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Working With Tensions: Materiality, Discourse, and (Dis)empowerment in Occupational Identity Negotiation Among Higher Education Fund-Raisers
Rebecca J. Meisenbach*
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: meisenbachr{at}missouri.edu.
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Abstract |
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The increasing time requirements and perceived value of occupations raises concerns about creating and managing positive occupational identities. The author explains how individuals pursue moments of micro emancipation and empowerment as they negotiate the positive and negative discourses and material realities of occupational identity within the fund-raising occupation. Interviews with higher education fund-raisers reveal six power-laden and discourse-influenced ways of understanding (framing) fund-raising. The findings suggest that the potential for an empowered occupational identity resides in an individuals ability to shift among framings, managing and maintaining material and discursive tensions surrounding the framings rather than eliminating or avoiding these tensions. Implications of these identity negotiations for various occupations and particularly the nonprofit sector are discussed.
First published on August 12, 2008, doi:10.1177/0893318908323150
Management Communication Quarterly 2008;22:258.
A more recent version of this article appeared on November 1, 2008

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