Visualising everyday ethnicity: moving beyond stereotypes of Roma minorities

ABSTRACT

The visual image of Roma people in the media is mired in racialised notions of ‘the other’. Whilst we know what Roma stereotypes look like, there is little clarity as to how a ‘non-stereotypical’ image might be constructed. In order to examine the non-stereotypical, two sources of images are analysed: (1) entrants from an anti-stereotype Roma photography competition and (2) self-representations produced by Roma participants during ethnographic research. The findings show that if ‘Roma’ is foregrounded as the subject, even a non-stereotypical approach can reproduce ‘difference’ (from a supposed ‘norm’). ‘Roma’ is thus, at the moment, still strongly linked to a notion of ethnicity that is seen as different and racialised. However, when ethnicity is not emphasised, but rather self-representations and the ‘everyday’, such orthodoxies are challenged. These sources provide a unique opportunity to create a deeper understanding of ‘non-stereotypical’ images in order to challenge misrepresentations and racism.     

Dialogic landscapes: Toward a nuanced understanding of globalization in urban Indonesian signage

This article shows that a perspective rooted in Bakhtin's dialogism between the fixed centripetal and fluid centrifugal forces of language and culture is useful in achieving a nuanced understanding of globalization in general and semiotic landscapes in Indonesia in particular. Drawing on data from Indonesia, this article shows dialogic interconnections between fixed and fluid notions of languages and cultures through a multimodal and indexical analysis of governmental and commercial signage in the urban center of Semarang, the provincial capital of Central Java. The analysis highlights the nuanced localizing and globalizing strategies in signage and how dialogicity helps shape the semiotic landscape.     

‘And what comes out may be a kind of screeching’: The stylisation of chavspeak in contemporary Britain

This paper discusses stylisations of chavspeak, the supposed language of the chav, a recently emergent and explicitly stereotyped figure that has been implicated in ‘the demonization of the working class’ ( Jones 2011 ). It argues that stylisations of chavspeak draw on a number of well‐established stereotypes of non‐standard Englishes in the British Isles, such that, rather than working as a representation of actual sociolinguistic innovation, chavspeak stylisations can primarily be seen as combinations of well‐recognised stereotypes. The suggestion is made that, in terms of providing a representation of variation at the first order of indexicality, the enregisterment of chavspeak is highly fragmented – a form from here and a form from there – but in terms of ideological force – intensifying sociolinguistic class stereotypes in accordance with the more general stereotype of the chav– there is a coherence. The intended humour of the stylisations is discussed as a feature that reinforces this ideological force, and the inclusion of stereotyped features of black Englishes is discussed as a possible emergent tendency in language ideologies in the British Isles.     

Hellenes and Romans: Oppositional characterological figures and the enregisterment of Istanbul Greek

Language users discursively circulate ideologies of identity, especially in stances taken while assigning social characteristics to enregistered personae. Previous research has demonstrated that with the Istanbul Greek (IG) diaspora, speakers use the emic terms of Ellines and Romioi to orient to or away from Mainland Greeks, respectively. In this paper, I discuss how IGs in Turkey relate such ethnonyms to linguistic features and how they rely on enregistered dialectal features to construct their ethnicity as Romioi in opposition to Ellines. These ethnonyms result in personae that are used stylistically, but in turn fractally (re)create differentiation into separate ethnic categories. Such sociolinguistic processes demonstrate how linguistic variation is socially embedded in a minoritized indigenous speech community. Studying variation in concert with ethnonym use shows how speakers add nuanced meaning to established identity categories and create new ones based on their lived experiences.     

Representing harmony and diversity: media representations of multiculturalism and ethnicity in Singapore

This article investigates multiculturalism and ethnicity in Singapore. The study conducted a qualitative content analysis of articles appearing in the Straits Times newspaper over a three month period in 2010. It was found that multicultural harmony tended to be represented as unnatural, fragile, and requiring government intervention. There also tended to be a focus on distinct and fixed ethnic identities, reflecting an essentialist understanding of ethnicity. These beliefs about the nature of multiculturalism and ethnic identity were reflected in the coverage of three major social issues. These were the perceived needs to maintain the ethnic composition of Singapore’s population, efforts to prevent cultural corruption or neglect, and concerns about the impact of immigration on multicultural harmony.     

