Jonas Hassemer | University of Vienna (original) (raw)

Papers by Jonas Hassemer

Research paper thumbnail of The value(s) of volunteering: asylum seekers’ trajectories through language work in refugee assistance

International Journal of Multilingualism

In this paper, I analyse the narrative positioning in two semistructured interviews with voluntee... more In this paper, I analyse the narrative positioning in two semistructured interviews with volunteer interpreters in a counselling centre for refugees run by an NGO in Vienna, complemented by ethnographic descriptions of volunteer work in the counselling centre drawn from long-term participant observation. As a substantial part of the volunteers working at the counselling centre consists of (current and former) clients of the NGO, asylum seekers themselves, 'work' and 'citizenship' are deeply entangled in their positioning. The analyses of how past and future trajectories are co-constructed in the interviews, and of how the participants position themselves in and through the interview narratives, show that linguistic volunteer work becomes a site of investment and speculation on citizenship (conceived both as a moral and a legal 'object'). As the paper demonstrates, volunteer work promises to yield symbolic and social capitalincluding languagerequired for success in the 'markets' of citizenship (e.g. in the asylum procedure) and, contingently, later on, in the national labour market.

Research paper thumbnail of (Meta-)communicative work in a counselling centre for refugees: reiteration, erasure and agency

International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2021

We have no apartments is a phrase repeated over and over again at the counselling centre f... more We have no apartments is a phrase repeated over and over again at the counselling centre for refugees on housing matters based in Vienna, Austria, where I conducted ethnographic fieldwork. Based on an analysis of processes of entextualisation, de- and recontextualisation in the reiterative, discursive chain, this paper traces the emergence of an institutional regime of communication and the ways institutional actors – counsellors and volunteers – produce, navigate and reproduce this regime by engaging in (meta-)communicative work. The analysis shows how individual agency is both contingent and co-productive of institutional order and social order more generally. With this contribution, I propose Judith Butler's concept of the postsovereign subject as a way to understand the relations between "local" practices and wider processes of trans-situational meaning-making.

Research paper thumbnail of Language as a resource with fluctuating values: Arabic speakers in humanitarian and social work

International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2020

This paper investigates the fluctuating value of Arabic when constructed as a linguistic resource... more This paper investigates the fluctuating value of Arabic when constructed as a linguistic resource for multilingual, "languaged" workers in a counselling centre for refugees in Austria and in an international humanitarian agency operating in ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. Drawing on a variety of ethnographic data (observations, interviews and documents), our analyses of the institutionalised division of labour and of workers' narrative positioning show how workers in both organisations discursively construct this linguistic resource as being of ambivalent value in their positioning vis-à-vis their colleagues, for their careers and in work interactions. Stratifying and empowerment effects are interwoven in the varying and coexisting values of Arabic.

Research paper thumbnail of Hassemer, J. & Flubacher, M. (2020). Prekäre Ethnographie. Zur Rolle von Prekaritätserfahrungen im ethnographischen Erkenntnisprozess. Wiener Linguistische Gazette 85, 157–182.

Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 2020

Along with recent scholarship, we hold that ethnography is a reflexive endeavour and a liminal ac... more Along with recent scholarship, we hold that ethnography is a reflexive endeavour and a liminal activity. It has been a basic tenet in ethnography that knowledge is produced in reflexive engagement not only with the research context but also with researcher’s experiences thereof. Liminality describes ambivalent roles, shifting contexts, and it also critically challenges dichotomous categories that structure academic knowledge production. This paper aims to deepen this argument by engaging with phenomena of precariousness and precarity in fieldwork rapport, moments of symbolic and material interdependency and vulnerability. Thereby, we do not only look into the existential fragility of ethnographic research, but we also highlight the resourcefulness of such phenomena – in terms of ethics but also in terms of understanding the research object. In this sense, we argue that ethnography is, besides being reflexive and liminal, a precarious practice. By precarious ethnography we thus refer to the resourceful yet dependent nature of contact at the heart of ethnography.

