Introduction: Sociolinguistics and computer-mediated communication

This theme issue of Journal of Sociolinguistics comprises a number of empirical studies focusing on a range of ways in which people use language in computer-mediated communication (CMC). This introduction contextualizes the contributions to this issue by providing an outline of linguistically focused CMC studies. A critique of the research on the 'language of CMC' is given, and aspects of CMC research from a sociolinguistic viewpoint are presented: the move from the 'language of CMC' to socially situated computer-mediated discourse; its grounding in the notion of online community; and the application of sociolinguistic methodologies to its study. It is argued that CMC provides a new empirical arena for various research traditions in sociolinguistics; conversely, sociolinguistics can contribute to the interdisciplinary theorizing of CMC by demonstrating the role of language use and linguistic variability in the construction of interpersonal relationships and social identities on the Internet.     

Intentions and strategies among elderly people: Coping in everyday life

Many studies of the elderly adopt a provider perspective, focusing on social policy, organizations, and professional groups. Less is known about how the elderly manage when they eventually need help in everyday living. This study examined the everyday behavior and strategies of the elderly through conducting semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 22 people over age 65. The intentions and strategies found revealed that the elderly managed or coped in active, adaptive, and passive ways, ranged along a continuum from actively maintaining their independence to passively depending on others.     

Making a place in Footscray: everyday multiculturalism,ethnic hubs and segmented geography

In this article, we explore through analyses of interviews the meanings and experiences of everyday multiculturalism in a suburb in Melbourne, Australia. The people we interviewed valued and experienced diversity in different, yet interrelated ways: as an experience of multiculturalism, as providing comfort in diversity and as embodied in ethnic hubs in a segmented geography. Everyday racism can make forging belonging and connections across diverse ethnic groups difficult. Yet, Footscray is constructed as a place in which diversity is regarded as normative and protective. Our focus on a local suburb has allowed us to develop insight into the diverse ways identities are constituted through multiple understandings and experiences of diversity.     

Weak ties and contact initiation in everyday life: Exploring contextual variations from contact diaries

This study examines how the significance of weak ties varies by contact initiation and purposes of contact in everyday life. Based on data from 55 contact diaries, we analyze the extent to which diary keepers judge each of 104,361 specific contacts as beneficial after they occur, by how well they knew the target person beforehand. Our hypothesis testing and bootstrap resampling show that when a diary keeper initiates a contact, weak ties result in more gains. In contrast, when the other party starts the contact, it is strong rather than weak ties that turn out to be more beneficial to the diary keeper. Such effects vary by other contextual factors, however, particularly the purposes of contacts.     

The effects of option generation on post-decisional regret in everyday life decision-making: A field experiment

While previous studies on post-decisional regret have exclusively focused on externally provided options, the present study is the first to examine post-decisional regret in situations with self-generated options. Applying a metacognitive perspective, we predicted that a large option set-size leads to less post-decisional regret than a small option set-size. This hypothesis is in contrast to the classic choice overload effect which has been reported for externally provided options. Furthermore, we hypothesized that explicitly generating options results in less post-decisional regret than not doing so. We used a field experimental design to test our two hypotheses. On a Sunday morning, participants were asked to generate either three or six options for what they could do during the afternoon and to select one of these options. In a control condition, participants were not instructed to generate options. On Sunday evening, participants indicated how much they regretted not having done something else. Our results provide support for both hypotheses.     

Algorithms (and the) everyday

ABSTRACT

Our everyday practices are increasingly mediated through online technologies, entailing the navigation and also oft-simultaneous creation of large quantities of information and communication data. The scale and types of activities being undertaken, the data that are being created and engaged with, and the possibilities for analysis, archiving and distribution are now so extensive that technical constructs are necessarily required as a way to manage, interpret and distribute these. These constructs include the platforms, the software, the codes and the algorithms. This paper explores the place of the algorithm in shaping and engaging with the contemporary everyday. It does this via an exploration of some particular instances of algorithmic sorting and presentation as well as considering some of the ways these contribute to shaping our everyday practices and understandings. In doing so, it raises questions about understandings of agency and power, shifting world views and our complex relationship with technologies.     

