Olagookun, Olalekan (2018) Negotiating Identity and Belonging for Young African Australians. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

This study investigates subjectivity, identity negotiation and the construction of social belonging for a small group of African Australians young adults. Homi Bhabha’s (1994, 2012) theoretical conceptions of hybridity and interstitial space and Barad’s (2007, 2014) concepts of diffraction and entanglement have been employed in this thesis to examine how five young people articulate their sense of belonging in Australia. The study comprises eight chapters and it is divided into three sections. The first section is composed of an introduction, a description of the positioning of the study and the review of the literature. The second section is the central part of the study, which emphasises the study setting and incorporates the methodological justification of social constructivism and interpretivism. The third and final section focuses on the theoretical framework, analytic thinking and the conclusion of the study. Finally, the investigation of subjectivity and identity negotiation suggest an on-going individual and collective reconstruction through which connection is established and social belonging is negotiated in Australia.

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