Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
11004550 | Language & Communication | 2018 | 12 Pages |
Abstract
This article explores the dynamics between language and identity categories and the boundaries produced in a changing multilingual, indigenous context in the Arctic region of Finland. In this moment of transition, indigenous multilingualism has high stakes. It can be a resource for political and economic development but also for management and regimentation, open to winners and losers. Drawing on a longitudinal critical discourse ethnography of producing language and identity categories in the Finnish Arctic, I discuss three circulating discourses relevant for the ways in which indigenous identity boundaries are made to matter, namely strategic, aspirational and affective multilingualism. I argue that the processes at work are neither simple nor linear, but must be understood as organic, interwoven, and rhizomatic.
Related Topics
Social Sciences and Humanities
Arts and Humanities
Language and Linguistics
Authors
Sari Pietikäinen,