Engaging Social Space in the Identity Formation Trajectories Lived by Youth from Indigenous Peoples

Gabriela Garcés Pérez
Universidad de la Frontera, Chile

Abstract:

This theoretical reflection and analytical proposal addresses the relationship between ethnic-cultural identity formation and the socio-spatial dimension, supporting the contribution and potential of movement methodologies and socio-spatial immersion in biographical narrative research. The discussion aims to define an analytical matrix shaped by a dialogue between different disciplinary traditions: human geography, environmental psychology, socio-anthropological sciences, and Ricoeur’s notion of self. The relevance of the social space category is theoretically supported as a methodological basis in biographical narrative research to understand the dynamics of rural-urban and/or transnational mobility and migration experienced by individuals from Indigenous peoples in their biographical trajectories, all of which underpin the formation of their identities.

Keywords: mobilities, social space, cultural identity, biography, indigenous peoples.