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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 860

Part of Session 162: Urban linguistic practice and performance in the Greek-speaking city (Other abstracts in this session)

Language and lifestyle in Athens

Authors: Kailoglou, Eleftherios
Submitted by: Kailoglou, Eleftherios (University of Worcester, United Kingdom)

Traditional variationist approaches linked linguistic variation to social class and place of residence (NORM). In late modernity, sociolinguistic variation is increasingly linked to the notion of lifestyle. A lifestyle can be defined as a more or less integrated set of practices which an individual embraces, not only because such practices fulfil utilitarian needs, but because they give material form to a particular narrative of self-identity (Giddens 1991:81). According to Featherstone (2007:84), “the new heroes of consumer culture make lifestyle a life project and display their individuality and sense of style in the particularity of the assemblage of goods, clothes, practices, experiences, appearance and bodily dispositions they design together into a lifestyle”. Chatterton and Hollands (2003) distinguish three main types of nightlife consumption spaces: mainstream, residual, and alternative. Looking at three communities of practice (Eckert 2000), I will discuss the urban styles employed by their members. Each group consists of patrons of 3 central squares in Athens. These squares are associated with different lifestyles, music subcultures and urban tribes: Kolonaki Square (businessmen/businesswomen, intellectuals, stars, artists, politicians,)  Exarheia Square (Anarchists, Rockers, Students, Hardcore, Electro), Mavili Square (“Alternative” youth, Rockers, Students, Hardcore, Electro). According to my findings, stylistic variation is linked to consumption places (mainstream and alternative) related to different subcultures.

References:

Chatterton, P. and Hollands, R. (2003), Urban Nightscapes: Youth Cultures, Pleasure Spaces and Corporate Power, Oxon: Routledge.

Giddens, A. (1991), Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Eckert, P. (2000), Linguistic Variation as Social Practice: The Linguistic      Construction of Identity in Belten High,Oxford: Blackwell Publishing

Featherstone, M. (2007), Consumer Culture and Postmodernism (2nd edn.), London: Sage Publications