The article examines smartphone use among Middle Eastern refugee families recently resettled in northern New Jersey as an opportunity to reconceptualize the language barrier during the early stages of refugee resettlement. Smartphone access and use among families reveal the interlinguistic conditions of life in resettlement, and ethnographic research demonstrates the way a tech‐savvy population, conventionally considered “digitally unprepared,” creatively approaches communication. We explore smartphones as tools of translanguaging: a strategy in which speakers “mesh” and weave linguistic repertoires together. Qualitative research upends the idea of a language barrier as final or surmountable only through formal language instruction. Instead, smartphones offer multimodal communicative strategies with pragmatic and affective dimensions. We argue that refugees’ own culturally specific interactional norms and priorities can be revalorized within host societies as foundations for linguistic and social integration.
The grassroots struggle against the U.S. Navy in Vieques transcended highly divisive colonial politics to build unprecedented political solidarity in Puerto Rico. The success of the recent Vieques movement in shutting down a U.S. Navy live-fire training facility contrasts with the experience of an earlier grassroots struggle in the 1970s. Whereas cold-war politics impeded the earlier activists from forging the alliances and formulating the vision that might advance their cause, a changed political context in the 1990s opened up a new space for protest to develop. Activists' new focus on peace was crucial to strengthening, expanding, and internationalizing the Vieques movement.
Since protest forced the US Navy off Vieques Island, Puerto Rico in 2003, the US military has embarked on one of the largest environmental remediation projects it has ever undertaken. This article explores the way a narrowly conceived, technocratic cleanup process is translated onto an island with a deep history of grassroots mobilization and antagonism towards federal authority. The Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) is a crucible for considering the uneasy dynamics of cleanup. US law enshrines the RAB as the principal venue for "public participation" in the cleanup process. However, the prevailing technocratic framework, constrained by underresourced bureaucratic agencies, clashes with more encompassing concepts of environmental justice. Citizen members of the RAB, nonetheless, approach the committee as a point of access to information about the remediation process, and leverage their participation as a tool for advancing a broader set of environmental justice claims. Key Words: environmental remediation, military, Environmental Protection Agency, US Navy, US Fish and Wildlife Service, environmental justice, citizen participation, Puerto Rico. RésuméDes protestations ont forcé l'US Navy à quitter l'île de Vieques, à Puerto Rico, en 2003. Depuis lors, l'armée américaine a mené l'un de ses plus grands projets d'assainissement de l'environnement. Cet article explore comment un processus de nettoyage technocratique est traduit sur une île avec une histoire profonde de mobilisation de la base et d'antagonisme envers l'autorité fédérale. Le Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) illustre la dynamique difficile du nettoyage. La loi américaine fait de la RAB le principal lieu de «participation du public» au processus de nettoyage. Cependant, le cadre technocratique dominant, contraint par des organismes bureaucratiques sous-financés, se heurte à des concepts plus englobants de justice environnementale. Les citoyens membres du RAB approchent le comité comme un point d'accès à l'information sur le processus d'assainissement. Ils utilisent leur participation comme un outil pour faire avancer un ensemble plus large de revendications de justice environnementale. Mots clés: assainissement de l'environnement, militaire, Environmental Protection Agency, US Navy, US Fish and Wildlife Service, justice environnementale, participation citoyenne, Puerto Rico. ResumenDesde que protestas forzaron a la marina de Estados Unidos a abandonar Isla de Vieques, Puerto Rico en 2003, las fuerzas armadas estadounidenses emprendieron uno de sus mayores proyectos de descontaminación. Este artículo explora la manera en que un proceso de limpieza, tecnocrático y de estrecha planeación, se traduce a una isla con una larga historia de movilizaciones populares y de antagonismo contra la autoridad federal. La Junta de Consejo para la Restauración (RAB) es la razón para considerar la complicada dinámica en el proceso de limpieza. Las leyes estadounidenses consignan al RAB como la principal instancia para la "participación pública" durante la limpieza....
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