The evolution of spirituality and religion in international social work discourse: Strengths and limitations of the contemporary understanding

ABSTRACT

As the profession’s interest in spirituality and religion has grown, new understandings of these two constructs have emerged. As in other areas of academic discourse, it is important to be informed about diverse understandings. Toward this end, the present article describes the emergence of the contemporary understanding of spirituality and religion in social work discourse and, perhaps more importantly, the strengths and limitations associated with the contemporary perspective. By illuminating some of the diverse arguments in favor of and against contemporary conceptualizations, the profession is better equipped to understand and work with these concepts in a professional and ethical manner.     

Staging language: An introduction to the sociolinguistics of performance

Staged performance involves the overt, scheduled identification and elevation of one or more people to perform, with a clearly demarcated distinction between them and the audience. It involves the agentive use of language, building on the foundation of existing social meanings. Staged performances tend to be linguistically stylized, pushing the limits of language creativity. They have the potential to trigger significant sociolinguistic effects, circulating novel forms and contributing to language change. The paradigms used in this theme issue for approaching language performance include Bakhtin's notion of Stylization, Bell's Audience and Referee Design, Silverstein's Indexicality, Agha's Enregisterment, and Bauman's construct of Discursive Culture. Themes that run through the articles include: a concept of identity that is part product, part process; the centrality of the audience; the reflexivity of staged performance; and the importance of non‐linguistic modalities such as music and appearance. The language analysis in this collection of papers concentrates mainly on phonological features of varieties of English, finding instances of selectivity, mis‐realization, overshoot and undershoot in their performances of a range of targeted dialects.     

‘Nobody wants to sound like a provinciano’: The recession of unstressed vowel devoicing in the Spanish of Cusco,Perú1

This study documents changes in the prevalence and evaluation of unstressed vowel devoicing, a salient characteristic of Andean Spanish, in the city of Cusco, Perú following an earthquake in 1950. This event brought city residents into contact with other dialects of Spanish that lack vowel devoicing and also intensified their exposure to the Quechua‐accented Spanish of rural migrants, or provincianos, which is characterized by this pronunciation. Results of an attitude‐perception study indicate that younger Cusqueñans are aware of devoicing and identify it primarily with the speech of provincianos rather than the Spanish of their city. However, acoustic analysis of interviews conducted with Cusqueñans and provincianos shows that, while the pronunciation is receding from Cusco Spanish, many city natives actually exhibit rates of devoicing similar to those of rural migrants. Cusqueñans’ nearly exclusive association of devoicing with provincianos is attributed to local ideology, including negative attitudes toward rural Andean identity. La presente investigación describe cambios en Ia incidencia y evaluación del ensordecimiento de las vocales átonas, una peculiaridad notable del español andino en Cusco, Perú, durante las décadas posteriores al terremoto que devastó Ia ciudad en 1950. Debido a este acontecimiento, los cusqueños aumentaron su contacto con otros dialectos del español que no exhiben el ensordecimiento vocálico así como con el español de los inmigrantes de zonas rurales, o provincianos, que se caracteriza por este fenómeno fonético. Los resultados de un estudio de actitudes indican que los cusqueños jóvenes son conscientes del ensordecimiento vocálico y lo identifican con el acento de los provincianos pero no lo relacionan con el habla de su propia ciudad. Sin embargo, según el análisis acústico de las entrevistas realizadas a cusqueños y a provincianos, muchos residentes de Ia ciudad siguen empleando esta pronunciación con básicamente Ia misma frecuencia que los provincianos. La asociación del ensordecimiento vocálico con los provincianos, casi exclusiva por parte de los cusqueños jóvenes, es atribuida a actitudes negativas hacia Ia identidad rural andina. [Spanish]     

