Community, Identity, And Stability

Currently, people within our society are predominantly divided by the groups they identify with or with how they are identified by others. These identities are defined by our social location. Social location includes our gender, race, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, and religion (Hutchison, 2011). In this paper, I will take a close look at my social location and attempt to describe how it affects my way of living and my professional life.

No matter how much a person desires to live according to their personal autonomy, he or she will never escape the influence of societal forces. Explicitly or subtlety, these forces shape our individuality. One intriguing manner that these societal forces manifests itself in is our name. As Ruth Graham writes, “It’s becoming increasingly clear today that names carry a wealth of information about the world around us, the family we arrived in, the moment we were born—and that they mark us as part of cultural currents bigger than we realize.” Names alone provide evidence that individuals are made by interactions with social institutions and groups. Ultimately, the inescapable nature of society’s influence demands individuals to ponder how much personal autonomy is actually autonomous and to what extent does the pursuit of personal autonomy lead to a life of emptiness and vanity.

Currently, people within our society are mainly divided by the groups they identify with or with how they are identified by others. These identities are defined by our social location. Social location includes our gender, race, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, and religion (Hutchison, 2011). In this paper, I will take a close look at my social location and attempt to describe how it affects my way of living and my professional life.

My community has played a huge role in shaping my identity. My mother, being a doctor, always taught me to be caring and loving towards others. The children and teachers around me have all been hard working and determined. Throughout my school years, I have persevered, not giving up on hard math problems or getting discouraged by people who were smarter than me or more athletic. The multiple food drives and fundraisers has taught me to help those in need and be nice towards others.

Being perceived as different may make it difficult to belong. Not being able to belong is a confusing and unfortunate case, where one can find themselves lost and frustrated, as they do not have a safe zone. Through the use of text and film, it can be explored that this concept if difference hinders one from feeling a sense of belonging. Whether it be a persons inability to adapt or their lack of confidence.

Language is the potent tool by which a community constructs and defines its sociopolitical agenda; it is the lens through which a people’s history and culture is viewed; a devise that is used both as a controlling as well as a rewarding tool. Largely, it aligns the beliefs of its subjects even as it defines their worldview. While many studies have been done to understand obsequiousness,

The context of our identity and belonging can we viewed in various ways, which may cause our identities to change within multiple contexts. For example, context can range from how an individual acts around their families and work colleagues to how they act around their close friends and partners and also the setting an individual is in.

There are different ways to define ‘community.’ The most basic and literal definition is: a group of people. However, it can also branch out into different types, it can be specific and refer to a religious community or sometimes a sense of community. The Ma Tzu pilgrimage in Taiwan fulfills all of the above. Every year, four to five million Ma Tzu followers gather to participate in the old ritual. Perhaps the reason why the practice is so extensive--not only in terms of the amount of followers but also in its depiction of community--is because the belief system is very flexible. This flexibility allows the belief to conform in a way that best fits individual people but it is also able to stretch its influence to a large number of people and as a result, ties everyone together into a closely knit community.

Culture identity is who you are as a person and as a whole, especially in your own culture. Therefore, It defines your personality, actions ,and who you are going to be in the future. Culture identity represents your traditional values and how you were raised growing up and what kind of background you came from. It is the influence of your family, friends, peers and how they impact yourself and cultural identity. Your culture identity is optional and it's your own choice, if you want to be a part of a culture or race. Your parents shouldn't be the ones forming or planning your life and culture identity. Oftentimes our culture identity is a given because people assume who you are by the way you look. Culture identity is very complex yet very simple because it's representing who you are as a person.

What makes a community? To get a better handle on this question, it may be useful to analyze a specific encounter between the individual and his community(s). Let's take, for example, the much-publicized soccer match between Mexico and the U.S. in the summer of 1996. This game received a great deal of media attention because, even though the match was held in Los Angeles, on U.S. soil, the vast majority of fans were cheering for the Mexican team. The U.S. team members, on the other hand, were greeted with a chorus of boos and were pelted with various objects on the field. This trend in urban areas of largely Hispanic support for the teams of other countries was hardly new for U.S. soccer; the players and coaches

For several years lay observations have caused a postulate of theory which is; within the time it takes for a high school senior to advance to a distinction of sophomore at University level, a phenomenon of sudden change by these young adults to a contradictory belief system has occurred. Having close association to young adults; both relational and by acquaintance, certain aspects of personality, specifically; the need for social belonging, raised the thought that it was this rather than true contemplation of ideas and beliefs, that had influence over the rapid contrast in ideological belief. In search of validation, a review of the literature on this topic was needed.

the Howard Coalition government introduced ‘community detention’ or ‘Residence Determination’ as an avenue to allow vulnerable individuals – particularly children – to live outside of immigration detention facilities without requiring an escort. 4 Community detention does not provide lawful status in Australia; instead, the person remains administratively in immigration detention while living with a degree of freedom of movement in the community (DIAC 2012b).

Social identity theory, it is a person’s sense that is based around the group they are in, either by their personal identity or with different kinds of social identities. That is, people will try to improve their own image of themselves. The theory was proposed by Henri Tajfel. People can increase their self-esteem by both their own achievement and interaction with a successful group of people. This shows the importance of social belonging. This theory is based around three mental processes, social categorization, social identification and social comparison.

Cultural identity is the basis in which identification is used to express different aspects pertaining to identity and heritage. A person's cultural identity may be created by social organization, as well as traditions and customs within their lives. The two aspects that construct my cultural identity are the frequent chores I must complete every day in order to fulfill my behavioral expectations, and the youth group I attend weekly. These aspects are important to my family and me. Therefore, my identity has an immeasurable effect on my upbringing into this multi-cultural world I live in.

I wouldn’t really say my community as a whole has an impact on me as a person but people in around me have had a huge impact on me for who I am today. The people who have the biggest impact on me is defiantly my family and friends, I have done so many things with them that made me the person who I am today.