From hooligans to thrash talk: Evolution of the genre

The article deals with the thrash talk as a speech genre. The term, which came to modern Russian from English, refers to a speech practice in which offensive statements are formulated against the opponent, designed to disturb the opponent’s psychological equanimity. It can be a form of bragging or insulting in competitive situations. The research was conducted in the context of Russian and foreign works on invective practice in Russian linguoculture, which not only represent a constant, but evolve as well. Such problems as the correlation between national-specific and universal aspects, linguistic and extralinguistic aspects, development of new phenomena on a national basis and borrowings are taken into account. Thrash-talk, if we use this term in a narrow sense, is autochthonous for Russian linguoculture. The methodology of the study is based on the comparison the description of speech practice with the standard. For our purposes we have formulated the standards “accusation”, “humiliation” and “hyperidenticity”, the components of the description of which were linguistic and psychological features. Thus, we can say that our research is carried out within the paradigm of psycholinguistics. This is justified by the fact that thrash talk balances on the edge of language and psyche. As a result of the comparison procedure we can conclude that there is a correspondence or discrepancy between these descriptions. The basis of our research were open Internet sources that contain examples of thrash talk as an element of characters’ speech behavior in texts or videos. As a result of the study it was possible to describe and systematize speech goals – persuasion and demonstration, the use of figurative, stylistically marked, expressively colored language means, psychological manipulative means of inducement and threat. In conclusion the article outlines the prospects for research related to such genres as flaming, flying, sledging, wolf-whistling, cat-calling, street-harassment, etc.

“It ain’t a compliment”: Feminist data visualisation and digital street harassment advocacy

In an era of datafication, data visualisation is playing an increasing role in civic meaning-making processes. However, the conventions of data visualisation have been criticised for their reductiveness and rhetoric of neutrality and there have been recent efforts to develop feminist principles for designing data visualisations that are compatible with feminist epistemologies. In this article, we aim to examine how data visualisation is used in feminist activism and by feminist activists. Drawing on the example of digital street harassment activism, we analyse how street harassment is visualised in and through a selection of prominent activist social media accounts. We consider the platform affordances utilised by activists, and how these are harnessed in making street harassment ‘knowable'. Moreover, we critically interrogate which and whose experiences are ‘knowable’ via digital techniques, and what remains obscured and silenced. In analysing digital feminist activists’ practices, we argue that what constitutes ‘data visualisation’ itself must be situated within feminist epistemologies and praxis that centre lived experience as the starting point for knowledge production. Such an approach challenges and disrupts normative constructions of what constitutes data visualisation. Our findings demonstrate how feminist activists are adopting ‘traditional’ practices of speaking out and consciousness-raising to the digital sphere in the creation of a range of visualisations that represent the issue of street harassment. We consider the efficacy of these visualisations for achieving their intended purpose and how they might translate to policy and government responses, if this is indeed their goal. Further, we document a tension between feminist epistemologies and the prevailing logic of datafication or dataism and note how in an attempt to unite the two, some digital feminist activism has contributed to reproducing existing power structures, raising concerning implications at the policy level.

Outline of a Linguistic Model for the Study of Emerging Naming

The article presents the outline of a linguistic model that is part of a methodology for identifying and analyzing emerging or referentially unstable namings, such as cultural appropriation, street harassment, climate refugee or ecocide. The model and the method are intended to guide the interpretation – manual or semi-automatic – of the referential expressions, according to the semantic-cognitive type of the designated entity (human entity, social process, event, etc.), but also taking into account interdiscursive negotiations that affect the choice of terms and their uses. The proposed approach is original and is based on several guiding ideas: (1) take into account the complexity of the naming and the entanglement of his different facets which are categorization, meaning, performativity and valuation (desirability, preferences, social norms), (2) target the development phase of the naming (observe how speakers deal with the unstable): for this purpose, we will use the notion of identification between weak or identified entities and strong or reference entities, (3) report in an integrated way the referential elaboration of knowledge, the lexical and semantic elaboration of expressions, and the expression of intersubjective attitudes. The scientific framework combines three main disciplinary areas: automatic language processing (construction and representation of knowledge, reference), semantics (elaboration of meanings) and discourse analysis (interdiscursive elaboration of concepts and terms).

Digital mapping as feminist method: critical reflections

Digital maps have been taken up as a productive tool in both activism and academic research. However, there has been less consideration of their use as a research method in qualitative social sciences research. This paper aims to contribute towards scholarship on qualitative research by providing a critical reflection on the use of digital mapping as a research method in a feminist research project on street-based harassment in Australia. Drawing on practices of reflexivity, as well as comments made by participants across 46 qualitative interviews, I consider how digital mapping can be used to facilitate feminist research, arguing that it represents a generative instrument which lends itself to the development of in-depth insights from participants. Yet, mapping also delimits the epistemological possibilities of qualitative research, and I consider how this method simultaneously constrains what can be known about street harassment.

Development of Street Harassment Scale for Women in Universities

This study is aimed to discuss the manifestations of street harassment among women university students of Lahore. The initial phase of the study involved conducting semi-structured interviews. For this purpose, 20 women university students were interviewed and 19 items were generated. A list of 19 items was given to experts to assess content validity. After removing repetitive statements, 15 item scale was retained and validated by experts. The final 15 item scale was administered to 150 female participants. Factor analysis showed significant KMO value and Bartlett’s test of sphericity which indicated a significant correlation between the items with a few exceptions of weak loadings. Items 12 and 13 showed weak loadings, so these items were discarded and a 13 item scale was retained. Three-factor solutions were suggested through Principle Component Analysis via oblimin rotation and labeled as Behavioral, Verbal, and Eve Teasing. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was further done on a sample of 380 participants to confirm the factors obtained via Exploratory Factor Analysis which overall showed a strong construct validity of the scale and model fit after removal of three items. The final retained version of the scale consisted of 12 items. To assess the convergent validity of the indigenously developed scale, the Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire (Kamal & Tariq, 1998) was used as it assessed a similar construct. The correlation coefficient of the two scales was .49 (p < .01). Cronbach alpha value of the developed scale was .82 suggesting a strong inter-item correlation. There are myriad interventions on which the study sheds light.