Language and Culture in Workplace Ethnography

Author(s):  
Lauren A. Hayes

Scholars studying the anthropology of work have traditionally been interested in questions of power, class, inequality, moral economy, and the transformations brought about by global capitalism. To address these larger questions, workplace ethnography gives attention to both interactional and systemic level analysis, making linguistic methods a powerful tool for studying both talk at work and institutional discourse. Language has many social functions within the workplace, from the organization of tasks and goals to the ways people navigate relationships and perform identity. Linguistic theoretical and methodological perspectives are applied to the study of power and gatekeeping practices in institutional settings, performance of identity and gender at work, and inequalities related to race, ethnicity, and perceptions of accent. Linguistic practices in the neoliberal global economy are also an economic resource to be managed, regulated, scripted, and marketed, as part of the reflexive project of worker self-improvement. Language is also a form of labor itself in global customer service interactions, accent-reduction training, and contexts of tourism. Thus, workplace ethnography and language study complement each other, and linguistic methods and theory may be applied to major questions in the field of anthropology of work.

2020 ◽  
pp. 129-148
Author(s):  
Halyna Маtsyuk

The article is devoted to the formation of a linguistic interpretation of the interaction of language and culture of the Polish-Ukrainian border territories. The material for the analysis includes nomic systems of Ukrainian and Polish languages, which are considered as a cultural product of interpersonal and interethnic communication and an element of the language system, as well as invariant scientific theory created in the works of Polish onomastics (according to key theoretical concepts, tradition of analysis, and continuity in linguistic knowledge). The analysis performed in the article allows us to single out the linguistic indicators of the interaction of language and culture typical for the subject field of sociolinguistics. These are connections and concepts: language-territory, language-social strata, language-gender, language-ethnicity, social functions of the Polish language, and non-standardized spelling systems. Linguistic indicators reveal the peculiar mechanisms of the border in the historical memory and collective consciousness, marking the role of languages in these areas as a factor of space and cultural marker and bringing us closer to understanding the social relations of native speakers in the fifteenth-nineteenth centuries.


Author(s):  
Ekaterina A. LOBANOVA

This article studies the cognitive features of the “power” frame and its gender implementation in the historical tragedy by W. Shakespeare “Macbeth”. Here, the author examines the concepts of “frame” and “gender” in linguistics, studying different approaches to their definition. The relevance of this work is determined by the close attention of the contemporary linguistics to these concepts, as well as their place in the contemporary academic paradigm. The academic affirmation of the “frame” and “gender” concepts designates a new step in understanding the ways and peculiarities of the language interaction, consciousness, and culture, and, consequently, it shows new aspects of the relationship of linguistics with other sciences. Nevertheless, the problems of both frame and gender are not yet fully understood. This study allows describing in detail the essence of the frame “power” and showing its meaning, use, and ways of its gender implementation in fiction, which explains the novelty of this article. The study’s methodology is based on the cognitive-discursive analysis of the text, as well as on an integrative approach to the discourse study, which combines methods of both cognitive and gender linguistics, as well as the discourse analysis. Common research methods were used along with private linguistic methods. The application of cognitive-discursive analysis has significantly increased the depth of understanding of the “power” frame that dominates Shakespeare’s historical tragedy. This historical text presents the central theme of political tragedy: the overthrow of the rightful ruler and the usurpation of power. The motive for the seizure of power forms a thematic core and is presented from the usurpers’ point of view. In this article, the author observes the gender shift and duality of the female and male beginnings: Shakespeare puts the female protagonist, hungry for power, among men, thus the images of Lady Macbeth and her husband come into conflict with the gender characteristics attributed to them. The play clearly traces the main idea of Machiavellianism: the goal justifies the means. The results conclude that the “power” frame is the leading one in Lady Macbeth’s monologue, thus setting one of the main themes of this tragedy.


