Abstract
From a critical sociolinguistic approach, this paper analyzes the stories of place and locality which emerge during a series of narrative interviews conducted with a small group of Ghanaian migrants who, unsheltered, lived on a bench in a public transport area on the outskirts of a Catalan urban town. By understanding narratives as situated interactional events with which both the researcher and the researched negotiate, shape and co-construct storyworlds, I focus on the social meanings of the stories of geographic (and socioeconomic) dis/emplacement whereby migrants strategically present their spatial orientations in town, which include largely unknown social networking sites. I complement their narrated in-group “safe mooring” spaces and their out-group zones of “mismeeting” with guided co-ethnographic visits to these selected locations. I claim that the imbrication of stories of dis/location with collaborative multi-site ethnography contributes to the study of the migrants’ alternative spatialization and ethnicization of their host societies, and to the discovery of alternative localities which challenge some conceptions about migrants’ (im)mobility practices and identity management in new urban geographies. These may broaden our understandings of how they make sense of their transnational survival experiences in contexts of extreme precariousness, from a dialogical, participant-oriented, reflective perspective.
Funding statement: Funding: This study was funded by two research grants awarded by the Catalan Department of Economy and Knowledge and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. The former was granted to the research group Applied Linguistics Circle (CLA) at the University of Lleida, and the latter to the research group Intercultural Communication and Negotiation Strategies (CIEN) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
About the author
Maria Sabaté-Dalmau (MA in Linguistic Anthropology, The University of Toronto; PhD in English Studies, Autonomous University of Barcelona) is currently lecturer at the University of Lleida, where she conducts research on multilingualism and migrations from a critical sociolinguistic ethnographic perspective. She is author of Migrant Communication Enterprises: Regimentation and Resistance (2014, Multilingual Matters).
Appendix: Transcription conventions
Typefaces
- Plain
English
- Italics
Spanish
- Underlined
Catalan
- Bold
Ashanti
Intonation contours
- .
end-of-turn falling contour
- ?
end-of-turn rising contour
- !
end-of-turn exclamation contour
- -,
end-of-turn/intra-turn fall–rise contour
- -.
intra-turn falling contour
Conventions
- @Bck
background information
- %com
comment (contextual information)
- %add
addressee
- %tra
free translation
- +^
quick uptake
- +…
trailing off
- xxx
unintelligible material
- […]
omitted exchange
- #
pause
- [>]
overlap follows
- [<]
overlap precedes
- <words>
scope
- [!]
stressing
- [?]
rising
- wo:rd
lengthened vowel
- wo::rd
longer lengthened vowel
- [/]
repetition
- [//]
reformulation
- +”/.
quotation in the next line
- +”
quotation follows
References
Ajuntament d’Igualada. 2012. Padrón municipal continuo. Resumen numérico por nacionalidades. Igualada: Ajuntament d’Igualada.Search in Google Scholar
Ajuntament d’Igualada. 2013. Igualada notícies. Dinamització econòmica. http://igualada.cat/ (accessed 24 July 2013).Search in Google Scholar
Bamberg, Michael, Anna De Fina & Deborah Schiffrin (eds.). 2007. Selves and Identities in Narrative and Discourse (Studies in Narrative 9). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/sin.9Search in Google Scholar
Bamberg, Michael & Alexandra Georgakopoulou. 2008. Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text & Talk 28(3). 377–396.10.1515/TEXT.2008.018Search in Google Scholar
Barth, Fredrik (ed.). 1969. Ethnic groups and boundaries: The social organization of cultural difference. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.Search in Google Scholar
Bauman, Richard & Charles L. Briggs. 1990. Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life. Annual Review of Anthropology 19. 59–88.10.1007/978-1-349-92299-4_41Search in Google Scholar
Baynham, Mike. 2003. Narrative in space and time: Beyond “Backdrop” accounts of narrative orientation. Narrative Inquiry 13(2). 347–366.10.1075/ni.13.2.07baySearch in Google Scholar
Baynham, Mike & Anna De Fina (eds.). 2005. Dislocations/relocations. Narratives of displacement (Encounters Series Volume 6). Manchester & Northampton: St. Jerome Publishing.Search in Google Scholar
Bodomo, Adams B. 1996. On language and development in Africa: The case of Ghana. Nordic Journal of African Studies 5(2). 31–51.Search in Google Scholar
Carpiano, Richard M. 2009. Come take a walk with me: The “Go-Along” interview as a novel method for studying the implications of place for health and well-being. Health & Place 15(1). 263–272.10.1016/j.healthplace.2008.05.003Search in Google Scholar
Castells, Manuel (ed.). 2004. The network society: A cross-cultural perspective. Cheltenham & Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing.10.4337/9781845421663Search in Google Scholar
Cohen, Leor. 2012. An identity structure in narrative: Discourse functions of identity-in-place. Narrative Inquiry 22(2). 247–266.10.1075/ni.22.2.03cohSearch in Google Scholar
Convey, Ian & Vincent O’Brien. 2012. Gypsy-traveler narratives: Making sense of place. A co-ethnography. Narrative Inquiry 22(2). 332–347.10.1075/ni.22.2.07conSearch in Google Scholar
Creese, Angela. 2012. Building researcher-researched relationships. Introduction. In Sheena Gardner & Marilyn Martin-Jones (eds.), Multilingualism, discourse and ethnography (Critical Studies in Multilingualism 3), 285–287. New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
