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In this chapter, we argue that through relational research experiences with colleagues and participants, researchers are in a shared process of curriculum making and identity-making. Through reflections on a key shared experience, we demonstrate that in the liminal space of our work together, we have begun to shape our community identity-making to tell a story of ourselves as researchers within that community. In our work together, we have come to understand the ways that research contexts shape the ways we engage in research and the identities we compose as researchers. We suggest that as researchers, we meet in borderlands to engage in relational inquiry with participants and our colleagues. Similarly to Anzaldua, we understand the borderlands as liminal spaces between our respective worlds of research where we come together to compose new stories about ourselves as researchers and the research in which we engage. We attend to the places of tension as they emerge as opportunities to understand more deeply ourselves as researchers and as co-participants in a relational research experience. In doing so, we attend also to our shared responsibilities to each other in an ongoing research relationship. In the borderlands, we meet to tell a new story about who we are and who we are becoming in all our complexity. In this examination of the research community, we have grown into together, we define parameters and processes that resonate with our individual identities as researchers as well as our communal identities within a supportive research community.

This paper aims to examine the process by which the social entrepreneurial identity can be constructed through narrative, concentrating specifically on the construction of the identity of the ideologically inclined social‐activist entrepreneur.

A case study approach is employed of a social‐activist entrepreneur who established a refugee help centre in a major Australian city. The data are presented through the genre of allowing the narrator to enjoy the primary voice in the form of an extended narrative.

The findings show how the social entrepreneur constructs his identity through crafted divisions based on oppositional and appositional principles of setting apart (a claim of separation) and bringing together (a claim of similarity). It is emphasised how the impact of the particular audience and the possibility of narrative omissions can both influence the narrative product as it is constructed by the social entrepreneur.

The analysis has implications for our manner of understanding how ideologically inclined social entrepreneurs can experience the tension of lacing together potentially contrasting discourses while maintaining the overall integrative nature of their narrative.

The findings possess value and originality by making two major contributions to the extant literature. First, we challenge the central tendency in the literature to concentrate on dominant discourses by analysing the manner in which ideological social entrepreneurs construct their identity through their joint crafting of the discourses of “Me” and “Not‐Me”, and the non‐discourse of “Suppressed‐Me”. Second, we add to the literature on how informants deal with the tension of managing conflicting discourses by analysing the concept of “discourse suppression” as the narrative tendency of social activist entrepreneurs.

This paper analyses what is seen as a crisis of authority in financial reporting. It considers the view that an element of authority may be restored to accounting through communicative reason. The paper argues that the justice‐oriented rationality of traditional, Habermasian, communicative ethics is incapable of providing a solid foundation for the re‐authorisation of financial reporting. The paper argues that a more adequate foundation might be found in an enlarged communicative ethics that allows space to the other of justice‐oriented reason. The inspiration for the enlargement is found in Ricoeur's analysis of narrative, his exploration of its role in the figuration of identity, and in his biblical hermeneutics which reveals the necessity of an active dialectic of love and justice.

The rates of offending and re-offending for young males are higher than any other population. Whilst the UK Ministry of Justice (2020) states that rehabilitation programmes should aim to build a positive identity, little is known about the subjective experiences of how this occurs. Various theories and models suggest that the development of a positive identity assists rehabilitation for young men with convictions (i.e. Johns et al., 2017). Therefore, the current study aimed to gather personal narratives from male, young offenders with the intention of understanding identity development.

Twelve interviews were conducted with young men with convictions aged between 18 and 25 years who had almost completed a rehabilitation process within the community. Narrative analysis was used to analyse the data. All were engaging with the rehabilitation service as a result of conviction for low to medium level offences, including burglary, harm of another person and drug related offences.

Three plots were identified which explain identity when committing offences: “The Powerless”, “The Feared” and “The Disconnected”. One plot was evident within the narratives which explained positive identity when rehabilitated: “The Connected”. The findings illustrate the importance of an approach which considers various aspects of a young offender’s life.

