Ethnography of Communication

‘We don't do anything’: analysing legitimate knowledge construction in multilingual schools

by Miguel Pérez Milans

In co-authorship with Patiño, A. & Relaño, A.M. (in press). To be published in Journal of Language and Education

This paper focuses on the production of legitimate knowledge in the multicultural and multilingual classrooms of two... more This paper focuses on the production of legitimate knowledge in the multicultural and multilingual classrooms of two different programs intended to “attend diversity” in the Madrid region. Following a critical sociolinguistic approach, we discuss the links between local discursive practices, institutional and wider social and ideological order. Our data analysis reveals the social order (re)produced in what counts as legitimate knowledge and its conditions of production and distribution in the context of two middle schools (i.e. how it is taught, who is considered a legitimate agent in the transmission of knowledge, who decides what the legitimate sources of knowledge are, who bears valid knowledge in the classroom, who knows and who does not, etc.). We also document some of the consequences of this process for a group of students of different immigrant backgrounds recently arrived in the Madrid classrooms, in terms of their academic success and social mobility. 

KEY WORDS: Critical Sociolinguistic Ethnography, legitimate knowledge, multilingual schools, de-capitalization.

Sanctities, Blasphemies and the (Jewish) Nation: Commemorative Inscriptions at a National Memorial Site in Israel

by Chaim Noy

Summary of The ethnography of speaking and the structure of conversation & Locating variation in speech

by Milward Abadía

Freedom of expression, hate speech, and models of personhood in Hungarian political discourse

by David Boromisza-Habashi

Boromisza-Habashi, D. (2007). Freedom of expression, hate speech, and models of personhood in Hungarian political discourse. Communication Law Review, 7, 54-74.

In this ethnography of communication study I will explore how the cultural concepts “freedom of expression/opinion”... more In this ethnography of communication study I will explore how the cultural concepts “freedom of expression/opinion” (véleménynyilvánítás szabadsága) and “hate speech” (gyűlöletbeszéd) function in a specific cultural discursive system, Hungarian political discourse. I will accomplish this goal through the analysis of situated interaction at a series of parliamentary committee meetings. The ethnographic data under consideration consists of instances in which members of the Hungarian Parliament discussed the implications of a bill proposing changes to the criminal code regarding hate speech. I will show that the freedom of expression as a cultural concept is inextricably linked with the concept of “the violation of human dignity” in situated political discourse. This linkage, however, becomes the site of conflict as it is interpreted in competing ways by those who see human dignity as the possession of persons-as-individuals and those who assign it to persons-as-members-of-communities. These models of personhood give rise to conflicting communal norms, and the norms animate conflicting proposals for sanctioning hate speech. My analysis joins a small but increasing body of field-level studies of the freedom of expression that approach the concept of free expression as a cultural construct.

Voice and moral accountability: Burlesque narratives in televised Hungarian political discourse

by David Boromisza-Habashi

Boromisza-Habashi, D. (2007). Voice and moral accountability: Burlesque narratives in televised Hungarian political discourse. SKY Journal of Linguistics, 20, 81-107.

The essay makes advances toward identifying the form and function of burlesque narrative as a discursive resource in... more The essay makes advances toward identifying the form and function of burlesque narrative as a discursive resource in broadcast interaction. It complements existing studies of burlesque in spoken discourse through the examination of situated interaction in a televised Hungarian political talk show (Sajtóklub). The study includes the analysis of a segment of interaction characterized as a bounded episode of interactionally managed burlesque narrative. Burlesque narratives are identified as narratives in which the speaker adopts a persona and performs imaginary actions in the ideological universe of an adversary that reveal the absurdity of that universe and the insidious motives of the adversary. The burlesque narrative emerges as a speech genre that speakers employ in the specific situational context of the political talk show and the discursive context of perceived political provocation (1) to render the adversary’s stance to a public issue absurd, (2) to mitigate their own accountability for the norm violation that this rendering may constitute in the eye of the lampooned adversary, (3) to create opportunities for participant affiliation by means of humor. The analysis also shows that in the extended context of Hungarian political discourse the burlesque narrative functions as a counter-discourse in opposition to a perceived dominant political discourse.

Discourse beyond language: Cultural rhetoric, revelatory insight, and nature

by David Boromisza-Habashi

Carbaugh, D. & Boromisza-Habashi, D. (2011). Discourse beyond language: Cultural rhetoric, revelatory insight, and nature. In C. Meyer & F. Girke (Eds.), The rhetorical emergence of culture (pp. 101-118). Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books.

The cultural foundations of denials of hate speech in Hungarian broadcast talk

by David Boromisza-Habashi

Boromisza-Habashi, D. (2012). The cultural foundations of denials of hate speech in Hungarian broadcast talk. Discourse & Communication, 6, 3-20. doi:10.1177/1750481311427793

In Hungarian public talk, ‘hate speech’ (gyulöletbeszéd) is a term commonly used to morally sanction the talk of... more In Hungarian public talk, ‘hate speech’ (gyulöletbeszéd) is a term commonly used to morally sanction the talk of others. The article describes two dominant interpretive strategies Hungarian speakers use to identify instances of ‘hate speech’. Motivated by an interest in the observable use of the term, the author draws on speech codes theory to investigate how public speakers use the two competing meanings of ‘hate speech’ to achieve moral challenges and counter-challenges in broadcast talk. The author finds that Hungarian speakers accused of ‘hate speech’ can effectively accomplish denials in response to actual or anticipated normative challenges by opting for an alternative meaning of ‘hate speech’. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for speech codes theory, the discourse analysis of denials, and antiracist action.