Research paper thumbnail of The value(s) of volunteering: asylum seekers’ trajectories through language work in refugee assistance

International Journal of Multlingualism, 2020

In this paper, I analyse the narrative positioning in two semi-structured interviews with volunte... more In this paper, I analyse the narrative positioning in two semi-structured interviews with volunteer interpreters in a counselling centre for refugees run by an NGO in Vienna, complemented by ethnographic descriptions of volunteer work in the counselling centre drawn from long-term participant observation. As a substantial part of the volunteers working at the counselling centre consists of (current and former) clients of the NGO, asylum seekers themselves, ‘work’ and ‘citizenship’ are deeply entangled in their positioning. The analyses of how past and future trajectories are co-constructed in the interviews, and of how the participants position themselves in and through the interview narratives, show that linguistic volunteer work becomes a site of investment and speculation on citizenship (conceived both as a moral and a legal ‘object’). As the paper demonstrates, volunteer work promises to yield symbolic and social capital – including language – required for success in the ‘markets’ of citizenship (e.g. in the asylum procedure) and, contingently, later on, in the national labour market.

The Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is freely available in International Journal of Multilingualism 2020. http://www.tandfonline.com/. DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2020.1682252

Research paper thumbnail of "sie erkennen meinen akzent, und da geht_s dann los." – Indexikalische Nebenfolgen von Kapitalisierung und (Nicht-)Registrierung sprachlicher Repertoires in der Beratung von Geflüchteten

K. S. Roth, K. Schramm & J. Spitzmüller (Hgg.): Phänomen 'Mehrsprachigkeit': Einstellungen, Ideologien, Positionierungspraktiken. Osnabrücker Beiträge zur Sprachtheorie (OBST) 93, 2018

In dem Beitrag werden anhand verschiedener Daten aus linguistisch-ethnographischer Feldforschung ... more In dem Beitrag werden anhand verschiedener Daten aus linguistisch-ethnographischer Feldforschung Prozesse der Wertzuschreibung zu den sprachlichen Repertoires arabischsprachiger Mitarbeiter*innen in einer Beratungsstelle für Geflüchtete in Wien illustriert. Im Fokus stehen das Erleben und die Positionierung der Mitarbeiter*innen im Spannungsfeld von Zuschreibungen und Prozessen der Institutionalisierung. Dass das Repertoire trotz Einbindung in institutionalisierte Zusammenhänge vulnerabel für die Zuschreibung indexikalischer Bedeutungen bleibt, die diese Ordnung überschreiten, macht es für die Subjekte zu einer ambivalenten Ressource.

Research paper thumbnail of Spaces of Inclusion -An explorative study on needs of refugees and migrants in the domain of media communication and on responses by community media