The current study further adds to knowledge base of young offender rehabilitation by providing a systemic understanding of how men with convictions’ identity develop pre- and post-rehabilitation. New implications for trauma informed practice are discussed.

This study offers a critical inquiry into accountability vis-à-vis organizational identity formation. It investigates how accountability evolves in the transformation of an NGO operating in the field of migration management from an informal grassroots group into a fully-fledged organization.

The paper is the outcome of a participatory action research project on Welcome Refugees (WR), a UK-based NGO. The project involved documentary analysis, focus group and semi-structured interviews, field notes, and participant observation. The analysis draws from poststructuralist theorization to explain the interplay between organizational identity and different forms of NGO accountability over time.

The study shows how different forms of accountability became salient over time and were experienced differently by organizational members, thus leading to competing collective identity narratives. Organizational members felt accountable to beneficiaries in different ways, and this was reflected in their identification with the organization. Some advocated a rights-based approach that partially resonated with the accountability demands of external donors, while others aimed at enacting their feelings of accountability by preserving their closeness with beneficiaries and using a need-based approach. These differences led to an identity struggle that was ultimately solved through the silencing of marginalized narratives and the adoption of an adaptive regime of accountability.

The findings of the case are of practical relevance to quasi-organizations that struggle to form and maintain organizational identity in their first years of operation. Their survival depends not only on their ability to accommodate and/or resist a multiplicity of accountability demands but also on their ability to develop a shared and common understanding of identity accountability.

The paper problematizes rather than takes for granted the process through which organizations acquire a viable identity and the role of accountability within them.

The authors seek to understand the formation of control- and security-related identities among organizational employees through and interpretive narrative analysis. The authors also seek to identify how the identities form over time and across contexts. Several identities are identified as well as the changes that may occur in the identities.

Few interpretive or critical studies exist in behavioral information security research to represent employee perspectives of power and control. Using qualitative interviews and narrative analysis of the interview transcripts, this paper analyzes the security- and control-related identities and values that employees adopt in organizational settings.

Two major categories of behavioral security compliance identities were identified: compliant and noncompliant. Specific identities within the compliant category included: faithful follower vs the reasoned follower, and other-preserving versus the self-preserving identities. The noncompliant category included: anti-authority identity, utilitarian identity, trusting identity and unaware identity. Furthermore, three patterns of identity changes were observed.

The authors’ narrative stories suggest that employee identities are complex and multi-faceted, and that they may be fluid and adaptive to situational factors. Future research should avoid assumptions that all employees are the same or that employee beliefs remain constant over time or in different contexts. Identities are also strongly rooted in individuals' rearing and other life experiences. Thus, security control is far broader than is studied in behavioral studies. The authors find that history matters and should be examined carefully.

The authors’ study provides insights that managers can use to enhance security initiatives. It is clear that different employees build different control-related identities. Managers must understand that their employees are unique and will not all respond to policies, punishments, and other forms of control in the same way. The narratives also suggest that many organizations lack appropriate programs to enhance employees' awareness of security issues.

The authors’ narrative analysis suggests that employee security identities are complex and multi-faceted, and that they are fluid and adaptive to situational factors. Research should avoid assumptions that all employees are the same or that their beliefs remain constant over time or in different contexts. Identities are also strongly rooted in individuals' rearing and other life experiences. Their history matters and should be examined carefully.

To explore the digital landscape, narrowing to Instagram, as a cultural space to advance sociological understanding of elite athlete mother identity meanings and lives.

Relativist narrative inquiry is outlined as a theoretical and methodological approach to expand sociological research on motherhood and sport, by exploring big and small stories on social media sites. Elite athlete mother's mediated self-portrayals on Instagram are theorized as identity stories (re)created and made possible, by cultural narrative resources.

