Transnational Identities (co-authored with Anna De Fina) (original) (raw)
Related papers
2006
There are six sections in this paper. In section 1, I summarize views on discourse as a facet of globalization in the academic literature, and then introduce an approach based upon a version of 'critical discourse analysis' (CDA) and 'cultural political economy'. In section 2, I discuss different strategies of globalization (and regionalization) emanating from governmental and non-governmental agencies, and the different discourses which constitute elements of these strategies. In section 3, I discuss how processes of globalization impact upon specific spatial 'entities' (nationstates, cities, regions etc) in terms of the idea of 're-scaling ', i.e. changing relations in processes, relationships, practices and so forth between local, national, and international (including 'global') scales. I focus here upon the national scale in its relation to the global scale and the scale of international regions (in particular, the process of 'European integration'). In section 4 I deal with the media and mediation. In section 5 I discuss people's ordinary experience of globalization, and its implications for and effects upon their lives. Section 6 deals with war and terrorism.
Language and Culture: Global Flows and Local Complexity
Journal of Pragmatics, 2007
While dealing with pedagogical contexts and analyzing them as examples of multilingual and multicultural experiences, this book thematically focuses on 'language', 'culture' and their relationship, and explores theoretical understandings and actual practices of language and culture in the age of 'glocalization'. In a nutshell, the author advances the following interrelated theses: (1) language, culture, and nations (nation-states) are independent variables that only partially overlap with one another, in contradiction to the modern nationalist formula 'one nation, one language, one culture', (2) language and culture are to be understood in terms of 'flow' through social networks, rather than 'bounded territory' or de-contextualized 'structure'; and linguistic and cultural flows, which only partially overlap with each other, go within and across national boundaries, and (3) localities, such as supra-national regions, nation-states, communities, homes and classrooms, are loci where a number of such linguistic and cultural flows come and go, and complexly intermingle with one another, so that multilingualism and multiculturalism are rather natural states of language and culture in society, although they have been considered exceptional, secondary or even pathological by the modern nationalistic understandings of language and culture. Thus, Risager advances an account of language and culture that is characterized by glocalism (versus nationalism), diffusionism (versus structuralism) and multi-(versus mono-) lingua/ culturalism, a set of ideas that nicely fits the age of glocalization, especially as experienced in the European Union, and resonates with the current understandings of 'culture', 'society' and 'language' in social sciences, especially globalization studies: e.
The Transnational Study of Culture and the Indeterminacy of People(s) and Language(s)
The Trans/National Study of Culture: A Translational Approach Ed. by Doris Bachmann-Medick/Ansgar Nünning/Martin Zierold. (Concepts for the Study of Culture). Berlin: de Gruyter 2013., 2013
A recent collection of essays on transnational literary studies asserts: "the interrogation of national narratives characteristic of transnational studies entails the putting forth of a different set of coordinates whereby to understand global configurations." (Frassinelli, Frenkel and Watson 2011, 6) Taking our cue from this statement, the "coordinates" that we would like to advance here amount to a single word: indeterminacy. To convey what is meant by this word, it might be helpful at the outset to distinguish it from the concern of those preoccupied with tracking what has been described as "the massive economic and political diaspora of the modern world" (Bhabha 1994, 8). Although migration is intrinsically related to the indeterminacy of people(s) and language(s), it is not an exhaustive condition-particularly with regard to language. It is also crucially important to remember that the modern forms of diaspora occur within the context of the historically--dominant form of social homogenization specific to the modern period-the nation--State. Our understanding of the nation--State follows the description provided by Bruno Latour as he speaks about the work of the modern, which creates new forms of separation (for our purposes, nation--States) and then conceals those fictive productions behind naturalizing narratives (Latour 1993). The themes of "hybridity" and "diaspora" are as much a part of those naturalizing narratives as those of origin and purity. Although transnationalism does indeed ask us to look beyond the separations instituted by the ideology of nationalism, the narratives of "massive diaspora" and "overlapping histories" that are used to justify such moves may in fact serve to naturalize those separations-not just in the past, but, perhaps most importantly, through the terms of cultural comparison. Hence, by remembering the indeterminacy of people(s) and language(s), we are being called upon to develop not just a non--national understanding of the present conjuncture, but also a non-national, non--normative, and finally non--anthropological understanding of the past as well as the present and the future. What we intend here is a critique not just of national narratives, but a critique of the fundamental assumptions about Solomon 2 human collectivity (species--being) and knowledge that have sustained the normativity of the nationalist project in all its forms. It is a critique that must be pursued on several levels at once: Philosophically, it means a critique of hylomorphic ontology; epistemologically, it means a complete reorganization of the disciplinary divisions of the humanities; politically, it means a critique of the ways in which anthropological difference is posited and mobilized in the name of population management for the benefit of capital accumulation (i.e., a critique of the state--form). The changes thus envisioned take us so far away from the national, it would really be better to place them under a non--national, rather than simply trans--national, heading. Otherwise, it is quite likely that our critique would simply serve the interests of the current 'great transformation' from an international system (based on nation--States) of industrial capitalism to a transnational system (based on a global--State) of cognitive capitalism.
