences of the past (Davis 1979;Goulding 2001).…”

“…We particularly focus on the relevance of nostalgia to the ongoing process of cultural 'reflexivity' (Giddens 1990) in contemporary society. We argue that for cultural consumers, nostalgia is not simply an aesthetic or emotional tour of the past made readily available to them via the objects of (experiential) consumption; rather, as a 'cultural practice' (Stewart 1988), nostalgia is a process of 'self-exploration' (Batcho et al 2008) and 'sense-making' (Brown and Humphreys 2002) through juxtaposing past, present, and future. The museum-based historical representations, we argue, have the power to act as 'cultural referents' (Boym 2001) in individuals' navigation of self and identity.…”