Infrastructures of Sociality: How Disadvantaged Students Navigate Inequity at the University1

Through an ethnography of college life in India, I examine the role of social ties in navigating the inequities of university life. I analyze the socialities of sharing knowledge and resources among disadvantaged students, which I call “infrastructures of sociality.” “Infrastructure” designates here two things: first, the role of the university's infrastructure—its physical spaces and organizational routines—in enabling social ties; and second, the fact that these social ties literally function as infrastructure, in that they make university life possible for disadvantaged students, especially in the context of institutional neglect. I therefore advance Bourdieusian scholarship that views social ties among disadvantaged students as merely lacking in social capital, arguing instead that these ties constitute a form of non-dominant social capital that is analytically distinct and powerful in its own right. Yet, I suggest that these social ties are a double-edged sword: while the intensive mutual aid of disadvantaged students makes university participation possible, it nonetheless rests on exclusion from more privileged social groups. Thus, despite mitigating exclusion from the university, infrastructures of sociality also inadvertently participate in the reproduction of inequality, by reinforcing exclusion from the elite cultural and social resources circulating among privileged students.     

Window to the West: From the Collection of Readers' Letters to the Journal Internatsional'naia literatura

Abstract

Internatsional'naia literatura was the only thick journal during the Stalin period that was entirely devoted to translated literature and it was also the main source that provided Soviet citizens with information about cultural life abroad. Not only pro-Soviet and proletarian foreign authors but also representatives of Western modernism were published in this unique journal. The readers' letters selected for the current publication were written to the editorial board of Internatsional'naia literatura between 1938 and 1940. Now, they are kept in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) in Moscow. These archival documents demonstrate that readers' worldviews were more complex and diverse than was often presented in the official press at that time. The readers evaluate various aspects of the periodical's work and they also criticise cultural policies of the Party-state and the existing system of control over translated literature. These letters offer important insights into cultural life and, more broadly, everyday life on the eve of the Second World War; and they problematize our understanding of Stalinist cultural politics as both monolithic and isolated from the West. Most importantly, the letters demonstrate the appearance in the late 1930s of a category of readers whom we propose to define as 'creative readers'. These readers were ready to express openly opinions that were at odds with the official propaganda of the time. The publication of letters by such reader s is the first step toward a systematic study of this important category of Soviet citizens.     

Understanding ethnic visibility through language use: the case of Taiwan Hakka

This study investigates how the ethnic visibility of Taiwan Hakka is improved through language use. The usage of a unique Hakka symbolic code <nganggiang stiff neck> is focused on. Based on data from the four Taiwan major newspapers, an analysis with text techniques shows that the code emerges along with social-political developments in Taiwan, with its meaning turning from negative to positive connotation. Its frequency is highly correlated with major political events in Taiwan, with peaks during the two or three years before presidential elections. It illustrates semiotic innovation, extending from Hakka to Hakka non-human, to non-Hakka, and to non-Hakka non-human frames. The salient image it creates increases Hakka ethnic visibility and enhances their ethnic identity. A significant implication is that minority ethnic groups can employ a unique symbolic code, empowering it with positive connotation. Through extensive language use, its representation can raise their ethnic visibility and enhance their ethnic identity.     

Tibetan minzu market: the intersection of ethnicity and commodity

In downtown Chengdu a pocket of Tibetan culture has sprung up: a Tibetan market where Tibetans and Han Chinese meet to buy and sell ethnic minority products. Pointing to how Tibetan migration to Chengdu has contributed to the growth of a vibrant ‘minzu market’ attracting Tibetan and Han Chinese merchants, customers, Buddhist devotees, and voyeurs, this article presents novel understandings of the ethnic goods market in urban Chengdu. The article first explores the growth of the market, which is the result of a history of political and economic reforms, increased mobility, and religious revival. Second, it maps the market infrastructure according to the ethnicity of the shopkeepers and the commodities that are traded. Although there is still a clear ethnic division in the market, this article also documents the emergence of Han Chinese market participation in forms of trade that have historically been dominated by Tibetans.     

