The discursive construction of community identity

Abstract

The aim of this article is to illustrate how a discourse-oriented approach would open new theoretical and methodological perspectives to the study of community identity. Here outlined is the idea that community identity is discursively constructed by members in order to lend meaning to experience. An analysis of how community identity is constructed in subjects' discourse with reference to the local context is presented.

Island community: identity formulation via acceptance through the environment in Saaremaa, Estonia

“…Discourse analysis is characterized by the adoption of an inductive approach which does not use categories defined a-priori (Colombo & Senatore, 2005). Rapley and Pretty (1999, p. 698) stress that the "employment of a-priori analytic category system is neglectful of local contexts and imposes theoretically-rather than locally-derived structures of meaning and relevance".…”

“…Many studies of community identity call for a more discursive rather than a functionalist approach (Colombo & Senatore, 2005;Dixon & Durrheim, 2000;Rapley & Pretty, 1999). Functionalists examine community identity from two main approaches: one grounded in a territorial-based conception while the other refers to a social-network relationship.…”

“…The theoretical basis of a discursive perspective lies in semiotics and post-structuralism and from this perspective community identity is considered a socially constructed notion intended to give meaning to experience (Colombo & Senatore, 2005). A discursive perspective embeds a major shift from the view of language as a simple tool of description and medium of communication to understanding its role as social practice (Colombo & Senatore, 2005).…”

“…A discursive perspective embeds a major shift from the view of language as a simple tool of description and medium of communication to understanding its role as social practice (Colombo & Senatore, 2005). "The 'quality' of place is more than aesthetic or affectional; it has a 'moral' dimension as well, which is expected for language as a component in the construction and maintenance of reality.…”

“…"The 'quality' of place is more than aesthetic or affectional; it has a 'moral' dimension as well, which is expected for language as a component in the construction and maintenance of reality. This alludes to understanding how people intersubjectively construct and negotiate their notion of community (Colombo & Senatore, 2005;Dixon & Durrheim, 2000;Rapley & Pretty, 1999;Stamper et al, 2000), as well as an understanding of the social structure of an island in order to understand the sites of conflict and hidden symbols used in different situations (Gibbons, 2010).…”