Constructing identity through interaction with others

Another important category in this area involved the participants' construction of their identity through their interaction with other people. This was also related to the above category because it was often when the participants made transitions from one context to another that they had to interact with people in ways that impacted on their understanding of themselves. This kind of experience was articulated by Claire who described her encounter with new people at college:

most people are actually not from [the city] schools, they're from schools that I've never heard of and wouldn't know where they were...there's loads of people from like [another area] and like other schools I've never heard of. (Claire, South West, interview 3)

For Claire, this was an opportunity to reassess her own identity:

it's quite interesting because you realise how little you do actually know about where you live and that like half an hour away there's like these different schools that you've never heard of and whereas you do just get used to being like, 'yes I'm a [county] girl through and through', whereas actually you don't know anything about where you live. It's interesting. (Claire, South West, interview 3)

Through encountering people from different locations, Claire's understanding of her identity as something that was tied to a particular place had been challenged and modified. For Craig, moving from one part of the country to another provided a similar experience:

It was completely daunting because I moved outside my safety area into somewhere where I'd never been before and I did get bullied quite a lot because of my accent, everyone found it absolutely hilarious and they kept asking me do I wear kilts and stuff like that and in the end it got really really annoying and now I've just like put it out of my head, because I've lost my Scottish accent, really, it’s still there but not as much as it used to be. (Craig, South West, interview 1)

Although Craig's experience was more negative than Claire's, encountering new people following the move from one context to another had been an occasion for him to consider and even change his own sense of identity. A similar process occurred for Leanne, who encountered different people when she started a job in an affluent area. As for Claire and Craig, this encounter prompted Leanne to consider her own understanding of who she was:

I wouldn’t say I was like kind of common but I’m like Geordie but I’m not broad Geordie as you can tell because I’m from kind of like a…I wouldn’t say posh…but you know like kind of (?) background and they were like really, really like smart and I was a bit like, oh God, I’m not going to fit in here. (Leanne, North East, interview 1)

For Leanne, the process of considering her own identity in relation to others involved an encounter with social rather geographical differences. Leanne's concerns about not fitting in reflect a view of the social world as stratified in terms of how 'posh' and 'common' people are and the experience of starting a new job forced her to consider where she fitted into this framework. In each of the above cases, the participants' reconsideration of their identity occurred as a result of finding themselves in contexts that brought them into contact with different people. At other times, the participants' construction of identity involved a more deliberate process, in which the participants defined their own sense of who they were in contrast to others. This sometimes occurred in relation to culturally and stylistically identified groups at school:

at school it's like different groups its like the chavas, the normal quiet people like me – not boasting or nowt – and then there's like the goths

and the skaters and that, there everyone was like in their different zone. (Leanne, North East, interview 1)

I've always felt different to people – the way I dress – hardly anyone dresses like that where I come from and it's the same here. In school, people were a bit weird with me, they didn't like who I was and who my family was. (Daniel, North East, interview 2)

For Leanne and Daniel, the sense of being 'normal' or 'different' respectively, was derived from an active process of contrasting themselves with others based on cultural and stylistic differences. At other times, the participants defined themselves in opposition to others based on attitudes and behaviour. The following extract from an interview with Emma offers an example:

Like this morning, I stayed at my friend's house because her parents were away on holiday so like, we're all like living at her house so to speak and like a lot of my friends were there like in the morning like, 'I'm not going to college for first lesson' and I was like, 'well I am' ...and then they were there like, 'oh, well I suppose' they were like, 'well if you're going' and they ended up coming as well but if I hadn't said, 'oh, I'm going' I think they would have sort of stayed at home because they're...some of them aren't as sort of motivated. (Emma, South West, interview 3)

In the above extract, Emma constructs a view of herself as a motivated person by contrasting her own attitude with those of her friends. Leanne's comments about the pressure to fit in at school illustrate a similar process:

I keep on looking back at what I could have been in that group and thinking I could have either been in that group and still got my life or I could have gone down the wrong path and I could have been where the rest of them are, so when I put it all together I'm actually glad that I wasn't popular. (Leanne, North East, interview 3)

Like Emma, Leanne here defines herself in opposition to other people by expressing satisfaction that she is not, 'where the rest of them are'. Another way in which the participants constructed their own identity through interaction with

others involved consolidating or re evaluating their sense of identity through discussion with others. For Jacob and Daniel, having discussions in which they disagreed with others and were forced to support their opinions was a way of consolidating their own position within a debate:

They're quite good sometimes because they sort of make you think about what you erm...they make you think about what you think about other things, your opinions of them, so you're not just saying, 'oh but I think this' and then you can't back that up, but with the arguments you learn how to back things up and how to sort of hold your own against other people's arguments. (Jacob, South West, interview 2)

Because people like start having debates about it and then you try to put your point across even more and then people think, 'well, he's got a good point. I still don't think that way but that's the way he thinks and I've got respect for him for thinking that way and I've got respect for him because I'm not going to be able to change his mind on it'. (Daniel, North East, interview 2)

Jacob' reference to the way in which debates can 'make you think about what you think' and allow you to 'hold your own', illustrates how discussion was a way of understanding and positioning himself in relation to others. Daniel made a connection between this process and his sense of identity:

I'm not too bothered about people challenging with my views and stuff because a debate's always good because it helps like your inner self and it makes you realise how other people think and I think it helps you respect them and helps them respect you a lot more with your views and stuff. (Daniel, North East, interview 2)

For Daniel, entering into debate with others allowed him to construct a view of himself in relation to others, which he expressed in terms of his 'inner self'. Across both groups then, the participants used their interaction with other people as a way of considering, modifying and consolidating their own sense of identity. This happened in various ways – through reappraising their own sense of identity when confronted with different kinds of people, through deliberately

comparing themselves with others to assert their own identity, and through using their discussions with others to further understand and consolidate their own sense of who they were.