European societies are diverse and multilingual due to fluxes of migration over centuries. Divers... more European societies are diverse and multilingual due to fluxes of migration over centuries. Diversity and multilingualism are therefore part of the European identity. With the increased arrival since 2005 of refugees fleeing from conflicts in Syria and other countries, the portrayal of refugees, but also of migrants who have lived in European countries for a long time, is dominated by stereotypes and negative connotations. Migration-related issues have even become the core topic in national elections for right and far-right groups, often in complicity with boulevard media and assisted by the algorithmic logic of social media platforms. But even quality media cope only rarely with the needs of refugees and migrants and seldom try to make their voices heard. This study aims at identifying the needs of refugees and migrants in the domain of media communication and highlights existing and possible responses by community media.
In the first part of the study Salvatore Scifo gives an overview of the concepts of community media as third media sector - beside public service and commercial media - and its definition and recognition by European institutions and UNESCO. Community media are defined as mostly local, independent not-for-profit media which provide access to training, production and distribution facilities. Community media appear mostly in form of community radio. The participatory approach to content production leads to the fact that they manage to include marginalised groups and contribute to community development, social inclusion and intercultural dialogue.
In the second section Jonas Hassemer and Brigitta Busch analyses ethnographic interviews with refugees they conducted in 2017 in Austria. The aim of the interviews was to identify what role media in general and community media in particular play for (recently arrived) refugees and migrants in response to their particular needs and with regard to their human right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to information. Among the central needs expressed, they highlight the role of networks in general – virtual and face to face – as they afford social capital with regard to problem solving (administrative procedures, access to health care and social welfare, housing etc.). Local NGOs, social initiatives and cultural organisations equally play an important role as informal networks that contribute to the shared experiences of newcomers. Access to mainstream media, both as part of the audience and in terms of active participation, is often difficult for newcomers/refugees. As the group of people that is described by the term ‘refugee’ is by far not homogeneous, the barriers encountered are also diverse and are experienced in different ways. Among them are the prevailing monolingual orientation of mainstream media, the lack of meta- knowledge relevant to the local media landscape, and the scarcity of available roles as a result from dominant discourses that assign newcomers certain stereotypical roles while denying them acknowledgement as integral parts of the audience.
These barriers could be overcome by specific projects or more permanent involvement with community media. Because of their open and flexible nature, they offer activities that help bridge language barriers, provide a less constrained space for alternative narratives and self- representation, and accord socially recognised positions for refugees and migrants, where their voices can be heard. As demonstrated in this study, community media can help getting access to knowledge, in particular for coping with the new environment, in establishing local networks and facilitating language learning.
In the third section Nadia Bellardi opens an insight to a series of good practice examples across Europe on how refugees and migrants can get active in community media or have set up their own communicative structures to get a voice and to communicate with the broader society. These examples demonstrate how community media can meet the communicative needs of refugees and migrants by offering training, space for self-representation and offering points of entry to local networks. This bottom-up approach to content production leads in many cases to multilingual media that reflect to a very high extent the linguistic and cultural diversity of the society.

Research paper thumbnail of »Kommunikative Professionalisierung« in der Flüchtlingshilfe Eine ethnographische Pilotstudie zu Bedarfen, Positionierungen und Praktiken in einem Wiener Projekt

Im Bereich der Flüchtlingshilfe bestehen institutionalisierte Arbeits-, Versorgungs-und Betreuung... more Im Bereich der Flüchtlingshilfe bestehen institutionalisierte Arbeits-, Versorgungs-und Betreuungszusammenhänge in vielen Fällen nur für begrenzte Zeiträume oder bis auf Widerruf. In einem solchen Projekt ist die Finanzierung im Rahmen einer gewissen Laufzeit gesichert, Verlängerungen und Ausweitungen der Beratungs-und Betreuungsangebote verlangen das aktive Werben um Ressourcen dieser relativ auf sich gestellten Subeinheiten. Dies wiederum bedeutet, dass die Akteur*innen über den bestehenden Bedarf und die erfolgreiche Bearbeitung desselben kontinuierlich Rechenschaft schuldig sind und für Klient*innen und Mitarbeiter*innen immer nur temporäre Sicherheiten bestehen. So wird der Leidensdruck in diesem Feld ›verdoppelt‹ (vgl. N. Busch, , S. ): Zu der Vulnerabilität der Empfänger*innen von Unterstützungsleistungen tritt die kleine Misere (la petite misère, vgl. Bourdieu, [ ], S. -) derer, die die Unterstützung leisten sollen. Ziel der nun zum Abschluss gelangenden Pilotstudie war es, mit einem explorativen, ethnographischen Zugang die Praktiken im Kontext einer solchen Institution zu erforschen und Forschungsfragen und Forschungsdesiderata für das untersuchte Feld zu entwickeln. Der Zugang zu einer entsprechenden Einrichtung gelang über eine Bekannte, die dort beschäftigt war. Konkret handelt es sich um eine Beratungsstelle für Ge üchtete in Wien, die von einer NGO betrieben wird, die wiederum von städtischer Seite (Fonds Soziales Wien, kurz FSW ) mit der Beratungstätigkeit beauftragt und hierfür nanziert wird. Ethnographie verstehen wir als eine ›liminale‹ Forschungspraxis (Jacobs & Slembrouck, ), eine »epistemology of contact« (Slembrouck, , S. ), die Wissen im Austausch mit den beforschten Kontexten produziert, indem das erworbene Wissen im Grenzgang zwischen wissenschaftlichem und erforschten Kontext immer wieder entlang der »Leitdi erenz von Fremdheit und Vertrautheit« (Amann und Hirschauer, , S. ) rekontextualisiert wird. Im Sinne eines solchen ethnographischen Zugangs wurden bei der Untersuchung und im Kontakt mit dem ›Feld‹ keine festen Kategorien abgefragt, sondern ein problematisierende und problematisierbare Haltung eingenommen. Mit Malinowski ( ) kann man von foreshadowed problems sprechen, die sich aus Beobachtungen im und um das Feld herum, sowie aus der Beschäftigung mit relevanter wissenschaftlicher Literatur speisen:

