Kellie Gonçalves – författare

This collection brings together global perspectives which critically examine the ways in which language as a resource is used and managed in myriad ways in various blue-collar workplace settings in today’s globalized economy. In focusing on blue-collar work environments, the book sheds further light on the informal processes through which top down language policies take place in different multilingual settings and the resultant asymmetrical power relations which emerge among employees and employers in such settings. Taking into account the latest debates on poststructuralist theories of language, the volume also extends its conceptualization of language to demonstrate the ways in which it extends to a wider range of multilingual and multimodal resources and communicative practices, all of which combine in unique and different ways toward constructing meaning in the workplace. The volume’s unique focus on such workplaces also showcases domains of work which have generally until now been less visible within existing research on language in the workplace and the subsequent methodological challenges that arise from studying them. Integrating a range of theoretical and methodological approaches, along with empirical data from a diverse range of blue-collar workplaces, this book will be of particular interest to students and researchers in critical sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, sociology, and linguistic anthropology.

This collection brings together global perspectives which critically examine the ways in which language as a resource is used and managed in myriad ways in various blue-collar workplace settings in today’s globalized economy. In focusing on blue-collar work environments, the book sheds further light on the informal processes through which top down language policies take place in different multilingual settings and the resultant asymmetrical power relations which emerge among employees and employers in such settings. Taking into account the latest debates on poststructuralist theories of language, the volume also extends its conceptualization of language to demonstrate the ways in which it extends to a wider range of multilingual and multimodal resources and communicative practices, all of which combine in unique and different ways toward constructing meaning in the workplace. The volume’s unique focus on such workplaces also showcases domains of work which have generally until now been less visible within existing research on language in the workplace and the subsequent methodological challenges that arise from studying them. Integrating a range of theoretical and methodological approaches, along with empirical data from a diverse range of blue-collar workplaces, this book will be of particular interest to students and researchers in critical sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, sociology, and linguistic anthropology.

Set in a multilingual cleaning company that serves Anglophone customers in the upper-(middle) class suburbs of New York City, this book presents an ethnographic study into power, language policy and communication from the perspectives of the Brazilian–American employer as well as the company’s Hispanophone and Lusophone employees. Power asymmetries in internal communication demonstrate the employer’s legitimated domination over her employees and her L1 Portuguese as a form of linguistic capital. Employees’ resourcefulness and multicompetence – rather than quantifiable levels of English-language proficiency – determine the extent to which they rely on language brokering to facilitate communication with their customers, directly impacting their agency. The book contributes to current debates on extra-linguistic modes of communication in multilingual settings and thematic analyses of care work, migration, communication and the role of English.

Set in a multilingual cleaning company that serves Anglophone customers in the upper-(middle) class suburbs of New York City, this book presents an ethnographic study into power, language policy and communication from the perspectives of the Brazilian–American employer as well as the company’s Hispanophone and Lusophone employees. Power asymmetries in internal communication demonstrate the employer’s legitimated domination over her employees and her L1 Portuguese as a form of linguistic capital. Employees’ resourcefulness and multicompetence – rather than quantifiable levels of English-language proficiency – determine the extent to which they rely on language brokering to facilitate communication with their customers, directly impacting their agency. The book contributes to current debates on extra-linguistic modes of communication in multilingual settings and thematic analyses of care work, migration, communication and the role of English.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of language and tourist mobility within an adventure tourism context. It uses a critical and ethnographic approach, contributing to poststructuralist perspectives of social life that are currently undergoing considerable changes on social, political, cultural and linguistic levels. Drawing upon an array of data sources collected over five years on two continents, it examines and compares the way language and communication (e.g. speech, written texts, visual resources) are used within the production of place-making practices in two of the world’s top adventure tourism destinations: Interlaken, Switzerland and Queenstown, New Zealand. It centres on issues such as cross-cultural discourses, transcultural texts, and semiotic landscapes.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of language and tourist mobility within an adventure tourism context. It uses a critical and ethnographic approach, contributing to poststructuralist perspectives of social life that are currently undergoing considerable changes on social, political, cultural and linguistic levels. Drawing upon an array of data sources collected over five years on two continents, it examines and compares the way language and communication (e.g. speech, written texts, visual resources) are used within the production of place-making practices in two of the world’s top adventure tourism destinations: Interlaken, Switzerland and Queenstown, New Zealand. It centres on issues such as cross-cultural discourses, transcultural texts, and semiotic landscapes.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of language and tourist mobility within an adventure tourism context. It uses a critical and ethnographic approach, contributing to poststructuralist perspectives of social life that are currently undergoing considerable changes on social, political, cultural and linguistic levels. Drawing upon an array of data sources collected over five years on two continents, it examines and compares the way language and communication (e.g. speech, written texts, visual resources) are used within the production of place-making practices in two of the world’s top adventure tourism destinations: Interlaken, Switzerland and Queenstown, New Zealand. It centres on issues such as cross-cultural discourses, transcultural texts, and semiotic landscapes.

