Managing multicultural lives : Asian American professionals and the challenge of multiple identities / Pawan Dhingra.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dhingra, Pawan

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cultural fusion--United States.

Cultural fusion.

Korean Americans--Ethnic identity.

Korean Americans.

East Indian Americans--Ethnic identity.

East Indian Americans.

United States.

Group identity--United States.

Group identity.

Physical Description:

x, 316 pages : map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

How do people handle contrasting self-conceptions? Do they necessarily compartmentalize personal lives from professional lives? Do minority and immigrant groups, in particular, act "ethnic" at home, "American" at work, "racial" in pan-ethnic spaces? Managing Multicultural Lives moves past this common assumption and demonstrates how minorities actually bring together contrasting identities.

Using the words and experiences of Indian American and Korean American professionals themselves, Pawan Dhingra eloquently shows how people break down the popular "margins vs. mainstream" conception of group identity and construct a "lived hybridity." He offers new insight into minorities' experiences at work, home, and leisure and in civil society. These Asian Americans' ability to handle group boundaries fluidly leads them to both resist and support stratified social patterns. It also indicates new, more nuanced understandings of immigrant adaptation, multiculturalism, and identity management that pertain to multiple types of immigrant groups.

Contents:

Introduction: opening up the margins in the mainstream

Uncovering Asian Americas: examining Korean Americans and Indian Americans in Texas

Growing up takes (identity) work: developing ethnic identities

Model Americans and minorities: racial identities and responses to racism

Multiculturalism on the job: the work domain

Aspiring to authenticity: the home domain

Becoming cultural citizens: the leisure and civil society domains

Conclusion: reconciling identities, recognizing constraints

Appendix: Questions

Notes

Bibliography.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-307) and index.

ISBN:

0804755779

9780804755771

0804755787

9780804755788

OCLC:

70823058