Why the personal remained political: comparing second and third wave perspectives on everyday feminism

Everyday feminist practices are located in the personal lives of feminists, therefore, third wave feminists frequently use the slogan the personal is political to emphasise the political value of such practices. Often, second wave feminists do not agree with this interpretation of the famous feminist catchphrase, which initially meant to call for collective political responses to personal experiences of gender inequalities. This article investigates this dispute that is symbolic of the broader relationship between second and third wave feminism. It compares both perspectives on everyday feminism by relating arguments for and against the political value of everyday feminism to empirical findings of a qualitative study. Based on 40 interviews with second and third wave feminists in New Zealand, I argue that the dispute is based on a number of misunderstandings between the opposing perspectives. Disentangling those misunderstandings, I conclude that although everyday feminism as a manifestation of ‘the personal’ works towards ‘small’ political aims, it is a political practice.     

#IAmNotAfraidToSayIt: stories of sexual violence as everyday political speech on Facebook

ABSTRACT

The debate about the power and influence of networked publics often focuses on large-scale political events, activist campaigns and protest activity – the more visible forms of political engagement. On the other hand, digitally mediated activism is often questioned and sometimes derided as a lesser form of dissent, as it is easier to engage in, highly affective, and offers few assurances of sustainability of the change it calls for. But what about everyday political speech online, where social media platforms can contribute to a personalisation of politics? Can social media users express their views online and make a difference? This paper analyses around 3500 Facebook posts stemming from the #ЯНеБоюсьСказати (Ukrainian for #IAmNotAfraidToSayIt) online campaign that was started in the Ukrainian segment of Facebook in July 2016 by a local activist to raise awareness of how widespread sexual violence and sexual harassment are in the Ukrainian society. The paper argues that networked conversations about everyday rights and affective stories about shared experiences of injustice, underpinned by the affordances of social media platforms for sharing and discussing information and participating in everyday politics, can emerge as viable forms of networked feminist activism and can have real impact on the discursive status quo of an issue, both in the digital sphere and beyond it.     

Critical perspectives on language(s)

Books reviewed in this article:
A. Suresh Canagarajah, Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Teaching
Robert Phillipson (ed.), Rights to Language: Equity, Power, and Education
Alastair Pennycook, Critical Applied Linguistics: A Critical Introduction     

Intercultural education in everyday practice

While there is substantive work in intercultural education, especially that which proposes intellectual or conceptual road maps for pedagogic interculturalism and, more specifically for the classroom, there is a need to surface the complexity of everyday intercultural classroom practices. This article reflects on some Singapore students’ responses to materials designed to help them engage critically with intercultural issues. These responses can be categorized into three types of tajectories: reifying, critical and conflicted. Reifying practices basically mean that students essentialize individuals, communities and countries despite (and perhaps because of) the intercultural approach to the teaching of communication. Critical trajectories, on the other hand, showcase students’ ability to identify stereotypes and provide much more nuanced characterizations of individuals and countries. Conflicted trajectories, however, seem to be the most dominant classroom practice: these are attempts of students to be critical but, in practice, their criticality is enmeshed in reifying tendencies. In other words, ‘criticality’ as it is envisioned is always incomplete on the ground. Thus, we need micro-lenses in interculturalism and intercultural education to help us critically reflect on and surface essentialisms, tensions and struggles in everyday classroom practice.     

Embodying the breach: (In)securitization and ethnographic engagement in the US

In this commentary, the author offers three related perspectives regarding (in)securitization: first, an overview of ongoing discussions taking place among US‐based ethnographers of colour about the effects of surveillance on ethnography; second, an example of the impact that (in)securitization may have on the researcher/researched relationship in contemporary ethnographic research; and third, an extension of Garfinkel’s notion of the “breach” within the current sociopolitical context. Throughout this essay, the author calls for a greater sense of connection to and solidarity with those “vulnerable subjects” that we engage with ethnographically.     

Language and (in)securitization: Observations from educational research and practice in conflict‐affected contexts

Spurred in part by violent conflict and natural disaster, the surge in global migration calls for renewed attention to the central role of language in everyday (in)securitization. In this brief response, I draw on my work in the Middle East and among Arabic‐speaking populations in the United States to offer some illustration of the instantiation of global, macro‐processes of (in)securitization and surveillance in the everyday micro‐practices of schooling—issues that are possible to “see” when language policy is the site of inquiry. In centring everyday communicative practice, sociolinguistics provides a distinctive entry point for examining the lived experience of this (in)securitization, by illuminating pervasive and mundane micro‐processes within the “extraordinary” and routinized social interactions of everyday schooling.     

