Date of Graduation

5-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Sociology (MA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Sociology and Criminal Justice

Advisor/Mentor

Holyfield, Lori C.

Committee Member

Zajicek, Anna M.

Second Committee Member

Worden, Steven K.

Keywords

Social sciences; Immigration; Labor; Narrative; Narrative Identity

Abstract

This research includes in-depth interviews and participant observation to examine the construction of narrative identity by the staff members and worker-members of a workers' rights organization in Northwest Arkansas. I seek to understand how the organization negotiates the broader cultural and institutional narrative identities with the personal narrative identities of the worker-members in a cultural context hostile toward undocumented immigrants. Further, I examine how the worker-members themselves both internalize and challenge the organizational, institutional, and cultural narratives about undocumented immigrant workers. Findings reveal that the staff members and the worker-members create different narratives for different purposes, though both are concerned with the uplift of the undocumented immigrant worker. Suggestions for future research are provided.

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