Citizenship as a sense of belonging and identity of place for young adults in rural and urban communities

1. Citizenship as a sense of belonging and identity of place for young adults in rural and urban communities Laurel Bornholt, Jill Gientzotis, Anna Piccolo & Marjorie O’Loughlin University of Sydney

2. Acknowledgements • participants and college staff for their co-operation in the project • Melanie Williams, Nicki Brake, Dale Kreibig, Bree Hulme, Madeline Parnell, Sian Thomas for assistance with fieldwork • Erich Kirchler and colleagues for constructive comments on earlier findings presented at the Institute of Psychology University of Vienna, and comments by colleagues at the SELF Conference in Berlin • The project was funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant. o the children, their parents and school staff for their continued co-operation in our programme of research

3. Overview of the Identity & Belonging Project • Aim to disentangle aspects of identity - individuality, belonging and place - in generally contested notions of citizenship • Multi-disciplinary approach considers… • thoughts, feelings and behavioural intentions • methods that rely on both implicit and explicit indicators • common/distinct aspects in diverse contexts • Earlier reports • reliable/valid indicators of identity of place (urban location) • identity of place indicates what young people think • identity of place INcongruent with positive/negative feelings • meanings and profiles similar adolescents & young adults • applications to practice…stay on to complete TAFE course

4. Outline programme of research • This paper considers … • - explicit self concepts in processes of self-stereotyping - profiles of identity for young adults in rural/urban locations • ongoing research considers … • - common/distinct aspects from implicit and explicit methods - stability/openness to experience for aspects over time • situations in which aspects of identity are open to change • Related projects consider … • - open- and closed-format for EU-identity in dynamic contexts • aspects of identity in developing a local community • role of identity in changing attitudes to water re-use

5. a conceptual framework for development sample topics THIS PROJECT CONSIDERS  within person - balancing individuality, belonging, identity of place - linking thoughts, actions and feelings over time OTHER LEVELS OF ABSTRACTION  person-to-person - children’s self disclosure and parent expectations - children respond to teacher’s effort-ability ideas  persons in groups - self-stereotyping within/between gender groups - self-categorization by age about drawing  groups in context - diverse pathways from school though university

6. What are aspects of identity ? • a sense of individuality, belonging and identity of place are particular aspects of identity – as if ‘personality in context’ • such self concepts are consider as cognitive evaluations about oneself as integrated-diffuse aspects in relation to • - content and personal trait over time (individuality) • - within and between salient groups (belonging) • - local-regional-national geographic location (place) • a self-categorization approach to identity of the person • extends substantial research on social self categorization strategies participation participation self concepts self concepts performance performance feelings feelings

7. Background to the project • Bornholt (2004, June) Personal and social bases of self concepts for children, adolescents and young adults. Paper presented at the Institute of Psychology in Vienna. • Findings support the proposed role of identity in motivation with common links as well as distinct features in particular contexts trategies strategies self concepts participation participation participation identity of place reading self concepts self concepts belonging friends performance performance individuality movement feelings feelings

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9. Main features