Working from/at the periphery

Mobility and diversity has always been a feature of human life and over recent years it has attracted significant interest across a range of disciplines, including sociolinguistics and the subfield of workplace discourse. The... [ view full abstract ]

Mobility and diversity has always been a feature of human life and over recent years it has attracted significant interest across a range of disciplines, including sociolinguistics and the subfield of workplace discourse. The focus on societal diversity stimulates reflection on our theoretical approaches and methodological toolkit, as well as our ability to handle the level of linguistic and spatiotemporal complexity that is now the norm in many domains of human activity, not least the workplace. In this context, our earlier research has already explored the concept of boundaries and the ways in which employees in different settings cross linguistic, social and national borders in their daily routines at work (Angouri, Marra and Holmes, 2017). Building on this body of research we turn our focus to the concept of the periphery. Our interest is two fold: (1) the trajectories to and from linguistic, geographical, and spatial centres to multiple peripheries and back again and (2) the opportunities for individuals to remain at the periphery (cf Wenger’s 1998 notion of legitimate peripheral participation) or the barriers that keep them there.

In this panel we pay special attention to the concept of ‘belonging’ and the negotiation of discursive norms to index ‘(not) being one of us’. The panel brings together six papers each of which aims to problematize the periphery and explore the implications of inclusion/exclusion in relation to boundary crossing and language use. The papers are followed by a round table discussion lead by the discussant.

References

Angouri, Jo, Meredith Marra and Janet Holmes (eds.) 2017. Negotiating Boundaries at Work. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Wenger, Etienne 1998. Communities of Practice. Cambridge: CUP.