Research paper thumbnail of Hassemer, J. (2017). Handlungsfähigkeit zwischen Autonomie und Distribuiertheit. Interaktionale ›Selbstvertretung‹ als subjektivierende Norm. Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 80. 47–80.

This article presents a multimodal analysis of an interaction in the context of sheltered housing... more This article presents a multimodal analysis of an interaction in the context of sheltered housing for persons with disabilities. The analysis is embedded in a discussion of underlying theoretical and methodological assumptions on subject and agency in interaction, employing critical concepts of disability as well as the notion of the post-sovereign subject. The focus lies on the assumption of the subject's autonomy. While emphasizing distributedness of social action in the theoretical and methodological framework, conversation analytical treatment of issues of disability tends to rely on autonomous subjects as a 'natural' backdrop for analysis. This bears the danger of reproducing discourses that mark the disabled simply as deviant and foreclosing a debate on inequality and/or exclusion. The discussion of the data shows that autonomous subjects are to be achieved in interaction, a process through which the norm is reinstated and inequalities are reformulated in terms of deviance from that norm.

Complete Issues by Jonas Hassemer

Research paper thumbnail of WLG 97

Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 2024

Reden · Schreiben · Handeln. Festschrift für Helmut Gruber Themenheft hg. v. Martin Reisigl, Jür... more Reden · Schreiben · Handeln. Festschrift für Helmut Gruber

Themenheft hg. v. Martin Reisigl, Jürgen Spitzmüller, Florian Grosser, Jonas Hassemer, Carina Lozo & Vinicio Ntouvlis

Research paper thumbnail of Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 85/2020. Themenheft: Prekaritätserfahrungen: Soziolinguistische Perspektiven. Hg. von Mi-Cha Flubacher, Jonas Hassemer, Christian Bendl & Jürgen Spitzmüller

Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 80/2017

Talks by Jonas Hassemer

Research paper thumbnail of CFP: The ethics of nation-statehood

While the nation-state presents itself as a naturalized whole, a bounded entity, its boundaries a... more While the nation-state presents itself as a naturalized whole, a bounded entity, its boundaries are constantly negotiated. The boundaries of the nation-state have historically been made and managed through a broad range of techniques, discourses/discursive fields and infrastructures seeking to sort who is “in” from who is “out.” Yet sorting is not a one-time event, nor is membership a binary between the statuses of “in” or “out.” Determining who is “in” and “out” is never simply a matter of conferring legal status (as citizen, legal immigrant, statutory refugee etc.), but rather is a constant negotiation. It entails combined processes of selection and socialisation where rights and resources—both material and symbolic—are differentially distributed, allowing bodies to populate a spectrum of categories within a nation-state. This workshop addresses the ethical quandaries experienced by actors involved in such processes of boundary-making and of differentiated (Holston 2008) or graduated (Ong 2006) citizenship