An example of big and small story research is outlined from a larger case study of elite athlete figure skating mothers' self-portrayals on Instagram as they negotiated motherhood, and a professional sport career. Thematic narrative analysis findings include a big story plot in the post-partum period: negotiating intensive mothering and career. Two small stories that fed into fluid meanings of this big story plot are also presented: holding the baby close and working mum/new mumtrepeneur. These findings show nuanced contradictions of contemporary motherhood meanings, within sportswomen's personal and public digital stories.

A big and small story approach grounded in narrative inquiry holds value to learn more about the contemporary digital landscape's shaping of the meanings of sportswomen's identities and lives. Future research is recommended using this approach on additional social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) to expand intertextual understanding of elite athlete mother identities in socio-cultural context, tapping into these underexplored naturalistic data resources.

Seeking an answer to the question “how does organizational identity change?” we analyze the visual identity marker of universities, namely logos, as time-related artifacts embodying visual scripts. Engaging with the Stinchcombe hypothesis, we identify five processes to the creation of visual identities of organizations: In addition to (1) imprinting (enactment of the contemporary script) and (2) imprinting-cum-inertia (persistent enactment of epochal scripts), we also identify (3) renewal (enactment of an up-to-date epochal script), (4) historization (enactment of a recovered older epochal script), and (5) multiplicity (simultaneous enactment of multiple epochal scripts). We argue that these processes work together to produce contemporary heterogeneity of visualized identity narratives of universities. We illustrate this, first, with a survey of the current-day logos of 814 university emblems in 20 countries from across the world. Second, drawing on archival and interview materials, we analyze the histories of exemplar university logos to illustrate the various time-related processes. Therefore, by interjecting history – as both time and process – into the analysis of the visualization of organizational identity, we both join with the phenomenological and semiotic analysis of visual material as well as demonstrate that history is not merely a fixed factor echoing imprinting and inertia but rather also includes several forms of engagement with temporality that are less deterministic. Overall, we argue that enactment engages with perceptions of time (imaginations of the past, present, and future) and with perceptions fixed by time (epochal imprinting and inertia) to produce heterogeneity in the visualization of organizational identity.

Purpose – The purpose of this research was to make visible the process of analyzing our narratives of teacher identity.

Design/methodology/approach – These narratives of teacher identity were generated by isolating critical incidents and then drafting them as emblematic narratives. They were then shared with each other and compared against the tool of chronotopic motif developed by Bakhtin.

Findings – We found that our narratives, when filtered through the tool of chronotopic motif, reveal ambivalence about whether we desire to be known or unknown as teacher educators and as people. As we unpack our findings, we move through the tool of chronotopic motif, piece by piece, illuminating our stories by themselves, in relationship with each other, and against the professional literature on teacher educator identity and identity in general.

Practical implications – As teacher educators, we think it is important for others, particularly students, to be known. However, we are ambivalent about whether we want to be known and if so, by whom, and in what pockets of space and temporality.

Social implications – This research has implications for discussions of professional identity, role confusion in teacher education, and professional women in general. It adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that identity is a holistic process that factors heavily into what happens in the context of teacher education courses at a university.

Originality/value – Our chapter demonstrates to colleagues how to conduct a narrative analysis using a tool from literary theory.

Our aim is to highlight the value in using photographs and visuals for narrative criminology. We do this by showing how people draw from and create visual symbols to communicate personal narratives and by showing how we as researchers can use these images in interviews to elicit richer responses. Specifically, we illustrate the value of images for narrative criminology by telling the story of Chico, a 50-year-old, Hispanic man who has used meth for nearly three decades. In response to his marginalisation, Chico presents himself in two primary ways: as a rebellious, antiauthority menace to outsiders and as a caring, generous friend to insiders. He displays these identities through visual symbols (on his home, property and body) and through his stories and actions. Additionally, we use photographs taken of him and his home during interviews to elicit his personal narratives (i.e. photo-elicitation interviews). We argue that scholars have much to gain by examining the use of images to stimulate interviews and open necessary interdiscursivity of qualitative criminology.