Author(s):  
Carla Fabiana Streck ◽  
Thirzá Baptista Frison

Resumo: Para Ecléa Bosi, uma das funções sociais do velho é recordar, ou seja, reconstruir o passado a partir de um olhar do presente. Considerando que o ato de lembrar é fundamental na resignificação da própria vida e também do reconhecimento de si, buscamos investigar as lembranças de velhos sobre o mundo do trabalho na infância e quais as características atribuídas a esse universo. O trabalho em nossa sociedade, tem papel fundamental por ser tanto um fator de socialização, quanto de aceitação social. Lembrar o passado e, principalmente, um passado de trabalho, contribui para o aumento da integridade e da auto-estima, em especial, quando se tratam de idosos aposentados. Foram examinados os relatos de onze pessoas, maiores de 60 anos, aposentadas há cinco anos ou mais, entrevistadas para a pesquisa "Identidade e Aposentadoria". Entre os principais resultados, revelou-se diferenças entre os relatos daqueles que trabalharam na infância e daqueles que não tiveram essa experiência. Foram também constatadas as influências de fatores sócio-econômicos e culturais, envolvendo nível econômico, moradia em ambiente urbano ou rural e questões de gênero. As lembranças de trabalho trazem consigo não apenas uma possibilidade de dedução do conceito de trabalho para cada entrevistado, mas também fazem referência à forma corno a mundo do trabalho era constituído. Palavras-chave: Terceira idade. Lembranças. Trabalho. Abstract: For Ecléa Bosi, one of the social functions of the elder is to remember, or, rebuild the past from the present outlook. Taking into account that the act of remembering is basic in the re-significance of his/her own life, and also in the acknowledgement of him/herself, the memories the elder have of his/her childhood work world, and which characteristics are attributed to such universe, were investigated. Work, in our society, has a fundamental role not only as a socialization factor but for social acceptance as well. Remembering the past, and mainly the work, helps increase the integrity and self-esteem, especially in retired seniors. The reports of 11 individuals over 60 years of age, retired for five or more years, interviewed for the research "Identity and Retirement" were examined. Among the most important results, differences were pointed out between those who worked in his/her childhood and those who did not have such experience. Influences of social-cultural factors were also noted, involving economic standard, living in rural or urban environment, and gender. The memories of work bring along not only the possibility of inferring the concept of work for each individual interviewed, but also the reference to the form of how the work world used to be made up. Keywords: Third age. Memories. Work.


Author(s):  
Dillon Mahoney

As connecting to the global economy has torn individual traders from the decades-old co-operative societies, a wave of “witchcraft” accusations and market burnings have helped illuminate the importance of the crafts industry’s moral economy of creativity and innovation and the ongoing debate about what ethical and moral development looks like in Kenya. Ideas of ethics and transparency, as produced through the application of a Fair Trade sticker, strategically erase complex economic and ethical realities while simultaneously indexing ideas of digital modernity and ethical citizenship. A Fair Trade sticker shines a selective light on marketable realities while simultaneously obscuring those inconvenient to marketing crafts. This new wave of ethical branding and NGO aesthetics enables a “race to the bottom” by businesspeople to find and organize the most exploitable artisans (the handicapped, single mothers, homeless children) into workshops and artisan organizations that explicitly market the marginality of the producers.


Author(s):  
Wengao Gong

This chapter describes how American bloggers and Chinese bloggers from similar age and gender groups represent themselves and their identities linguistically in their blogs and explores whether and to what extent the differences in terms of the blogging language and culture affect these representations. The author adopts a corpus-based approach and focuses on the description and the comparison of the orthographic features and semantic domain preference as revealed in the blog entries. By conducting a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparison between American bloggers and Chinese bloggers, the author finds that bloggers’ linguistic practice is closely related to their developmental stage of life, their gender, and the cultural environment they are immersed in. Meanwhile, bloggers’ linguistic practice is also constrained by the internal system of the language they use for blogging.


