Expanding our sociolinguistic horizons? Geographical thinking and the articulatory potential of commodity chain analysis

Thurlow, Crispin (2019). Expanding our sociolinguistic horizons? Geographical thinking and the articulatory potential of commodity chain analysis. Journal of sociolinguistics, 24(3), pp. 350-368. Wiley 10.1111/josl.12388

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Conceptual linearity and analytic parochialism (aka focus) can make it more difficult for sociolinguists or discourse analysts to apprehend the far‐reaching, exploitative ways inequality is nowadays produced. A suitably material‐cum‐materialist class critique certainly entails empirical and phenomenological worlds flagged by, for example, multi‐sited ethnographies but otherwise side‐lined as merely “extra‐situational” in much talk/text‐directed scholarship. I propose we think more geographically by properly engaging spatiality à la Harvey (1990) and especially the radical politics of simultaneity (Massey, 2005)—the literal, “right‐now” connectedness of places and people. To this end, and allied with deepening interest in political economy, I combine the principles of articulation theory with the procedures of commodity chain analysis for picking apart an epitomic, contemporary manifestation of extreme privilege: the business‐class meal. The proposed discourse‐centred commodity chain analysis offers an ecumenical but systematic framework for tracking how commodity fetishism is actually and discursively accomplished (or not) across dispersed voices, stories, and social meanings.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies > Institute of English Languages and Literatures
06 Faculty of Humanities > Other Institutions > Walter Benjamin Kolleg (WBKolleg) > Center for the Study of Language and Society (CSLS)
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies > Institute of English Languages and Literatures > Modern English Linguistics

UniBE Contributor:

Thurlow, Crispin

Subjects:

400 Language
400 Language > 410 Linguistics
400 Language > 420 English & Old English languages

ISSN:

1360-6441

Publisher:

Wiley

Language:

English

Submitter:

Federico Erba

Date Deposited:

24 Mar 2020 10:56

Last Modified:

14 Mar 2024 12:31

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/josl.12388

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.140464

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/140464

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