WLG 97 by Jonas Hassemer

Research paper thumbnail of Einleitung. Wiener Linguistische Gazette 97 (2024), vii–x

Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 2024

Research paper thumbnail of The value(s) of volunteering: asylum seekers’ trajectories through language work in refugee assistance

International Journal of Multilingualism

In this paper, I analyse the narrative positioning in two semistructured interviews with voluntee... more In this paper, I analyse the narrative positioning in two semistructured interviews with volunteer interpreters in a counselling centre for refugees run by an NGO in Vienna, complemented by ethnographic descriptions of volunteer work in the counselling centre drawn from long-term participant observation. As a substantial part of the volunteers working at the counselling centre consists of (current and former) clients of the NGO, asylum seekers themselves, 'work' and 'citizenship' are deeply entangled in their positioning. The analyses of how past and future trajectories are co-constructed in the interviews, and of how the participants position themselves in and through the interview narratives, show that linguistic volunteer work becomes a site of investment and speculation on citizenship (conceived both as a moral and a legal 'object'). As the paper demonstrates, volunteer work promises to yield symbolic and social capitalincluding languagerequired for success in the 'markets' of citizenship (e.g. in the asylum procedure) and, contingently, later on, in the national labour market.

Research paper thumbnail of (Meta-)communicative work in a counselling centre for refugees: reiteration, erasure and agency

International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2021

We have no apartments is a phrase repeated over and over again at the counselling centre f... more We have no apartments is a phrase repeated over and over again at the counselling centre for refugees on housing matters based in Vienna, Austria, where I conducted ethnographic fieldwork. Based on an analysis of processes of entextualisation, de- and recontextualisation in the reiterative, discursive chain, this paper traces the emergence of an institutional regime of communication and the ways institutional actors – counsellors and volunteers – produce, navigate and reproduce this regime by engaging in (meta-)communicative work. The analysis shows how individual agency is both contingent and co-productive of institutional order and social order more generally. With this contribution, I propose Judith Butler's concept of the postsovereign subject as a way to understand the relations between "local" practices and wider processes of trans-situational meaning-making.

Research paper thumbnail of Language as a resource with fluctuating values: Arabic speakers in humanitarian and social work

International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2020

This paper investigates the fluctuating value of Arabic when constructed as a linguistic resource... more This paper investigates the fluctuating value of Arabic when constructed as a linguistic resource for multilingual, "languaged" workers in a counselling centre for refugees in Austria and in an international humanitarian agency operating in ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. Drawing on a variety of ethnographic data (observations, interviews and documents), our analyses of the institutionalised division of labour and of workers' narrative positioning show how workers in both organisations discursively construct this linguistic resource as being of ambivalent value in their positioning vis-à-vis their colleagues, for their careers and in work interactions. Stratifying and empowerment effects are interwoven in the varying and coexisting values of Arabic.

Research paper thumbnail of Hassemer, J. & Flubacher, M. (2020). Prekäre Ethnographie. Zur Rolle von Prekaritätserfahrungen im ethnographischen Erkenntnisprozess. Wiener Linguistische Gazette 85, 157–182.

Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 2020

Along with recent scholarship, we hold that ethnography is a reflexive endeavour and a liminal ac... more Along with recent scholarship, we hold that ethnography is a reflexive endeavour and a liminal activity. It has been a basic tenet in ethnography that knowledge is produced in reflexive engagement not only with the research context but also with researcher’s experiences thereof. Liminality describes ambivalent roles, shifting contexts, and it also critically challenges dichotomous categories that structure academic knowledge production. This paper aims to deepen this argument by engaging with phenomena of precariousness and precarity in fieldwork rapport, moments of symbolic and material interdependency and vulnerability. Thereby, we do not only look into the existential fragility of ethnographic research, but we also highlight the resourcefulness of such phenomena – in terms of ethics but also in terms of understanding the research object. In this sense, we argue that ethnography is, besides being reflexive and liminal, a precarious practice. By precarious ethnography we thus refer to the resourceful yet dependent nature of contact at the heart of ethnography.