Dieses Buch ist eine empirische Studie, die individuelle Gründe für spezifische Sprachpraktiken und für die Verhandlung und Performanz hybrider Identitäten innerhalb der intimsten "Community of Practice (CofP)", der Ehe, untersucht. Die der Studie zugrundeliegenden Daten stammen zum einen aus ethnographischen Beobachtungen, die über drei Jahre durchgeführt wurden; zum anderen aus Interviews mit interkulturellen Paaren, genauer mit Personen englischer Muttersprache, die mit deutschsprachigen SchweizerInnen verheiratet sind und in einer diglossen Sprachregion in der Zentralschweiz leben. Die Studie nimmt eine interdisziplinäre Perspektive ein, welche sich dem soziokulturellen linguistischen Zugang zu Identität und der sozialpsychologischen Theorie des "Positioning" bedient. Der neuartige theoretische Ansatz dieses Buches besteht aus der Rekonzeptualisierung von Identität, da die emische Perspektive der UntersuchungsteilnehmerInnen miteinbezogen wird. Diese können sich nämlich nicht von der sozial konstruierten Idee einer stabilen Identität trennen, obwohl sie zugeben, Teil gewisser soziokultureller Darstellungen zu sein. Die Analyse zeigt, wie Individuen ihre statischen und dynamischen Identitäten diskursiv konstruieren. Weiter wird die Bedeutung expliziter wie auch impliziter Identitätsansprüche individueller TeilnehmerInnen hervorgehoben und durch die Unterscheidung zweier Arten von Identität - situated und situationalidentities - illustriert. Die Ansichten der TeilnehmerInnen selbst fügt eine weitere Ebene zu jeglicher soziologischen, anthropologischen und linguistischen Analyse von Menschen in Diasporas hinzu. Während postmoderne Definitionen Identität als multivalent betrachten und die interaktionale Soziolinguistik Identität als emergent versteht, wird hier für eine Auseinandersetzung mit Identität argumentiert, welche essentialistische Vorstellungen nicht verwirft, da sich Individuen selbst mehrheitlich als gefestigte und einheitliche Persönlichkeiten verstehen. This book presents an empirical study that examines individuals’ reasons for specific language practices and investigates the negotiation and performances of hybrid identities within the most intimate community of practice (CofP), the marital unit. The data stem from ethnographic observation over a three-year period as well as recorded conversations with intercultural couples, namely Anglophones married to native German-speaking Swiss, who reside in central Switzerland, where a diglossic situation prevails. This study is placed within an interdisciplinary framework that draws on the sociocultural linguistic approach to identity and the social psychological theory of positioning. The novel approach on which this book focuses is the re-conceptualization of identity by considering participants’ emic perspectives since individuals cannot part with the idea of a socially constructed notion of a stable identity despite admitting to engaging in certain socio-cultural practices. The analysis shows how individuals discursively construct their static and dynamic identities. It emphasizes the importance of individuals’ explicit identity claims as well as their implicit identity claims illustrating a clear distinction between two types of identities, termed situated and situational. This book argues that participants’ views add another level to any sociological, anthropological and linguistic analyses of diasporic individuals. While post-modern definitions of identity are understood as multivalent and interactional sociolinguistic studies view identity as emergent, this study shows that any discussion of identity should not discard the notion of essentialism since individuals more often construct themselves and each other as stable and unitary beings within the context of social interaction.