Tempest-tost: Exile,ethnicity, and the politics of rescue

Refugees are individuals forced to flee from their homelands because of categorical persecution or because they are bystanders caught in the crossfire of war or civil strife. Such involuntary exile often leads to alienation in the most literal sense of the term. Whether expellees, escapees, or displaced persons, refugees share a common fate and, often, a common destiny: those who are dispossessed are dependent on others to provide care, succor, protection, and assistance. Yet responses to their plight are almost invariably highly selective, the quality of mercy being strained by considerations other than pure altruism. This paper, a commentary on the sociology of exile, attempts to convey the sense and significance of estrangement and responses to it in both historical and contemporary contexts. Early sections deal with concepts and concerns; later ones examine United States refugee policies and practices relating to exile, ethnicity, and the politics of rescue.Presidential address presented at the Eastern Sociological Society annual meeting, Arlington, Virginia, April 1992. Some parts of the address have appeared in different form in other publications by the author (see Rose, 1981, 1984, 1991).     

Conceptualising the vertical landscape: The case of the International Finance Centre in the world's most vertical city

This article introduces the crucial yet much overlooked dimension of verticality to landscape‐related research through a case study of one of the most iconic skyscrapers in Hong Kong, the world's most vertical city. A tripartite analytic model is proposed to examine the dialogical interaction between the discursive and material landscapes in a vertical layout, while at the same time to explore the intricate interrelations among social actors, practices, functions of space, levels of access and forms and functions of semiotic resources, all within one single site of varying levels of verticality. In the process, the study reveals the vertical space as a highly stratified and hierarchical system, and underlines the value of taking a functional approach to verticality in order to deepen our understanding of its indexical social meaning and its role as an active agent both in reflecting and shaping social stratification in today's globalised and consumerist world.     

Falling in love again and again: Marlene Dietrich and the iconization of non‐native English1

Icons are those stars who have become widely established and circulated as enduring international cult figures. Numbered among these is Marlene Dietrich, one of a class of international performers who present in English although not native speakers. Her performances can be theorized as Referee Design, by which speakers target linguistic codes other than their own. Dietrich came to stardom in the 1930 German‐made film, The Blue Angel, which provided her career‐long signature tune, ‘Falling in love again’. Analysis of her pronunciation shows her English as markedly non‐native. Her subsequent Hollywood films crafted Dietrich's image, enregistering her non‐native accent and baritone quality as the first and lasting voice of the femme fatale. For three decades from the 1940s Dietrich toured a live show renowned for her stunning costumes. Comparison of a 1964 stage performance of ‘Falling in love again’ reveals her English as much more native but still retaining a hearably different accent, which is now valorized as her distinctive voice. Dietrich's decades of repeated performances established her iconicity, and her appearance and vocal style – both its timbre and pronunciation – were widely circulated, referenced, imitated, and occasionally parodied. Living the femme fatale persona in her own life, and cultivating her image with extreme reflexivity, Marlene Dietrich achieved the ultimate ingroup identification. In language and appearance, she became her own referee. Ikonen sind jene Stars, die sich als bleibende internationale Kultfiguren etabliert haben. Zu diesen zählt Marlene Dietrich, eine derjenigen internationalen Darsteller, die in englischer Sprache auftreten, obgleich es nicht ihre Muttersprache ist. Ihre Darbietungen können als ,Referee Design‘ bezeichnet werden, wobei sich Sprecher eines Codes bedienen, der nicht ihr Eigener ist. Dietrich wurde durch den 1930 produzierten Film Der Blaue Engel zum Star. Diesem entstammt auch der Titel ,Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß‘, welcher zu ihrem Markenzeichen wurde. Die Analyse ihrer Englischaussprache weist sie zu dieser Zeit als Nicht‐Muttersprachlerin aus. Ihre späteren Hollywoodfilme festigten Dietrichs Image. Ihre einzigartige Aussprache und baritonartige Sprechweise wurden zum Sinnbild der .Femme Fatale‘. Ab den 40er Jahren trat Dietrich drei Jahrzehnte lang in einer für ihre atemberaubenden Kostüme bekannten Bühnenaufführung auf. Ein Vergleich mit einer Aufführung von ,Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß‘ aus dem Jahre 1964 zeigt, dass ihre englische Aussprache seither muttersprachlicher geworden ist, aber noch immer einen hörbaren Akzent aufweist, der bereits als ihr Erkennungsmerkmal betrachtet wird. Durch jahrzehntelang wiederholte Aufführungen hat sich Dietrich als Ikone durchgesetzt. Ihr Aussehen und ihre Sprechweise – Klangfarbe sowie Aussprache – waren weit verbreitet und wurden ein Vielfaches nachgeahmt und manchmal sogar parodiert. Dietrich hat die Femme Fatale auch im Privaten gelebt, ihr Image mit höchster Selbstreflexion kultiviert und erreichte dadurch die Spitze der Ingroup‐Identifikation: in Sprache und Aussehen wurde sie ihr eigener ,Referee’. [German]     