Research paper thumbnail of The value(s) of volunteering: asylum seekers’ trajectories through language work in refugee assistance

International Journal of Multlingualism, 2020

In this paper, I analyse the narrative positioning in two semi-structured interviews with volunte... more In this paper, I analyse the narrative positioning in two semi-structured interviews with volunteer interpreters in a counselling centre for refugees run by an NGO in Vienna, complemented by ethnographic descriptions of volunteer work in the counselling centre drawn from long-term participant observation. As a substantial part of the volunteers working at the counselling centre consists of (current and former) clients of the NGO, asylum seekers themselves, ‘work’ and ‘citizenship’ are deeply entangled in their positioning. The analyses of how past and future trajectories are co-constructed in the interviews, and of how the participants position themselves in and through the interview narratives, show that linguistic volunteer work becomes a site of investment and speculation on citizenship (conceived both as a moral and a legal ‘object’). As the paper demonstrates, volunteer work promises to yield symbolic and social capital – including language – required for success in the ‘markets’ of citizenship (e.g. in the asylum procedure) and, contingently, later on, in the national labour market.

The Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is freely available in International Journal of Multilingualism 2020. http://www.tandfonline.com/. DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2020.1682252

Research paper thumbnail of "sie erkennen meinen akzent, und da geht_s dann los." – Indexikalische Nebenfolgen von Kapitalisierung und (Nicht-)Registrierung sprachlicher Repertoires in der Beratung von Geflüchteten

K. S. Roth, K. Schramm & J. Spitzmüller (Hgg.): Phänomen 'Mehrsprachigkeit': Einstellungen, Ideologien, Positionierungspraktiken. Osnabrücker Beiträge zur Sprachtheorie (OBST) 93, 2018

In dem Beitrag werden anhand verschiedener Daten aus linguistisch-ethnographischer Feldforschung ... more In dem Beitrag werden anhand verschiedener Daten aus linguistisch-ethnographischer Feldforschung Prozesse der Wertzuschreibung zu den sprachlichen Repertoires arabischsprachiger Mitarbeiter*innen in einer Beratungsstelle für Geflüchtete in Wien illustriert. Im Fokus stehen das Erleben und die Positionierung der Mitarbeiter*innen im Spannungsfeld von Zuschreibungen und Prozessen der Institutionalisierung. Dass das Repertoire trotz Einbindung in institutionalisierte Zusammenhänge vulnerabel für die Zuschreibung indexikalischer Bedeutungen bleibt, die diese Ordnung überschreiten, macht es für die Subjekte zu einer ambivalenten Ressource.

Research paper thumbnail of Spaces of Inclusion -An explorative study on needs of refugees and migrants in the domain of media communication and on responses by community media

