Digital polycentricity and diasporic connectivity: A Norwegian‐Senegalese case study

Abstract

Digital communication remains largely unexplored in sociolinguistic research on diaspora and language. In this paper, ethnographically collected data from Norway-based families of Senegalese heritage are explored to identify how family members use digital media to engage with diaspora concerns and projects, and how this engagement shapes their multilingual practices online. We re-contextualize the concept of polycentricity (Blommaert et al.) from the physical setting of a neighbourhood or region to complex ecologies of digital media, and identify four 'centres', that is, distinct orientations for participants' digital language and literacy practices, in which linguistic choices are associated with diaspora discourses, genres, and imagery. Each centre constrains the deployment of linguistic and semiotic resources in ways that are related both to historically rooted sociolinguistic hierarchies and affordances of digital media. The findings support a key claim in language and diaspora research, that is, the fine-grained patterning of linguistic resources in diaspora communities. They also underscore the need to extend the empirical scope of a sociolinguistics of diaspora from co-present to mediated interaction, and to explore the interplay between the two.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Translocalizing the space of old Nubia in digital narrative: Resemiotized chronotopes as markers of identity

“…Focusing on the digital affordances available to online diaspora communities shifts the focus from socio-demographic properties to communicative practices. Differently put, the focus is then on the process of diasporization itself rather than on stable diaspora groups with fixed linguistic repertoires (Androutsopoulos & Lexander 2021). Digital affordances and the superdiversity features characterizing online technologies are argued to offer a kind of "identity repertoires" (Blommaert 2005) that enact a multilayered and hybrid online community.…”

“…To address this blind spot, the spatio-temporal structure of digital diaspora and the semiotics of digital narratives are central to negotiating Nubian narrative of displacement in this article. Exploring the digital narrative of Nubian diaspora, the current study focuses on the process of diasporization itself rather than on stable diaspora Nubian groups with fixed linguistic repertoires (see Androutsopoulos & Lexander 2021). As such, the current study shifts the focus from locally anchored Nubian community to translocal digital representations.…”

“…As such, the current study shifts the focus from locally anchored Nubian community to translocal digital representations. It examines how diaspora communities use digital technologies in their interactions (Androutsopoulos 2006, Androutsopoulos & Lexander 2021, Brinkerhoff 2009, Heyd & Honkanen 2015.…”

Multilingualism, language choice, and identity construction: Diasporic Ukrainians in Shanghai

“…The above literature shows the fluid and multiple construction of diasporic identity in the “fine‐grained patterning of linguistic resources in diaspora communities” (Androutspoulos & Lexander, 2021, p. 720). However, few studies explored how the war or regional conflicts affected the role language played in the construction of the identity of diaspora members in the postmodern society.…”

Crossing borders

“…In stark contrast to the skyscrapers of the buzzing city, Lamma is described as an 'outlying island' with a multicultural and laid-back vibe: lightly populated with both a long-standing local population and a transient 'expatriate' population. Militello and colleagues use polycentricity (Androutsopoulos and Lexander, 2021) to interpret Lamma Island's semiotic environment. First, the discourses displayed acquire meanings by being semiotically related to different places or activities, thus oriented to multiple centres of authority -municipal, regional, communal, and touristic -which interact and overlap in complex ways.…”