On the multiple frontiers of extraction: excavating contemporary capitalism

Understanding the intensification and expansion of extractive industries in contemporary capitalism requires an approach attentive not only to the literal forms of extraction prevalent in mining and agribusiness but also to new fronts of extraction emerging in activities such as data mining and biocapitalism. This article introduces the concept of operations of capital to trace connections between the expansive logic of extraction and capitalist activity in the domains of logistics and finance. Arguing that extractive operations are at large across these domains, we explore their relevance for capital’s relation with its multiple outsides. The resulting analysis provides a basis for mapping struggles against the changing forms of dispossession and exploitation enabled by extraction.     

Bio-logics of Jewishness: media constructions of the nuances of race and ethnicity

ABSTRACT

The specific ethno-racial position of Jewishness offers an ideal case study for contemporary U.S. racialisation processes. Despite a proclaimed end to biologisation in a supposed ‘post-racial’ era, essentialist reasoning remains central to U.S. race-making. Employing a content analysis of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times (2000–2010), I find that biologically rooted constructions of Jewishness occur through appeals to (1) physical definitions based on DNA or phenotype, and (2) subtle biologisation vis-à-vis ancestral claims. Demonstrating both explicit and subtle biologisation expands social scientists’ understanding of race, ethnicity, and Jewish identities.     

Looking for the Holy Grail: Publishing and advertising strategies and contemporary men's magazines

Recent work in gender/queer theory has developed J. L. Austin's notion of performativity to account for the compulsive and repetitive construction of gender as a kind of ‘performance’. This work has failed to examine the role of ‘sound’ in Austin's theory, with important consequences for our understanding of the basis of such an ‘ordinary’ communicative event. This article compares the problems which Austin raises for the securing of communicative events through a concept of sound with the sound experiment in the 1970s pornographic film, The Opening of Misty Beethoven. By linking this complex filmic disruption of the interrelation between desire, sexual performance and sound with a non-Derridean exploration of Austin, this study suggests that theories of the communicative event can be much enriched by examining ideas underlying ‘ordinary sexual intercourse’.     

Swedish welfare responses to ethnicity: the case of children and their families

This article focuses on issues of racism and ethnic discrimination in the operation of the Swedish child welfare system and the broader societal context. It draws primarily upon a qualitative study which explored discourses about ethnicity, gender and age within the Swedish child welfare system but also uses some data from several recent transnational European studies. It suggests that the Swedish welfare system may be far less benign in challenging racism and ethnic discrimination than it is when assessed along more ‘mainstream’ comparative measures associated with poverty alleviation or issues of work in the labour market and home. The article notes that very similar findings occur when gendered violence to women and children is placed in focus rather than ethnicity. Finally some tentative possible explanations for these welfare patterns are suggested as the basis for future research and elaboration.