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Belonging: identity, emotion work, and agency of intercountry Korean adoptees

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dc.contributor.authorKaanta, Tanya Lee, author
dc.contributor.authorKim, Joon Kium, advisor
dc.contributor.authorPeek, Lori A., committee member
dc.contributor.authorAhuna-Hamill, Linda, committee member
dc.contributor.authorLacy, Michael G., committee member
dc.coverage.spatialKorea
dc.coverage.spatialUnited States
dc.date.accessioned2007-01-03T06:12:14Z
dc.date.available2007-01-03T06:12:14Z
dc.date.issued2009
dc.descriptionDepartment Head: Jack Brouillette.
dc.description.abstractThis phenomenological study examines the experiences of adult Intercountry Korean Adoptees who lived in Seoul, Korea and Colorado at the time of the study. The research draws upon data gathered through participant observation and 31 in-depth semistructured interviews. Through an inductive theoretical approach, this study attempts to fill the gaps in the existing literature by providing a conceptual framework to better understand the complexity and the dynamics of intercountry identity formation. Unlike the identity development literature on racial minorities, intercountry adoptees cannot rely on the most basic membership criteria by which non-adoptees may define identity such as family, community, ethnicity, or culture. For intercountry adoptees, none of these taken-for-granted membership criteria is stable enough to claim ownership. In their struggle to anchor the shifting identity markers, intercountry adoptees assume different roles and play the part that is consistent with it. However, their unique status as adoptees fundamentally conflicts with societal norms about belonging, complicated by the socially ascribed master statuses, such as race, class, gender and other constructions of difference, which accentuate their "unbelongingness." Building on the sociology of emotions, this study posits that the intercountry adoptees' struggle for acceptance and a sense of belonging elicits much emotion work. I situate the varied emotional management efforts in the context of culture and structures that mediate rationally-conceived emotional responses tailored appropriately to certain interaction contexts. In the process of managing conflicting emotions between socially-ascribed feeling rules and true emotions, intercountry adoptees undergo transformative experiences that frame their sense of identity. This dissertation analyzes the ways that intercountry adoptees navigate through their identity formation and how this in turn shapes their actions and agency. The goal is to improve social theory regarding the identity formation of intercountry adoptees using adult rather than children’s voices. It also suggests identity is dynamic rather than linear or progressive. Further, the research introduces some contextual issues influencing identity formation.
dc.format.mediumdoctoral dissertations
dc.identifier2009_summer_Kaanta_SOLO.pdf
dc.identifierETDF2009100001SOLO
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10217/34981
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherColorado State University. Libraries
dc.relationCatalog record number (MMS ID): 991012179789703361
dc.relationHV875.58.K6.K235 2009
dc.relation.ispartof2000-2019
dc.rightsCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.
dc.titleBelonging: identity, emotion work, and agency of intercountry Korean adoptees
dc.typeText
dcterms.rights.dplaThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights (https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/). You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
thesis.degree.disciplineSociology
thesis.degree.grantorColorado State University
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

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