Language as a resource with fluctuating values: Arabic speakers in humanitarian and social work

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>This paper investigates the <jats:italic>fluctuating value</jats:italic> of Arabic when constructed as a linguistic resource for multilingual, “languaged” workers in a counselling centre for refugees in Austria and in an international humanitarian agency operating in ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. Drawing on a variety of ethnographic data (observations, interviews and documents), our analyses of the institutionalised division of labour and of workers’ narrative positioning show how workers in both organisations discursively construct this linguistic resource as being of ambivalent value in their positioning vis-à-vis their colleagues, for their careers and in work interactions. Stratifying and empowerment effects are interwoven in the varying and coexisting values of Arabic.</jats:p>

National, cultural and language specificities of Arab official speech style

“…As a rule, all Arabs, regardless of religious affiliation, adhere to these customs. "The ambivalent value of performing and/or being recognized as an Arabic speaker reinforces social agency and professional identity in some situations, tapping into discourses of cultural similarity and awareness" [4]. Also, it is important to pay attention on non-verbal language, that is used in the Arabic world.…”

“She will control my son”: Navigating womanhood, English and social mobility in India

“…For many, this means investing time and money in various forms of cultural capital, a key element of which is coaching centres that offer ‘personality development’ training (often alongside English) which encompasses a wide range of practices, from style and taste to manners and bodily movement (Highet & Del Percio, 2021b; McGuire, 2013) to ostensibly help students obtain the savoir‐faire required ‘to conform to the cultural standard of the new liberalizing middle class’ (Fernandes, 2006, p. 96). Yet, as the concepts of ‘speculative’ (Duchêne & Daveluy, 2015) and ‘fluctuating’ (Hassemer & Garrido, 2020) capital demonstrate, English cannot guarantee returns. On the contrary, as we will see, the conversion of English capital is dependent on a whole host of intersecting factors that can only be grasped through a focus on the speaker and the conditions in which she finds herself.…”

“…Rupal's capital is thus not only speculative (Duchêne & Daveluy, 2015), but also fluctuating (Hassemer & Garrido, 2020): it gains and loses value across time and space as it interanimates with other discourses – particularly, here, Brahminical patriarchal discourses of what constitutes a ‘good’ wife. Much like the case of Arabic in Hassemer and Garrido's study, the indexicalities attributed to English and English speakers ‘encompass cultural and professional values with both positive and negative symbolic and material consequences that go beyond straightforward capital conversion’ (2020, p. 138).…”

“…Rupal's capital is thus not only speculative (Duchêne & Daveluy, 2015), but also fluctuating (Hassemer & Garrido, 2020): it gains and loses value across time and space as it interanimates with other discourses – particularly, here, Brahminical patriarchal discourses of what constitutes a ‘good’ wife. Much like the case of Arabic in Hassemer and Garrido's study, the indexicalities attributed to English and English speakers ‘encompass cultural and professional values with both positive and negative symbolic and material consequences that go beyond straightforward capital conversion’ (2020, p. 138). Thus, we see the ostensibly straightforward discursive construction of English as capital unravel as its speakers, with their social positionings and life trajectories, attempt to put it into practice, and are forced to negotiate its shifting value, its ‘enabling and hindering potential’ (ibid, p. 157).…”

The evolution of language ideological debates about English and French in a multilingual humanitarian organisation

“…In this case, French is not required for employment but it is connected with career progression as an administrative language linked to headquarters in Francophone Switzerland. Arabic is useful with interlocutors in MENA but it does not constitute an asset for management positions and missions outside the region (Hassemer & Garrido, 2020 ).…”