Dynamics of (im)mobilities and discursive practices in the 21st century

Bern, 8-9 November 2018

As Salazar (2016) claims, the concept of mobility captures the impression that today's world is structured around the constant flow not only of people, but also of cultures, objects, capital, services, media, images, information and ideas. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the social and human sciences mobility turn has been put forward and named. As a result, new theoretical concepts that attempt to describe the new spatial and temporal dynamics of today's world: deterritorialization, reterritorialization, spatial-temporal compression, scalarity, etc. have emerged. The mobility turn is conceived as a turn because it breaks with the traditional correspondence between person, place and culture. But perhaps the most important aspect of the mobility turn is that it highlights that the concept of mobility does not have an immutable meaning but varies according to people, social circumstances and the very concept of mobility, which is necessarily defined through its counterpart, immobility.

Mobility turn is therefore a different way of framing and encompassing global mobility, showing how physical mobility of people entails economic, social and cultural mobility, the transformation of institutions at different levels and spheres, and the mobilization of (linguistic) ideologies.

The committee welcomes papers from a sociolinguistic, discursive or ethnographic linguistic perspective on theoretical or methodological aspects researching or examining the interrelationship between mobility and communicative practices in spaces where Ibero-Romanic languages (Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Galician) and Creole languages with an Ibero-Romanic base come into contact with other languages due to (im)mobility.

Questions raised by this conference are: 

• How do mobilities impact on epistemic and methodological frameworks?
• What happens with (linguistic) identities in mobility?
• How do language practices in mobility show, change, and emerge?
• How does linguistic mediation work in mobility contexts?
• How are (linguistic) ideologies manifested in and with mobility?
• How should mobility be studied through the linguistic landscape?
• How does (im)mobility manifest in discourse (political, media, educational, etc.)?
• How is the impact of mobility on social networks shown?
• How is the impact of (im)mobility on language policies and language planning shown?

These questions are meant to serve as guideposts. Please feel free to submit papers on other topics related to the conference’s theme.

We are delighted to announce that, so far, the following key speakers have been confirmed:

• Alexandre Duchêne, Université de Fribourg
• Marleen Haboud, Universidad Católica del Ecuador
• Luisa Martin Rojo, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
• Li Wei, University College, London

Organization:

Yvette Bürki (Universität Bern), Milin Bonomi (Università degli Studi di Milano), Júlia Llompart (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

Scientific Committee:

• Milin Bonomi (Università degli Studi di Milano)
• Yvette Bürki (Universität Bern)
• Enrique Hamel (Universidad Autónoma de México)
• Jennifer Leeman (George Mason University)
• Júlia Llompart (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
• Laura Morgenthaler García (Universität Bochum)
• Adil Moustaoui (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
• Adriana Patiño (University of Southampton)
• Fernando Ramallo (Universidad de Vigo)

Conference languages:

All Ibero-Romanic languages and English. To facilitate the intercomprehension among the participants, the support devices (PTT, handout, etc.) of presentations in one of the Ibero-Romanic languages, will be translated into English.

To enter the administrative page of the conference click here.

Contact:

If you have any questions, please contact Jonas Lingg using the form or the Email address: jonas.lingg@rom.unibe.ch