Search results for "superdiversity"
showing 10 items of 11 documents
Odysseus the traveler: Appropriation of a chronotope in a community of practice
2020
Abstract In this article we analyze the role of chronotopes in the formation and negotiation of identities. In particular, we consider the case of a superdiverse community of practice formed by minors asylum seekers and teachers in a school of Italian in Sicily, Italy. In our analysis we stress the role of reciprocity on the ways in which the chronotopic figure of Odysseus is reinterpreted and appropriated by members of this community. We look at how through a process of mutual engagement the indexical values associated with the figure of Odysseus are recontextualized by both teachers and students in light of their present experiences. Data for the article come from interviews, narratives a…
Explorations of Linkages Between Intercultural Dialogue, Art, and Empathy
2021
AbstractIn the 2000s, European societies have transformed quickly due to the networked global economy, deepening a European integration process, forced and voluntary movement of people to and within Europe, and influence of social media on culture, communication, and society. Europe has become an increasingly diverse and pluricultural continent where many people simultaneously identify with multiple different cultural and social groups. In such “super-diversified” (Vertovec in New complexities of cohesion in Britain: Super-diversity, transnationalism and civil-integration, Communities and Local Government Publications, Wetherby, 2007) European societies diversity itself is broad, multidimen…
“I be da reel gansta”—A Finnish footballer’s Twitter writing and metapragmatic evaluations of authenticity
2015
This article explores the ways in which ‘gangsta’ English features are deployed, evaluated and adopted in two types of social media, the web forum and Twitter, within the domains of hip hop culture and football (soccer) culture, from the dual perspective of authenticity and normativity. Empirically, we aim to break new ground by investigating the intricate interconnections between two social media formats and combining two highly popular but previously seldom connected cultural forms—football and hip hop. Our theoretical aim is to contribute to the current debate on authenticity, normativity, popular culture and social media, and the complex ways in which they are connected. We focus, first…
Superdiversity perspective and the sociolinguistics of social media
2018
This chapter shows how the superdiversity perspective suggested in recent critical sociolinguistics provides the study of social media discourse and communication with a useful approach to conceptualizing and empirically investigating complex and multiple axes of diversity and difference in social media practices. It discusses recent work in sociolinguistics of social media, highlighting how social media practices illustrate many of the aspects of contemporary social life and communication that are considered symptomatic of superdiversity. It shows how research in this field has moved from viewing superdiversity as a quality or quantity characterizing specific places, spaces, groups and net…
The Role of Linguistic Resources in the Institutional Organisation of the Armenian Diaspora in Finland
2018
This chapter presents a linguistic ethnographic case study exploring the role of linguistic resources in the institutional organisation of the Armenian diaspora within the Finnish context. Even though the Armenian diasporas across the globe have been extensively studied in various countries, relatively little research has been conducted on linguistic resources employed in the institutional organisation of the Armenian diasporas. In addition, to our knowledge, no single research has focused on the Armenian diaspora residing in Finland or organisational work done at the institutional level within the Finnish context. The study reported here attempts to address these gaps by drawing upon multi…
Migrant rap in the periphery
2017
Abstract Focusing on a YouTube performance by an emergent Finnish Somali rapper and the audience responses it has generated, this paper looks at ways in which rap music engages with the issue of belonging. Drawing on recent theorizations of belonging as a multi-dimensional, contingent and fluid process, along with sociolinguistic work on globalization and superdiversity, Finnish hip hop culture and popular cultural practices in social media, the paper investigates how belonging is performatively and multi-semiotically interrogated in its online context. It shows how rap can serve as a significant site and channel for new voices in turbulent social settings characterized by rapid social chan…
Diversification of diversity: Migrations, cultural pluralism and urban transformations in Palermo (Italy): a case study
2021
Italy experienced the transition from a country of emigration to a country of immigration only in the last decade of the 20th century. The extreme heterogeneity of the Italian scene – from the distribution and variety of productive sectors and local economic dimensions, to the geographical, cultural and linguistic varieties – results in an incredibly differentiated background on which the phenomenon of migrations fits as multiplier of diversity. But there are some particular fields in Italy where the challenges of superdiversity appear to be more prominent: the impact on the school system, in terms of linguistic-cultural pluralism; the change in religious belonging and identities; the dynam…
Race, ethnicity and ‘African-ness’ in football discourse : perspectives in the age of superdiversity
2018
Globalization, mass mobility, and economic and transcultural flows are changing the experience of diversity in many contemporary societies and communities. This is encapsulated in the notion of ‘superdiversity’, the growing complexity of what ‘diversity’ means, when new combinations of ethnicity and other variables, mobility, belonging, and identification intersect in complex, less predictable ways (see Creese & Blackledge 2010: 550–552; Blommaert & Rampton 2011). Also, the world of association football (soccer, henceforth ‘football’) is radically transformed by such processes of globalization (Giulianotti 1999; Giulianotti & Robertson 2009; Kytölä 2013). The mobility of ‘actors-in-the-fiel…
The Role of Linguistic Resources in the Institutional Organisation of the Armenian Diaspora in Finland
2019
This chapter presents a linguistic ethnographic case study exploring the role of linguistic resources in the institutional organisation of the Armenian diaspora within the Finnish context. Even though the Armenian diasporas across the globe have been extensively studied in various countries, relatively little research has been conducted on linguistic resources employed in the institutional organisation of the Armenian diasporas. In addition, to our knowledge, no single research has focused on the Armenian diaspora residing in Finland or organisational work done at the institutional level within the Finnish context. The study reported here attempts to address these gaps by drawing upon multi…
Contesting language policy for asylum seekers in the Northern periphery: the story of Tailor F
2020
AbstractThis article is about navigating asylum, employment and language policy in a new country as an asylum seeker. Through the story of one individual, we show that profound inequalities are exacerbated when forced migrants are limited in their choice of language they might study or use. The individual is Tailor F, an Iraqi man seeking asylum, and the country is Finland, officially bilingual, with a majority language (Finnish) and a minority language (Swedish). Finland’s official bilingualism does not extend evenly to language education provided for asylum seekers, who are taught Finnish regardless of the region where they are placed. Upon arrival, Tailor F was housed in a reception cent…