Semantic Reconstruction of the Structure of the Postmodern Individual Identity (Case Study: The Youth of Bojnourd)

Affected by the spread of modernism and reconstruction in the global field, and subsequently with the self-awareness resulting from the conditions and features of life in the modern world, a major part of our society is traditional, while part of it is modern and another part postmodern. Such a situation is a cause for identity crisis, hence, the rising importance of identity and identity formation in sociology. Therefore, with the aim of the semantic reconstruction of the structure of the postmodern individual identity among the youth of the city of Bojnourd, the present study has employed a grounded theory method. The qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews, and theoretical coding was used in order to analyze the information and develop a final theory. Through purposive sampling and also based on the theoretical saturation measure, 27 young people participated in this study, and the information was gathered through in-depth interviews and their understanding with regards to the postmodern individual identity was analyzed. Based on grounded theory, the findings are classified into ten general categories of consumerism, relativism, fluidity, reflective thinking, reference group, belief in the expressive self, selective identity, mass media, satisfaction, and lifestyle. The core category in this study is “the postmodern individual identity” which includes in itself the other main categories. The developed grounded theory has been presented in the form of a paradigm.