European societies are diverse and multilingual due to fluxes of migration over centuries. Divers... more European societies are diverse and multilingual due to fluxes of migration over centuries. Diversity and multilingualism are therefore part of the European identity. With the increased arrival since 2005 of refugees fleeing from conflicts in Syria and other countries, the portrayal of refugees, but also of migrants who have lived in European countries for a long time, is dominated by stereotypes and negative connotations. Migration-related issues have even become the core topic in national elections for right and far-right groups, often in complicity with boulevard media and assisted by the algorithmic logic of social media platforms. But even quality media cope only rarely with the needs of refugees and migrants and seldom try to make their voices heard. This study aims at identifying the needs of refugees and migrants in the domain of media communication and highlights existing and possible responses by community media.
In the first part of the study Salvatore Scifo gives an overview of the concepts of community media as third media sector - beside public service and commercial media - and its definition and recognition by European institutions and UNESCO. Community media are defined as mostly local, independent not-for-profit media which provide access to training, production and distribution facilities. Community media appear mostly in form of community radio. The participatory approach to content production leads to the fact that they manage to include marginalised groups and contribute to community development, social inclusion and intercultural dialogue.
In the second section Jonas Hassemer and Brigitta Busch analyses ethnographic interviews with refugees they conducted in 2017 in Austria. The aim of the interviews was to identify what role media in general and community media in particular play for (recently arrived) refugees and migrants in response to their particular needs and with regard to their human right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to information. Among the central needs expressed, they highlight the role of networks in general – virtual and face to face – as they afford social capital with regard to problem solving (administrative procedures, access to health care and social welfare, housing etc.). Local NGOs, social initiatives and cultural organisations equally play an important role as informal networks that contribute to the shared experiences of newcomers. Access to mainstream media, both as part of the audience and in terms of active participation, is often difficult for newcomers/refugees. As the group of people that is described by the term ‘refugee’ is by far not homogeneous, the barriers encountered are also diverse and are experienced in different ways. Among them are the prevailing monolingual orientation of mainstream media, the lack of meta- knowledge relevant to the local media landscape, and the scarcity of available roles as a result from dominant discourses that assign newcomers certain stereotypical roles while denying them acknowledgement as integral parts of the audience.
These barriers could be overcome by specific projects or more permanent involvement with community media. Because of their open and flexible nature, they offer activities that help bridge language barriers, provide a less constrained space for alternative narratives and self- representation, and accord socially recognised positions for refugees and migrants, where their voices can be heard. As demonstrated in this study, community media can help getting access to knowledge, in particular for coping with the new environment, in establishing local networks and facilitating language learning.
In the third section Nadia Bellardi opens an insight to a series of good practice examples across Europe on how refugees and migrants can get active in community media or have set up their own communicative structures to get a voice and to communicate with the broader society. These examples demonstrate how community media can meet the communicative needs of refugees and migrants by offering training, space for self-representation and offering points of entry to local networks. This bottom-up approach to content production leads in many cases to multilingual media that reflect to a very high extent the linguistic and cultural diversity of the society.

Research paper thumbnail of »Kommunikative Professionalisierung« in der Flüchtlingshilfe Eine ethnographische Pilotstudie zu Bedarfen, Positionierungen und Praktiken in einem Wiener Projekt

Im Bereich der Flüchtlingshilfe bestehen institutionalisierte Arbeits-, Versorgungs-und Betreuung... more Im Bereich der Flüchtlingshilfe bestehen institutionalisierte Arbeits-, Versorgungs-und Betreuungszusammenhänge in vielen Fällen nur für begrenzte Zeiträume oder bis auf Widerruf. In einem solchen Projekt ist die Finanzierung im Rahmen einer gewissen Laufzeit gesichert, Verlängerungen und Ausweitungen der Beratungs-und Betreuungsangebote verlangen das aktive Werben um Ressourcen dieser relativ auf sich gestellten Subeinheiten. Dies wiederum bedeutet, dass die Akteur*innen über den bestehenden Bedarf und die erfolgreiche Bearbeitung desselben kontinuierlich Rechenschaft schuldig sind und für Klient*innen und Mitarbeiter*innen immer nur temporäre Sicherheiten bestehen. So wird der Leidensdruck in diesem Feld ›verdoppelt‹ (vgl. N. Busch, , S. ): Zu der Vulnerabilität der Empfänger*innen von Unterstützungsleistungen tritt die kleine Misere (la petite misère, vgl. Bourdieu, [ ], S. -) derer, die die Unterstützung leisten sollen. Ziel der nun zum Abschluss gelangenden Pilotstudie war es, mit einem explorativen, ethnographischen Zugang die Praktiken im Kontext einer solchen Institution zu erforschen und Forschungsfragen und Forschungsdesiderata für das untersuchte Feld zu entwickeln. Der Zugang zu einer entsprechenden Einrichtung gelang über eine Bekannte, die dort beschäftigt war. Konkret handelt es sich um eine Beratungsstelle für Ge üchtete in Wien, die von einer NGO betrieben wird, die wiederum von städtischer Seite (Fonds Soziales Wien, kurz FSW ) mit der Beratungstätigkeit beauftragt und hierfür nanziert wird. Ethnographie verstehen wir als eine ›liminale‹ Forschungspraxis (Jacobs & Slembrouck, ), eine »epistemology of contact« (Slembrouck, , S. ), die Wissen im Austausch mit den beforschten Kontexten produziert, indem das erworbene Wissen im Grenzgang zwischen wissenschaftlichem und erforschten Kontext immer wieder entlang der »Leitdi erenz von Fremdheit und Vertrautheit« (Amann und Hirschauer, , S. ) rekontextualisiert wird. Im Sinne eines solchen ethnographischen Zugangs wurden bei der Untersuchung und im Kontakt mit dem ›Feld‹ keine festen Kategorien abgefragt, sondern ein problematisierende und problematisierbare Haltung eingenommen. Mit Malinowski ( ) kann man von foreshadowed problems sprechen, die sich aus Beobachtungen im und um das Feld herum, sowie aus der Beschäftigung mit relevanter wissenschaftlicher Literatur speisen:

