NAVIGATING THE PLURAL SELF: EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES OF MULTIPLE IDENTITIES
Keywords:
Hybrid Self, Identity Negotiation, Multiple Identities, Pakistan, Plural Self, Qualitative Research, University StudentsAbstract
The idea of a singular self has been replaced by the plural self in the age of globalization and migration, a dynamic interaction between multiple identities and hybrid selves that are negotiated on a daily basis. This qualitative research focuses on how students of the university in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan, describe and interpret their multiple identities on their day-to-day lives. Based on anthropological theories of plural self and hybrid identity, the study utilized in-depth interviews with 24 students of four major universities, (Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Fatima Jinnah Women University Rawalpindi, COMSATS University Islamabad, and PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi) as well as four focus group discussions (one per university) and seven in-depth case studies. This paper only presents the data of in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis of the data shows that people occupy several identity positions simultaneously religious, ethnic, gendered, linguistic, digital, and socioeconomic positions and are able to negotiate their identity in reaction to different social circumstances. The participants have given an account of a fluid, dynamic sense of self which does not settle into one, coherent, identity but rather functions as a plural set up. Hybrid identities were born specially at the crossroads of traditional cultural norms and the new, globalized forces through the social media and tertiary education. The results also add to the wider anthropological and social psychological discussions of selfhood, identity plurality and hybridity and highlight the role of the socio-cultural context in the development of identity narratives in the Global South. It provides some recommendations to teachers, counselors and policy makers to acknowledge and affirm plural identities within academic and institutional contexts.
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