Editorial [in Language and Intercultural Communication]
2017
The relationship between language, actors and the specific social contexts in which they speak emerges as a prevalent theme in this issue. This is due in part to the mobilities of populations, amplified to varying degrees by the competing social forces of the 21st century: both the good, such as lifestyle and education; and the not-so-good, such as economic pressure and conflict. In various ways, the papers in this second issue of Volume 17 describe how this experience of mobility - both terrestrial and virtual – can vary in relation to the amount of capital, both economic and cultural, with which our sojourners travel: from Mendez-Garcia’s postgraduate sojourners in Spain to Park’s South-East Asian marriage migrants in Korea; from Lapresta, Huguet and Fernández-Costales’s inward migrants to Catalonia to Dong’s ‘空中飞人’ (‘flying people)’ in Beijing; from Chen’s Chinese students using social media in the USA to Akiyama’s eTandem intercultural interlocutors; and from Zhu’s university st...
Maryam borjian ed all language and globalization an autoethnographic approach (2017) BOOK REVIEW
Language in Society, 2019
Globalization and subjective experience are a founding basis of contemporary research and understanding of language. This is the assumption underlying the texts compiled by Maryam Borjian. Following the editor's metalanguage, the book 'offers stories' that in drawing on Foucault's insights do not aim at telling absolute truths, but local ones, placing both subjectivity and contextuality of meanings at the heart of linguistic knowledge. Methodologically, the texts are connected by a commitment to both a context-bound dimension of knowledge and to the employment of 'lived language experiences' as analytical entry points. As such, the book is a very welcome contribution to current inquiries on language as a subjective experience, bringing autoethnographic accounts of language learning, teaching, researching , and challenging. By narrating the most diverse sociolinguistic environments , the authors tell their own experiences of language through 'multiple theoretical lenses' (4). According to the editor, the book's perspective is empirical rather than existential. In this review, I embrace this perspective, retell the stories in the book, and tell new ones. Part 1 is titled 'Theoretical and methodological frameworks: Issues, challenges, and changes'. While discussing different definitions of and approaches to globalization , Borjian (ch. 2) describes a trip through the semiotic landscapes of East Mexico in order to discuss semiotic perceptions and experiences of the effects of globalization. In a similar vein, Ulrich Ammon (ch. 3) draws on his linguistic experience in German schools to reflect on how varieties of language were observed and controlled, and how contingent the distinctions between language, dialect, and restricted code are. He discusses linguistic prejudice against second languages as well as linguistic disregard of nonstandard varieties. He raises important questions about linguistic discrimination, inequality, justice, and arrogance. Part 2, 'Global English: Views from the classroom', takes us around the world in English classrooms to discuss topics such as (i) 'Native speakerism' (Pauline Bunce, ch. 6), a corrosive ideology in the designing of materials and methodologies that privilege linguistic performance and world perspectives of the 'native speaker'; (ii) 'postcolonial puzzle' (Nigussie Negash Yadete, ch. 4), which can be described
Situating sociolinguistics: Coupland –Theoretical Debates
Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2017
In this review article, I briefly summarise, in the first section, the main arguments raised in Nikolas Coupland's new edited volume, Sociolinguistics: Theoretical Debates. I do not provide a detailed discussion of all the points made, but instead focus on a common over-arching theme that emerges across the volume – a theme that characterises the field's current preoccupations and the various ways in which those preoccupations are being addressed. In the next section, I identify a number of further areas of current sociolinguistic research that, given the overall theme identified, are noticeable for their absence of coverage in the book. Specifically, I discuss recent research on sociolinguistic perception, work on the acquisition/socialisation of socially meaningful uses of language, and sociolinguistic research in the global South. Finally, I conclude by describing an area of social theorising that is touched upon within the book, but that I believe would benefit from continued and deeper consideration by sociolinguists. I focus here on sociolinguistic treatments of subjectivity (or selfhood), a topic that has a long history in the field, but that I would nevertheless argue is under-theorised in much of our research.