Where the action is: Towards a discursive psychology of “authentic” identity in soccer fandom

Abstract

Miller, Paul K. and Benkwitz, Adam (2016) Where the action is: towards a discursive psychology of "authentic" identity in soccer fandom. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, Downloaded from: http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/1825/ Usage of any items from the University of Cumbria's institutional repository 'Insight' must conform to the following fair usage guidelines.Any item and its associated metadata held in the University of Cumbria's institutional repository Insight (unless stated otherwise on the metadata record) may be copied, displayed or performed, and stored in line with the JISC fair dealing guidelines (available here) for educational and not-for-profit activities provided that• the authors, title and full bibliographic details of the item are cited clearly when any part of the work is referred to verbally or in the written form "fans" and mere "spectators." This work is premised on the classical -but problematicsocial-cognitive assumption that identity itself both precedes and (largely) determines the manner in which it is communicated. As such, the core objective of this paper is to take provisional empirical steps towards a formal psychology of "authentic" sporting fandom that does not replicate this troublesome assumption.Design: A Discursive Psychological framework is used to explore how self-identified soccer fans make "robust" cases for the authenticity of their own fan-identities.Method: N=26 unstructured interviews are analysed to highlight the constructive and attributional techniques drawn upon by speakers when making cases, and the culturallyavailable knowledges and contextual reasoning procedures that these make apparent.Results: Three models for legitimating fan-identity are described: (a) longitudinal endurance, (b) logical choice-making and (c) emotional imperative. It is noted how key issues that inform social-cognitive analysis are actually assembled as members' concerns in the service of persuasively accounting for particular claims in situ, and that this can facilitate a stronger understanding of the interrelation between sporting culture and social identity itself.

Depression, rational identity and the educational imperative: concordance-finding in tricky diagnostic moments

“…The following analytic sections employ the contemporary interactional-sequence model of DP approach advocated by Wiggins (2017), and as executed in line with the work of Miller and Benkwitz (2016) and Patterson and Fyson (2016). Ideally, the core epistemology of the approach, a non-cognitive empirical stance on social interaction, is largely evident in the discussion of pertinent research advanced above, though a more formal ontological statement on the position can be found, however, in Potter (2010) 6 .…”

“…As with all mobilized social identity categories, the specific selection demonstrably attends to inferential concerns arising from account itself (Antaki and Widdicombe, 1998b;Antaki et al, 2007b;Miller and Benkwitz, 2016). In this case, a sister is somebody about whom the speaker has rights to possess reliable information, and to be concerned.…”

“…Given the above, the core aim of this article is to offer a Discursive Psychological (henceforth DP, see Edwards, 2012;Wiggins, 2013;Miller and Benkwitz, 2016;Patterson and Fyson, 2016) perspective on the phenomenon resistance to a depression diagnosis in frontline clinical work. In the service of this, and following a review of currently influential social-cognitive research on the issue (as typified in Tylee and Jones, 2005;Cook and Wang, 2011;Wang et al, 2015;Wimsatt et al, 2015), and allied clinical guidelines (for example, Petit and Sederer, 2006;National Institute for Clinical Excellence, 2016), the assumptions and recommendations therein are then explored with reference to pertinent literature on interaction in healthcare contexts, and particularly during diagnosis and diagnostic reception, emerging from research in DP and the closely-related discipline of Conversation Analysis (henceforth CA, see Maynard, 2006;Peräkylä, 2006;Miller, 2013;Sikveland et al, 2016).…”

“…By paying particular attention to the nuanced activities of clinicians and patients during these consultations, a description is provided of some of the particular, non-cognitive concerns than can inform and shape interaction during these "tricky" clinical moments. Not least among these are matters relating to how patients' social identities are coordinatively constituted by speakers as a part of the interactions themselves (Antaki and Widdicombe, 1998a;Miller and Benkwitz, 2016) and, most importantly, how ostensive challenges to the diagnosis itself can be functional devices for a patient to open up conversational space within the consultation where these matters might be addressed. All emergent matters are finally addressed in terms of a reflection on issues relevant for research and practice around the clinical handling of nominally difficult topics in general, and the diagnosis of depression in particular.…”

“…A wealth of work in the interactional sciences has, however, demonstrated how individuals in practical discursive circumstances, including clinicians and patients, tend to manage matters of social identity in ways that do not easily reduce to matters of cognition (Widdicombe and Wooffitt, 1995;Heritage and Robinson, 2006;Wiggins, 2009;Miller and Benkwitz, 2016). Take, for example, the baseline business of delivering a diagnosis.…”