Developing a Multicomponent Model of Nutritious Food Access and Related Implications for Community and Policy Practice

Access to nutritious foods is limited in disenfranchised communities in the United States. Policies are beginning to focus on improving nutritious food access in these contexts; yet, few theories are available to guide this work. We developed a conceptual model of nutritious food access based on the qualitative responses of food consumers in 2 different regions of the American South. Five domains (economic, service delivery, spatial–temporal, social, and personal) and related dimensions of nutritious food access were identified. The conceptual model provides practical guidance to researchers, policy makers, and practitioners working to improve nutritious food access in communities.     

Creating a community of practice among college campus food pantry directors in Michigan

There is increased awareness of hunger and food insecurity on college campuses. Recent estimates suggest that food insecurity affects as many as 4 out of 10 college students. As a result, over 650 US colleges have established campus food pantries. The College and University Pantries (CUP) research team at the University of Michigan–Dearborn has worked to create a community of practice in Michigan among campus pantry directors by hosting 2 summits designed around networking, problem-solving, and sharing best practices. This article describes the Michigan community of practice as an example for other regions doing similar work.     

PROMOTING COMMUNITY GARDENING TO LOW-INCOME URBAN PARTICIPANTS IN THE WOMEN,INFANTS AND CHILDREN PROGRAMME (WIC) IN NEW MEXICO

This study explores the effectiveness of methods used by nutrition educators in promoting the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) community garden project in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. A survey of 257 clients from five clinics found that less than 30% of clients have been exposed to the project and caseload was unrelated to the methods used to promote the project. However, clients exposed to any method of promotion were more likely to garden than those who were not exposed. Most importantly, clients reported eating more vegetables after being exposed to the project.

Los métodos utilizados por educadores de nutrición a promover el proyecto de jardín comunitario Mujeres, Infantes y Niños (WIC) en Albuquerque, New México, E.E.U.U. están examinados por este estudio. Una encuesta de 257 clientes en cinco clínicos indicó que menos que 30% de ellos conocieron el proyecto y también que demanda en los clínicos no se relacionó a los métodos de promoción utilizados. Sin embargo los clientes expuestos a cualquier método de promoción mostraron una probabilidad más alta de establecer un jardín que mostraron ellos no expuestos. Además y de alta importancia los clientes expuestos al proyecto reportaron el consumo de más vegetales.     

Patterns of practice: a reflection on the development of quantitative/mixed methodologies capturing everyday life related to water consumption in the UK

There is a growing body of research arguing the relevance of practice approaches to understand resource consumption, and to highlight alternative pathways to sustainability. These practice approaches offer an alternative conceptualisation of demand and have been demonstrated largely by qualitative research, particularly in the work on water and energy consumption in the home. However, these historical narratives and qualitative research have not, to date, lead to the development of quantitative or mixed methodologies that could potentially reflect the diversity of performances of practice across populations in a more systematic way. This paper reflects, critically, on one such attempt to scale a practice-based perspective into a quantitative survey on water consumption and practice in homes in the south and South-East of England. The use of quantitative and mixed methodology has substantial potential – from translating practice-based research to policy; developing indictors to track patterns of practices as they change over time; and the exploration of methodologies that reflect the bundling and coordination of practices associated with water use inside and outside the home. The benefits and utility of such a methodological approach are highlighted as cautions and future research directions.     

Job insecurity and well-being: A longitudinal study among male and female employees in finland

Job insecurity has grown dramatically in Finland, as elsewhere. This study examined the relationships between a specific job stressor, i.e. job insecurity, and occupational, overall and family well-being, by utilizing one-year follow-up data collected among male and female employees in Finland. Occupational well-being was assessed via job exhaustion, overall well-being via somatic symptoms, and family well-being via work spillover into parenthood. The study was carried out by means of questionnaires, which were completed twice, in 1995 and in 1996 by employees in four organizations. This article is based on the data of those respondents (n = 219)j who participated in the study in both years. The results indicated gender differences in the predictive relationships between the job insecurity and well-being indicators. For the women job insecurity perceived in 1995 increased job exhaustion and negative work spillover into parenthood in the subsequent year. For the men, in turn, job insecurity did not have negative effects on well-being over a one-year period. Hence, job insecurity seemed to operate as a long-lasting job stressor for the women only. Job insecurity and well-being were both relatively stable among the sexes during the follow-up period. Implications for supporting work and family in the context of increased job insecurity and other changes in working life in Finland and other industrialized countries are discussed.