Chronotopic representations as an effect of individuation: The case of the European migrant crisis

Abstract

This article discusses internet memes in their capacity to prompt affective responses on social media in the aftermath of the migrant crisis. The focus is on Facebook pages devoted to geopolitical satire meme-comics known as countryballs and their uptake with regard to the proposed migrant relocation mechanisms. Engagement with internet memes reveals a multilayered complexity behind what is often simplistically portrayed as pro- or anti-migrant sentiment. In order to account for this complexity, the paper combines Gilbert Simondon's theory of individuation with Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of the chronotope currently developed in interactional sociolinguistics along the lines of symbolic interactionism. Finally, this article shows that memes are not a mere product of participatory culture, but rather a powerful instigator of technosocial and often heteroglossic practices that co-organize social life in the new polycentric collectivities appearing on social media. (Chronotope, individuation, internet memes, countryballs, Facebook, identity)*

Chapter 4. Modeling regional variation in voice onset time of Jutlandic varieties of Danish

“…The term ethnonational discourse is used here to talk about how an essentialist category of "German" is constructed which includes descent as a primary focus (Fuller 2018a, Metzger and Özvatan 2020, Özvatan 2020Römhild 1999). The Germanness of those seen as descendants of a homogeneous folk linked to Germany is not questioned within this discourse, and those who have other backgrounds do not belong to this category.…”