Polymedia and family multilingualism

Abstract

This paper investigates family multilingualism in a polymedia perspective, presenting results from a study of transnational communication among four families with Senegalese background, living in Norway. Ethnographic interview data collected in 2017 and 2018, including mediagrams, are analysed to get insight into the families’ uses of media and language. Furthermore, the moment-by-moment language practices through which family relationships are managed and sustained are examined through fine-grained analysis of interpersonal interaction. The paper thus both draws on and goes beyond polymedia to investigate how linguistic repertoires are developed in digital communication. The aim is to explore ways in which this theory may help us rethink family multilingualism as digital language practices become increasingly significant.

Negotiating joint commitment in collaborative work project: Focus on text-based requests and news deliveries in atypical work

“…Prior research on these actions has examined mainly talk-in-interaction while the few studies using text-based interaction as their data have focused on exploring the distinct design and interactional trajectory of text-based news deliveries and requests in instant messaging or email environments (see Licoppe et al, 2014; Skovholt and Svennevig, 2013; Sliedrecht et al, 2022). However, contemporary professional communication is especially characterised by polymediality that stresses the intertwinedness and division of labour between different channels and platforms in accomplishing social action (Lexander, forthcoming; see also Salomaa and Lehtinen, 2023). Our study thus particularly enhances the understanding of relational work in text-based interaction by revealing the packaging of news deliveries and requests in two kinds of media but also showing how media choice creates specific affordances for varying temporalities and participation frameworks, and by doing so, constructs different types of social-emotional practices.…”

“…In the sequential context of Extract 6, the invitation appears to promote and maintain the parties’ interpersonal relationship regardless of how successful the project is. As the non-work roles are also made relevant, hybridity is brought into the role-relationship (see also, Lexander, forthcoming). A further index of an existing non-work relational connection is the item taas ‘again’ in the invitation (‘Come for a sauna again some night?’).…”

“…Consequently, they have to adapt to varying social situations and roles whose rights, responsibilities and mutual relations are under constant negotiation due to transient working arrangements and fuzzy boundaries between work and non-work (see Nissi et al, 2023). The complexity of these new contexts is further reinforced by the fact that professional communication is increasingly ‘polymedial’ (Androutsopoulos, 2021; Lexander, forthcoming; see also Darics, 2015) in nature, namely, it utilises several different channels and platforms, which requires knowledge of new types of digital and text-based interaction environments with their specific technological affordances. The field of arts and culture is a typical example of this new precarious service work.…”

“…Although relational work is often particularly perceivable in face-to-face settings, it is also a central aspect of text-based workplace interaction as shown, for example, by Darics (2020) who explores how team leaders balance between transactional and relational goals in instant messaging with their team members, and Hössjer (2013) who investigates organisational email communication and the manner in which it utilises two types of frames, the work frame and the non-work frame. Further, Lexander (forthcoming) looks at multilingual relational work in text-based interactions between labour migrants and their employers. While these studies focus on organisational settings with conventional, stable employer-employee relationships, other studies have further shown how relational work becomes particularly complex in the context of ‘sole traders’ and project-based work where the project members do not necessarily even know each other beforehand and need to establish, develop and negotiate their mutual relations over time (see, Marsden, 2020).…”