How are political concepts ‘essentially’ contested?

by David Boromisza-Habashi

Boromisza-Habashi, D. (2010). How are political concepts ‘essentially’ contested? Language & Communication, 30, 276-284. doi:10.1016/j.langcom.2010.04.002

The purpose of the research presented in this article is to advance a culturally informed theory of political... more The purpose of the research presented in this article is to advance a culturally informed theory of political terminology, with special attention to essentially contested political terms. The article proposes that a comprehensive theory of political terminology must account for participants’ reasons for engaging in essential contestation. In the case of essentially contested concepts, the reason for engagement is concern with moral trouble in the speech community. Through a culturally oriented discourse analysis of a call-in exchange on Hungarian state radio the article demonstrates that the use of the essentially contested term gyuulöletbeszéd (‘hate speech’) emerges as a response to multiple norm violations, and serves the purpose of oppositional membering and redress.

Dismantling the antiracist “hate speech” agenda in Hungary: An ethno-rhetorical analysis

by David Boromisza-Habashi

Boromisza-Habashi, D. (2011). Dismantling the antiracist “hate speech” agenda in Hungary: An ethno-rhetorical analysis. Text & Talk, 31, 1-19. doi:10.1515/TEXT.2011.001

In the context of Hungarian political discourse, critics of contemporary antiracist advocacy argue that the antiracist... more In the context of Hungarian political discourse, critics of contemporary antiracist advocacy argue that the antiracist “hate speech” agenda is motivated by carefully concealed political interests that pose a danger to the integrity of Hungarian society. The aim of the present article is twofold: to capture the themes and rhetorical strategies emerging from discursive challenges to the “hate speech” agenda, and to identify the cultural foundations of that rhetoric. The article identifies four themes in critical responses to the “hate speech” agenda: (i) the “hate speech” agenda is founded on the deliberate corruption of the Hungarian language; (ii) the “hate speech” agenda reveals that antiracists are pursuing an alien political utopia; (iii) the “hate speech” agenda is fraught with ideological inconsistency; and (iv) antiracist proponents of the “hate speech” agenda are themselves filled with hatred. Discursive manifestations of the four themes are analyzed for a shared cultural model of sociation and argumentative strategies. The article ends with a discussion of how findings may inform antiracist activism.

Comparing Language and Social Interaction

by David Boromisza-Habashi

2012. Co-authored with Susana Martínez-Guillem, published in The Handbook of Comparative Communication Research (ICA Handbook Series, Routledge)

Ho, E. Y., Koenig, C. J., Wingard, L. & Bansavich, J. (2009). Learning LSI means doing LSI: Reflections on technology use in two Language and Social Interaction courses. Electronic Journal of Communication, 19(1-2).

by Evelyn Y. Ho

Language and Superdiversity (Blommaert & Rampton 2012)

by Jan Blommaert

Positioning proficiency: How students and teachers (de) construct language proficiency at school

by Melinda Martin-Beltran

Complexity, accent and conviviality

by Jan Blommaert

Book review: COLLEEN COTTER, News talk: Investigating the language of journalism.

by Tom Van Hout

Published in Language in Society 41:2 (2012), 270-272

What are we trying to preserve? Diversity, change, and ideology at the edge of the Cameroonian Grassfields

by Pierpaolo Di Carlo

Manuscript, co-authored with Jeff Good

Discussions of endangered languages often frame language death as being associated with the loss of knowledge as... more Discussions of endangered languages often frame language death as being associated with the loss of knowledge as embedded in particular languages. At the same time, it is also clear that the losses associated with language endangerment need not be restricted to individual language systems but can also involve the disappearance of distinctive language ecologies. This paper explores the language dynamics of the Lower Fungom region of Northwest Cameroon, which offers an extreme case of linguistic diversity within the already exceptionally diverse Cameroonian Grassfields, focusing on what we can learn by looking at the languages from an areal and ethnographically-informed perspective. In particular, key aspects of the local language ideologies will be explored in some detail, and it will be argued that in this area languages are used to symbolize relatively ephemeral political formations and, hence, should not be taken as reflections of deeply-rooted historical identities. This conclusion has significance both regarding how research projects in the area should be structured as well as for what it might mean to “preserve” the languages of a region which historically appears to have been characterized by frequent language loss and emergence conditioned by changes in political structures.

Lookalike language (column 'English Today', 2012)

by Jan Blommaert

Writing as a problem: African grassroots writing, economies of literacy, and globalization

by Jan Blommaert

14.The Vatican of the diaspora

by Jan Blommaert

Pretextuality and pretextual gaps: On de/refining linguistic inequality

by Jan Blommaert