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Conference Paper: Language, activism, and governmentality: A (networked) meta-pragmatic approach
Title | Language, activism, and governmentality: A (networked) meta-pragmatic approach |
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Authors | |
Issue Date | 2018 |
Citation | Sociolinguistics Symposium 22, Auckland, New Zealand, 27-30 June 2018 How to Cite? |
Abstract | This paper argues that activism can be more centrally positioned in the theoretical study of reflexivity in late modernity, beyond celebratory approaches, if it is thought of as a discursive practice, one whereby social actors engage meta-reflexively with normative conventions about language, culture and identity. Continuing language-based research into activist projects led by linguistic minorities (Jaffe 1999, Urla 2012), we approach activism through the lens of indexicality of language (Agha 2007). Our 5-year project has examined how youth of Nepali, Pakistani, and Indian backgrounds advanced a social-justice agenda in Hong Kong, in the context of a neoliberal logic pervading provision of schooling and other social services. Expanding on how individual students participated in the enregisterment of a set of discursive and semiotic forms of doing activism (Peréz-Milans & Soto 2017), we shift to a group of female participants, self-dubbed “C-Girls” (C standing for their school class name and values including cooperation, commitment, and cheerfulness). Through description of school assignments, online interactions, and media generated by students, community-based organizations and local mass media, we show how the C-Girls used performative acts of activism in the semiotic production of ethnic and good-girl personae, in service of securing additional funding for their sponsoring social service agency and of advancing social justice goals. From the C-Girls, individual projects also emerged around themes of humanism, patriarchy, and gender that challenged grand narratives of ethnicity and community, contributing to the development of meta-reflexive discourses as community resources for activism. This development provides an excellent language-based entry point to challenging ongoing sociological discussions in which reflexivity is seen as an emergent property of the self that results from increasing uncertainty (Archer 2012). |
Description | Session T330307/L: Long Colloquium |
Persistent Identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/10722/259795 |
DC Field | Value | Language |
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dc.contributor.author | Pérez-Milans, MPM | - |
dc.contributor.author | Soto Pineda, CE | - |
dc.date.accessioned | 2018-09-03T04:14:10Z | - |
dc.date.available | 2018-09-03T04:14:10Z | - |
dc.date.issued | 2018 | - |
dc.identifier.citation | Sociolinguistics Symposium 22, Auckland, New Zealand, 27-30 June 2018 | - |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10722/259795 | - |
dc.description | Session T330307/L: Long Colloquium | - |
dc.description.abstract | This paper argues that activism can be more centrally positioned in the theoretical study of reflexivity in late modernity, beyond celebratory approaches, if it is thought of as a discursive practice, one whereby social actors engage meta-reflexively with normative conventions about language, culture and identity. Continuing language-based research into activist projects led by linguistic minorities (Jaffe 1999, Urla 2012), we approach activism through the lens of indexicality of language (Agha 2007). Our 5-year project has examined how youth of Nepali, Pakistani, and Indian backgrounds advanced a social-justice agenda in Hong Kong, in the context of a neoliberal logic pervading provision of schooling and other social services. Expanding on how individual students participated in the enregisterment of a set of discursive and semiotic forms of doing activism (Peréz-Milans & Soto 2017), we shift to a group of female participants, self-dubbed “C-Girls” (C standing for their school class name and values including cooperation, commitment, and cheerfulness). Through description of school assignments, online interactions, and media generated by students, community-based organizations and local mass media, we show how the C-Girls used performative acts of activism in the semiotic production of ethnic and good-girl personae, in service of securing additional funding for their sponsoring social service agency and of advancing social justice goals. From the C-Girls, individual projects also emerged around themes of humanism, patriarchy, and gender that challenged grand narratives of ethnicity and community, contributing to the development of meta-reflexive discourses as community resources for activism. This development provides an excellent language-based entry point to challenging ongoing sociological discussions in which reflexivity is seen as an emergent property of the self that results from increasing uncertainty (Archer 2012). | - |
dc.language | eng | - |
dc.relation.ispartof | Sociolinguistics Symposium | - |
dc.title | Language, activism, and governmentality: A (networked) meta-pragmatic approach | - |
dc.type | Conference_Paper | - |
dc.identifier.email | Soto Pineda, CE: cesoto@hku.hk | - |
dc.identifier.authority | Soto Pineda, CE=rp02431 | - |
dc.identifier.hkuros | 288198 | - |
dc.publisher.place | Auckland, New Zealand | - |