Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1055

Part of Session 165: Language, Place and Identity (Other abstracts in this session)

Place as influential factor in identity constructions in superdiverse Denmark

Authors: Ag, Astrid; Schøning, Signe Wedel
Submitted by: Ag, Astrid (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

Place as influential factor in identity constructions in superdiverse Denmark

Astrid Ag, astridag@hum.ku.dk

Signe Wedel Schøning, sws@hum.ku.dk

University of Copenhagen

To capture the complex processes of globalization, recent sociolinguistic studies have developed new conceptions of established notions such as language, identity and place (Blommaert 2010, Pennycook 2007). This is due to language users having access to multiple linguistic and cultural resources, which make their identity resources and linguistic repertoires less predictable and more complex. Vertovec (2010) describes this social condition as “superdiversity”.

The aim of our study is to illustrate how sociolinguistic superdiversity assumes character in central and peripheral urban areas in present-day Denmark. By focusing on two different places in Denmark, we scrutinise how place plays an important role both in the construction and negotiation of identities and in the social value ascriptions to linguistic features.

In the presentation we compare poly-lingual practices (Jørgensen 2010, Møller 2009) in inner city Copenhagen and in a small town in a peripheral place in the Western-most part of Denmark. We ask the following questions:

1) How do adolescents in different parts of Denmark construct and negotiate social relations and social identities?

2) How do the local place and sense of belonging influence these constructions?

To answer these research questions we carry out sequentially based micro-analyses, inspired by Rampton (2006), of social interaction in everyday encounters. Poly-lingual practices tend to be associated with highly urban areas. However, our analyses suggest that similar social and linguistic processes are employed in both centre and periphery, but that identity constructions, linguistic practices and linguistic scales (Blommaert 2006) are influenced by and oriented towards the geographical, local place. In our analyses we look at linguistic features ascribed to different registers (Agha 2007), such as Urdu, English, and traditional West Jutland dialect. We discuss how these are employed in identity work and how they are evaluated and ascribed different social values by adolescents in the centre and periphery, respectively.

The data consist of self-recordings made by adolescents with peers and family members and interviews. The data are part of two sociolinguistic and ethnographic studies in Copenhagen and in a small town, respectively. The participants in the Copenhagen study are primarily linguistic minorities and the participants in the small town study are primarily linguistic majorities.

Agha, A. (2007): Language and social Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Blommaert, J. (2010): The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press

Blommaert, J. (2006): Sociolinguistic scales. Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies, 37

Jørgensen, J.N. (2010): Languaging. Nine years of poly-lingual development of Turkish-Danish grade school students. Copenhagen Studies in Bilingualism, The Køge Series. Copenhagen: Copenhagen University

Møller, J.S. (2009): Poly-lingual interaction across childhood, youth and adulthood. PhD dissertation, University of Copenhagen

Pennycook, A. (2007): Language as a Local Practice. London: Routledge

Rampton, B. (2006): Language in Late Modernity. Interaction in an urban school. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Vertovec, S. (2010): Towards post-multiculturalism? Changing communities, conditions and contexts of diversity. In International Social Science Journal 199, pp. 83-95

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

Place as influential factor in identity constructions in superdiverse Denmark