Coherent With What? An Explorative Analysis of the Relation Between Sens of Coherence, Integration and Identity in a Health Context

• Main Author: Sven Hassler
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Macedonian; Russian
• Published: MI-AN Publishing 2014
• Subjects: coherence; indigenous; acculturation; sense of coherence; SOC; health; cultural memory; Social Sciences; H; sami
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/66fa984ecf334e0fa3f2da6f4164aa8b

In order to increase the understanding on what determines health among immigrants, ethnic minorities and indigenous people concepts as acculturation, identity and sense of coherence (SOC) have become central for the analysis. The process of acculturation and the associated concepts of integration, assimilation, marginalization and separation have often been referred to when describing the health of immigrants and indigenous, of which integration has been considered to provide the better conditions for good health. The aim of this study is to explore the mutual relations between the concepts of acculturation, SOC and identity by an abductive reasoning based on an investigation on a group of Sami regarding their cultural and ethnic self-identification. By this explorative approach the study also seek to touch upon some of the relevant neighboring concepts such as cultural memory and position them among the more established social determinants of health. The study demonstrates that coherence as a psychosocial characteristic is appearing in different concepts and models in the area of acculturation and cognitive development as well as in cultural memory. It has an intra-individual dimension expressed in the theories of cognitive development and cultural memory and inter-individual, social dimension noticeable in SOC and the process of acculturation. The mutual correspondence of these structures of thought, values and perspectives have yet to be clarified and understood, especially in relation to health.