Language, Culture and Society - Current Issue

This article investigates the negotiation of authenticity and authority through conversation analysis of a post on an online Filipino forum and two interactions from its comment section. I first review literature relating to sociolinguistic authenticity and authority, which are supposedly in conflict, and epistemic authority. I argue that epistemic authority is intimately connected to authenticating oneself as a valid member of an identity group. I then look at the Philippine context, such as authentication in relation to the conyo, a supposedly fake and English dominant Filipino that serves as the foil to a real, authentic Filipino. Close conversation analysis of a Reddit post and its comments regarding conyo identity demonstrates how claiming authenticity means claiming epistemic authority and vice versa.

This article uses video-ethnography to offer the first examination of the working practices of ambulant vendors on Copacabana Beach in actual time. It focuses on how these workers enact agency as they navigate the limiting physical and social boundaries of the beach to earn a living. It does this by adopting the notion of “bounding” and drawing on the metaphor of the fresta (“interstice”).

The analysis unveils the assemblage of communicative resources vendors deploy in real-time to maximise their presence to beachgoers and minimise the risk of detection by authorities. It shows how successive and simultaneous modalities (mobile, visual, verbal) reinforce each other’s capabilities according to the spatiotemporal juncture of vendors’ bounding activity.

The article expands our understanding of how language as an agentic multimodal tool is used to challenge systemic inequalities.

Existing research on global rap has extensively documented the creative appropriation of Western popular music and its potential for progressive politics. Little attention has been paid to exploring the less favorable aspect of this phenomenon — how rap can potentially perpetuate discriminatory societal ideologies. With this concern, the present study aims to examine the darker side of the genre, with a focus on free style rap battles. We present an analysis of representative lyrics and performances from rap battles that took place in Kathmandu, Nepal. In our analysis, we illustrate how the creative use of the language of pop culture, including embodiment, cultural metaphors and rap slang within these battles, serves to perpetuate ideologies related to misogyny, racism, and colorism. Many of these toxic ideologies are already deeply ingrained in Nepali society, while others, including racism, find their way into Nepal through the influence of global rap.

This article analyzes and explores law enforcement officer identity, arguing that officer identity is less stable than previously realized and has the ability to evolve over time. In interviewing 29 law enforcement officers from a rural, small-town sheriff’s department in the Western United States, I found that specific identities emerged from narratives about culpability. Applying critical discourse analysis to culpability narratives (narratives in which officers place blame for their actions on the public or themselves) uncovered a traditional “tough guy” identity or a non-normative “human” identity. When identities flex, indexical links are altered such that they evolve and deepen the pool of potential identities available for officers to draw on. The processes that establish and make officer identities performable and viable can metamorphose over time, bringing about new police discourses and identities. As more idiosyncratic or non-normative identities, like the “human” identity seen here, are performed and circulated, they have the ability to compel change within policing discourses and cultures, potentially paving the way for police reform.