Speaking 'the Other'?: Youths' regimentation and policing of contemporary urban vernacular

This article analyses youths' commentary on the contemporary urban vernacular Förortssvenska in an inner-city senior high school in Sweden. Combining a linguistic landscape approach with analytical tools from linguistic anthropology, this paper explores how political discourse are articulated in imagery and texts in the high school and refracted in meta-linguistic commentary among the students. The analysis show how the students draw on US-activist discourse as they insert the notion of 'cultural appropriation' into discussions on the use, and policing, of Förortssvenska at the high school. This everyday regimentation of urban vernacular is entangled with negotiations of identity, multiculturalism and space.