De Certeau, Michel. 1988. The practice of everyday life. Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press.Search in Google Scholar
De Fina, Anna. 2003a. Identity in narrative. A study of immigrant discourse (Studies in Narrative Volume 3). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/sin.3Search in Google Scholar
De Fina, Anna. 2003b. Crossing borders: Time, space and disorientation in narrative. Narrative Inquiry 13(2). 367–391.10.1075/ni.13.2.08defSearch in Google Scholar
De Fina. 2008. Who tells which story and why?. Text & Talk 28(3). 421–442.10.1515/TEXT.2008.020Search in Google Scholar
De Fina, Anna & Alexandra Georgakopoulou. 2008a. Introduction: Narrative Analysis in the shift from texts to practices. Text & Talk 28(3). 275–281.10.1515/TEXT.2008.013Search in Google Scholar
De Fina, Anna & Alexandra Georgakopoulou. 2008b. Analysing narratives as practices. Qualitative Research 8(3). 379–387.10.1177/1468794106093634Search in Google Scholar
De Fina, Anna & Alexandra Georgakopoulou. 2012. Analyzing narrative: Discourse and sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139051255Search in Google Scholar
De Fina, Anna & Sabina Perrino. 2011. Introduction: Interviews vs. ‘natural’ contexts: A false dilemma. Language in Society 40(1). 1–11.10.1017/S0047404510000849Search in Google Scholar
Galí Izard, Josep Maria & Carla Vallès. 2010. Informe Econòmic Anual de l’Anoia 2010. Servei de Desenvolupament i Ocupació. Observatori Socioeconòmic de l’Anoia: Atena 2000-Gràfiques Cubí.Search in Google Scholar
Georgakopoulou, Alexandra. 2006. Thinking big with small stories in narrative and identity analysis. Narrative Inquiry 16(1). 122–130.10.1075/bct.6.15geoSearch in Google Scholar
Georgakopoulou, Alexandra. 2007. Small stories, interaction, and identities (Studies in Narrative Volume 8). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/sin.8Search in Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. 1984. The constitution of society. Outline of the theory of structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press.Search in Google Scholar
Gubrium, Jaber F. 2010. Another turn to narrative practice. Narrative Inquiry 20(2). 387–291.10.1075/ni.20.2.10gubSearch in Google Scholar
Hannam, Kevin, Mimi Sheller & John Urry. 2006. Editorial: Mobilities, immobilities and moorings. Mobilities 1(1). 1–22.10.1080/17450100500489189Search in Google Scholar
Idescat. 2012. Població segons nacionalitat. Igualada. Institut d’Estadística de Catalunya. http://www.idescat.cat/territ/BasicTerr?TC=5&V0= 1&V3=864&V4=682&ALLINFO=TRUE&PARENT=1&CTX=B&V1=08102&VOK=Confirmar (accessed 26 July 2013).Search in Google Scholar
Idescat. 2014. Padró municipal d’habitants. Institut d’Estadística de Catalunya. http://www.idescat.cat/territ/basicterr?TC=8&V3=669&V4=446&ALLINFO=TRUE&PARENT=1&V0=3&V1=0&CTX=B&VN=3&VOK=Confirmar (accessed 16 February 2014).Search in Google Scholar
Kusenbach, Margarethe. 2003. Street phenomenology: The go-along as ethnographic research tool. Ethnography 4(3). 455–485.10.1177/146613810343007Search in Google Scholar
Lanza, Elizabeth. 2012. Empowering a migrant identity: Agency in narratives of a work experience in Norway. Sociolinguistic Studies 6(2). 285–307.10.1558/sols.v6i2.285Search in Google Scholar
Larsen, Jonas & Michael Hviid Jacobsen. 2009. Metaphors of Mobility – Inequality on the Move. In Timo Ohnmacht, Hanja Maksim & Manfred Max Bergman (eds.), Mobilities and inequality, 75–96. Surrey: Ashgate.Search in Google Scholar
Linde, Charlotte. 1993. Life stories: The creation of coherence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Relaño-Pastor, Ana María. 2010. Ethnic categorization and moral agency in ‘fitting in’ narratives among Madrid immigrant students. Narrative Inquiry 20(1). 82–105.10.1075/ni.20.1.05relSearch in Google Scholar
Sabaté Dalmau, Maria. 2015. Migrant identities in narrative practice: In-/out-group constructions of ‘comrades’ and ‘rivals’ in storytelling about transnational life. Narrative Inquiry. 25(1). 91–112.10.1075/ni.25.1.06sabSearch in Google Scholar
Sabaté-Dalmau, Maria. Under review. The imbrications of narrative and critical ethnography in transnational migration studies: Understanding stories of dis/emplacement. [Special Issue] International Journal for the Sociology of Language.Search in Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah. 1996. Narrative as self-portrait: Sociolinguistic constructions of identity. Language in Society 25(2). 167–203.10.1017/S0047404500020601Search in Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah, Anna De Fina & Anastasia Nylund (eds.). 2010. Telling stories: Language, narrative and social life (Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics Series 9). Washington: Georgetown University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Spector-Mersel, Gabriela. 2010. Narrative research. Time for a paradigm. Narrative Inquiry 20(1). 204–224.10.1075/ni.20.1.10speSearch in Google Scholar
Urry, John. 2007. Mobilities. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Whatmore, Sarah. 2002. Hybrid geographies. Natures, cultures, spaces. London, California & New Delhi: Sage.Search in Google Scholar
Wortham, Stanton. 2001. Narratives in action. New York: Teachers College Press.Search in Google Scholar
Wortham, Stanton, Elaine Allard, Kathleen Lee & Katherine Mortimer. 2011. Racialization in payday mugging narratives. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 21. E56–E75.10.1111/j.1548-1395.2011.001097.xSearch in Google Scholar
©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton