We Have a New Site!
With the help of your donations we have been making good progress on designing and launching our new website! Check it out at https://linguistlist.org/!***We are still in our beta stages for the new site--if you have any feedback, be sure to let us know at webdevlinguistlist.org***
Academic Paper |
|
|
|
|
| Title: | Disaster linguicism: Linguistic minorities in disasters |
| Author: | Shinya Uekusa |
| Linguistic Field: | Discourse Analysis; Sociolinguistics |
| Abstract: | Language is a means of communication but it functions as much more than this in social life. In emergencies and disasters, it can also be a matter of life and death. Language barriers and effective communication in disaster contexts (i.e. distributing critical disaster information and warnings) are the central concern in current disaster research, practice, and policy. However, based on the data drawn from qualitative interviews with linguistic minority immigrants and refugees in Canterbury, New Zealand and Miyagi, Japan, I argue that linguistic minorities confront unique disaster vulnerability partly due to linguicism—language-based discrimination at multiple levels. As linguicism is often compounded by racism, it is not properly addressed and analyzed, using the framework of language ideology and power. This article therefore introduces the concept of disaster linguicism, employing Pierre Bourdieu's concept of symbolic violence, to explore linguistic minorities’ complex disaster experiences in the 2010–2011 Canterbury and Tohoku disasters. |
|
|
|
|
This article appears IN Language in Society Vol. 48, Issue 3, which you can READ on Cambridge's site . View the full article for free in the current issue ofCambridge Extra Magazine! |
|
Add a new paper
Return to Academic Papers main page Return to Directory of Linguists main page |
|


