"The Complexity of Marginalized Identities: The Social Construction of Identities, Multiple Identities, and the Experiuence of Exclusion"--Reflection

Winny Shen and Soner Dumani agree with Ruggs et al and build on their article to address three issues that should be considered when conducting research on marginalized people: the social construction of identities, the intersection of multiple identities, and the experience of exclusion.

By the social construction of identities, the authors mean that identity is malleable, socially constructed, and changes over time.  For example, someone might have a diagnosis of autism but choose not to identify as disabled.  Or, definitions of disability may change over time, like how homosexuality used to be in the DSM but is not any more.  Researchers need to take this into consideration when studying identities: these identities aren't stable, and people choose them for themselves (85).

By intersections of multiple identities, the authors mean that people experience their lives with many identity categories, and these can create really varying experiences.  The authors point out that people who exist in multiple categories can experience these intersections differently, and we need to be sensitive to this (86).  Does one category dominate?  Does the individual compartmentalize these different identities?  Do the identity categories merge?  We need to ask this.

Finally, by the experiences of exclusion, the authors mean that certain marginalized groups are more likely to be excluded, and this exclusion can look like social undermining, bullying, keeping others out of the loop, harassment, ostracism, formal discrimination, and interpersonal mistreatment (86). The authors argue that researchers need to examine how exclusion is constructed and what this does to relationships over time.

Most of this is familiar to me, from my time in feminist theory courses.  And, it's a nice reminder. It's also encouraging for me to see people discussing this in I-O.  There seems to be a very subtle-feminist lens in these articles.  I like it :)

Shen, Winny, and Soner Dumani.  "The Complexity of Marginalized Identities: The Social Construction of Identities, Multiple Identities, and the Experiuence of Exclusion."  Industrial and Organizational Psychology 6 (2013): 84-87.