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

Text Thurlow-2019-Journal_of_Sociolinguistics.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (1MB)

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.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

3 since deposited on 24 Mar 2020
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item