Research paper thumbnail of Hassemer, J. (2017). Handlungsfähigkeit zwischen Autonomie und Distribuiertheit. Interaktionale ›Selbstvertretung‹ als subjektivierende Norm. Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 80. 47–80.

This article presents a multimodal analysis of an interaction in the context of sheltered housing... more This article presents a multimodal analysis of an interaction in the context of sheltered housing for persons with disabilities. The analysis is embedded in a discussion of underlying theoretical and methodological assumptions on subject and agency in interaction, employing critical concepts of disability as well as the notion of the post-sovereign subject. The focus lies on the assumption of the subject's autonomy. While emphasizing distributedness of social action in the theoretical and methodological framework, conversation analytical treatment of issues of disability tends to rely on autonomous subjects as a 'natural' backdrop for analysis. This bears the danger of reproducing discourses that mark the disabled simply as deviant and foreclosing a debate on inequality and/or exclusion. The discussion of the data shows that autonomous subjects are to be achieved in interaction, a process through which the norm is reinstated and inequalities are reformulated in terms of deviance from that norm.

Research paper thumbnail of WLG 97

Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 2024

Reden · Schreiben · Handeln. Festschrift für Helmut Gruber Themenheft hg. v. Martin Reisigl, Jür... more Reden · Schreiben · Handeln. Festschrift für Helmut Gruber

Themenheft hg. v. Martin Reisigl, Jürgen Spitzmüller, Florian Grosser, Jonas Hassemer, Carina Lozo & Vinicio Ntouvlis

Research paper thumbnail of Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 85/2020. Themenheft: Prekaritätserfahrungen: Soziolinguistische Perspektiven. Hg. von Mi-Cha Flubacher, Jonas Hassemer, Christian Bendl & Jürgen Spitzmüller

Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 80/2017

Research paper thumbnail of CFP: The ethics of nation-statehood

While the nation-state presents itself as a naturalized whole, a bounded entity, its boundaries a... more While the nation-state presents itself as a naturalized whole, a bounded entity, its boundaries are constantly negotiated. The boundaries of the nation-state have historically been made and managed through a broad range of techniques, discourses/discursive fields and infrastructures seeking to sort who is “in” from who is “out.” Yet sorting is not a one-time event, nor is membership a binary between the statuses of “in” or “out.” Determining who is “in” and “out” is never simply a matter of conferring legal status (as citizen, legal immigrant, statutory refugee etc.), but rather is a constant negotiation. It entails combined processes of selection and socialisation where rights and resources—both material and symbolic—are differentially distributed, allowing bodies to populate a spectrum of categories within a nation-state. This workshop addresses the ethical quandaries experienced by actors involved in such processes of boundary-making and of differentiated (Holston 2008) or graduated (Ong 2006) citizenship