This chapter discusses typologies of modern feminist theories. Lorber's categorisation of feminist theories distinguishes between three broad kinds of feminist discourses: gender reform feminisms, gender resistant feminisms, and gender revolution feminisms. Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley categorise the various types of feminist theories as theories of gender difference, theories of gender inequality, theories of gender oppression, and theories of structural oppression. All theories of gender difference are based on the thesis that the differences between men and women are immutable. These theories include cultural feminist theories, institutional role feminist theories, and existential feminist theories. Cultural feminism is a variety of feminism emphasising essential differences between men and women, based on biological differences in reproductive capacity. Institutional role feminist theories argue that gender differences result from the different roles that women and men come to play within various institutional settings. Existential feminist theories focus on the marginalisation of women as other in a male-created culture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 06020
Author(s):  
Iveta Linina ◽  
Velga Vevere

Research background: Retail industry plays an important role in today’s society and in the national economy as a whole, as it introduces and develops new technologies in customer service, provides jobs and increases the level of public welfare. Adaptation to the emergency situation, to the customer needs and requirements provide the company with opportunities for further development and increase of competitiveness, but, at the same time, creates the need to organize customer service, the efficient use of existing resources to manage customer service process. The pandemic of Coronavirus has affected the global economy immensely, the long-term effects are to be seen in the foreseeable future. One of the spheres, among others, hit hard is the retail trade since due to the quarantine conditions there is an inevitable drop in sales (less number of customers means less profit inevitably) and growing competition among retailers. However, the current situation forces retailers to look for innovative, at the same time socially responsible, forms of communication, particularly in social media. Purpose of the article: To research the evaluation of retailers’ socially responsible communication by consumers. Methods: Expert survey, consumer online survey (n=388) applying 5-point Likert scale, data processing was carried out by SPSS. Findings & Value added: By socially responsible communication, a company can build strong relationships with customers and increase their loyalty despite the circumstances


2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 5-35
Author(s):  
Timothy T. Schwartz

Examines how sexual and gender values in rural Haiti are expressed through 'téat', theatrical, songs and performances among girls from 10 to 20 years. Author describes how these sexual values relate to a concept of gendered capital, or what he calls a "sexual-moral economy", whereby men who want sex with women need to provide material rewards for this sexual access. He explains how this combines with certain gender socializations and views of men, unlike women, really needing sex, and socialized toward this, also by women, and thus from an early age to aggressively pursue women, and women on the other hand toward restraint, and to require material rewards. Author illustrates, through examples, how téat songs reflect and refer to these values, often through sexual metaphors. In addition, he shows how they relate to the wider social and gender context of matrifocality and subsistence strategies, notably the household, wherein women tend to be dominant over men, who supplied the house as expected price for her sex, manages production and reproduction of her daughters in it, instilling them also with the said sexual values, and with children seen as necessary for household work, as the women also engage in market activities outside of the house.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-312
Author(s):  
Anna Reading

Within feminist memory studies the economy has largely been overlooked, despite the fact that the economic analysis of culture and society has long featured in research on women and gender. This article addresses that gap, arguing that the global economy matters in understanding the gender of memory and memories of gender. It models the conceptual basis for the consideration of a feminist economic analysis of memory that can reveal the dimensions of mnemonic transformation, accumulation and exchange through gendered mnemonic labour, gendered mnemonic value and gendered mnemonic capital. The article then applies the concepts of mnemonic labour and mnemonic capital in more detail through a case study of memory activism examining the work of the Parragirls and the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct Memory Project (PFFP) in Sydney, Australia. The campaigns have worked to recognize the memory and history of the longest continuous site of female containment in Australia built to support the British invasion. The site in Parramatta, which dates from the 1820s, was a female factory for transported convicts, a female prison, an asylum for women and girls, an orphanage and then Parramatta Girls Home. The Burramattagal People of Darug Clan are the Traditional Owners of the land and the site is of practical and spiritual importance to indigenous women. This local struggle is representative of a global economic system of gendered institutionalized violence and forgetting, The analysis shows how the mnemonic labour of women survivors accumulates as mnemonic value that is then transformed into institutional mnemonic capital. Focusing on how mnemonic labour creates lasting mnemonic capital reveals the gendered dimensions of memory which are critical for ongoing memory work.


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