Metapragmatics in the Ethnography of Language Policy

This chapter traces briefly the origins and development of the ethnography of language policy. It argues that, although this tradition has put ethnography firmly on the language policy and planning (LPP) research agenda since the turn of the twenty-first century, it has not yet sufficiently addressed some persistent problems. Against this background, metapragmatics is presented as a suitable epistemological framework, one that draws from two contemporary shifts in the study of texts, contexts, and meanings in linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics: (1) a departure from emphasis on denotational meanings, toward closer description of performative actions; and (2) a shift in the analytical entry point, from communicative events to trajectories of identification. These shifts are examined with reference to existing work and illustrated via ethnographic research that is revisited through the lens being proposed. Some of the implications for the study of LPP processes in conditions of late modernity are also addressed.

A AFIRMAÇÃO DE UM PARADIGMA RELIGIOSO PLURALISTA NA CONTEMPORANEIDADE

Este artigo busca delinear os percursos da religiosidade contemporânea repercutindo a emergência das subjetividades, os conceitos e categorias que sustentam a análise de uma individualização da fé e possíveis continuidades, transformações e perspectivas para compreender que no lugar das identidades religiosas fixas e absorvidas por herança e tradição, há uma afirmação de trajetórias individuais de identificação. Trata-se de processos religiosos de identidade protagonizados em nível dos sujeitos individuais. As premissas aqui descortinadas retratam experiências religiosas e sociais que multiplicam expressões e sentimentos, abrigam expectativas, ampliam escolhas e expandem significados que as pessoas atribuem à própria vida ao evidenciar esta capacidade ativa em responder, aderir ou resistir, às questões intrínsecas à vivência cotidiana. This article seeks to delineate the pathways of contemporary religiosity reflecting the emergence of subjectivities, concepts and categories that support the analysis of an individualization of faith and possible continuities, transformations and perspectives to understand that instead of fixed religious identities absorbed by inheritance and tradition, there is an affirmation of individual trajectories of identification. These are religious processes of identity promoted at the level of individual subjects. The premises presented here depict religious and social experiences that multiply expressions and feelings, harbor expectations, expand choices and expand meanings that people attribute to their lives by showing this active capacity to respond, adhere or resist, to the issues intrinsic to everyday living.