Languages and Social Cohesion by Gabriela Meier Simone Smala

Author:Gabriela Meier, Simone Smala [Gabriela Meier, Simone Smala]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781000442823
Google: DUo5EAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-08-29T03:57:57+00:00

Insights from Theme C: Linguistic belonging

Identification with groups and a sense of belonging have been established as a concern of social sciences research (see Schiefer & van der Noll, 2017; Chan et al., 2006) and language-related disciplines (see Norton & Mc Kinney, 2011; Pavlenko & Norton, 2007). Our review work consolidates and illuminates the idea of linguistic belonging as a struggle (e.g. Lavariega Monforti & Sanchez, 2010; Chan, 2002)d caught between multilingual realities and diverse personal, social and political agendas.

Our systematic review substantiates that these struggles for identification are complex, layered and nuanced, as explored in our review of conceptual literature in Chapter 2 (see for example Atindogbé & Ebongue, 2019; Sengupta, 2018; Sarroub & Quadros, 2014; Blommaert, 2006; Haarmann, 1990). Language repertoires and a sense of belonging, as a dimension of social cohesion, seem to be strongly intertwined concepts. Our review specifically highlighted the tensions that can occur when a range of layered linguistic and cultural belongings are desired, imagined, contested, resisted or denied.

Linguistic and social/cultural belongings can manifest themselves as narratives of self, for example based on life trajectories (Copp Mökkönen, 2013; Heikkinen, 2011; Lien et al., 2003)d, and as subjective positioning of self in society (e.g. Hinterman et al., 2014)d.

Our review strongly supports the argument that language knowledge, and willingness to participate in the social life of a nation, may not be enough to ascertain social participation. For instance, newcomers, when learning the language of a given community might be included in some contexts (e.g. Amit & Bar-Lev, 2015)d, but they may be rejected in others, for instance arising from nationalist (e.g. Pujolar, 2010)d or race-related (e.g. Butorac, 2014; Bourhis et al., 2010)d sentiments, based on underlying norms of who can legitimately belong to a group.

An important strand of the literature is concerned with resistance to belong to additional language communities. This is of particular salience in contexts where one’s own language community (and/or culture) is regarded as being under perceived or real threat, as can be the case in post-colonial contexts (e.g. Ibarra & Calderón, 2016; Chan, 2002)d. The consequence of this can be resistance to – and even withdrawal from – wider societies, which can lead to parallel societies (see Chan et al., 2006; Field, 2003), and pose a problem in terms of social cohesion.

An additional insight relates to the idea that linguistic belonging, as suggested by Pavlenko and Norton (2007) and Anderson (1983), can not only be related to concrete groups of known people, but also to imagined groups of unknown people, for instance to a global group of speakers of a foreign language (e.g. Kubota, 2011; Anya, 2011)d, an ancestral language (Lien et al., 2003)d or a national group who use the same language (Kalocsányiová, 2018).

The insights from our transdisciplinary review established linguistic allegiances as a complex affective factor that is shaped by historical and socio-political contexts and prevailing group norms. In addition, linguistic allegiances help people to make sense of who they and others are in a multilingual society, and in the presence of other socio-demographic factors and how they feel about this.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.