The linguistic sense of placement: Habitus and the entextualization of translingual practices in Swedish academia

Abstract

This paper adopts a Bourdieusian approach to discourse in contemporary Swedish academia. Habitus, entextualization, and translingual practice are employed as epistemological perspectives for investigating the place of Swedish in the text trajectories of two disciplines where English prevails in publishing. Data from meeting recordings, email correspondence, and interviews show that Swedish is the legitimate language throughout in the text production and that discipline-specific Swedish is practiced so long as it encompasses all participants' repertoires. In fact, the researchers point to an almost physical awkwardness linked to the unwarranted use of English among themselves. Following Bourdieu, it is argued that these sensibilities pertain to the linguistic sense of placement of socialized agents and that the unease of being out of place prevents them from lapsing into what is socially perceived as unacceptable discourse in their translingual practices.Artikeln tar ett bourdieuskt grepp p a diskurs i forskningspraktiker i Sverige. Med begreppen habitus, entextualisering och translingval praktik unders€ oks svenskans plats i de praktiker som f€ oreg ar texter p a engelska i tv a discipliner d€ ar engelska dominerar i publicering. M€ otesinspelningar och mejlkorrespondens visar att svenska anv€ ands mellan svensktalande forskare, vilka ser det som fr€ ammande att op akallat tala engelska sinsemellan. Denna tr€ ogr€ orliga regelbundenhet f€ orst as med ett socialt kompetensbegrepp, d€ ar tonvikten ligger vid individens inkorporering av spr akliga marknadsf€ orh allanden € over tid. "Den spr akliga placeringsk€ anslan" (Bourdieu 1991) s€ atter fingret p a hur m€ anniskor "vet sin plats" rent spr akligt, d€ arf€ or att de har en biografiskt inf€ orlivad k€ ansla f€ or v€ ardet av sina spr akliga resurser i relation till vad som v€ arderas p a olika marknader. Denna praktiska kunskap, djupt ned€ arvd i m€ anniskors praktiker och habitus, anv€ ands reflexivt f€ or att f€ orutse vad som utg€ or legitimt spr ak i spr akliga utbyten. P a grund av denna k€ ansla, h€ avdas det, anv€ ands svenska i forskningspraktiken. [Swedish]

Unpacking the Lore on Multilingual Scholars Publishing in English: A Discussion Paper

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Language regulation in collaborative student writing: a case study

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