Eirini Theodoropoulou
2020
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Socio-historical multilingualism and language policies in Dubai Book Chapter
In: pp. 63-80, Routledge, 2020, ISBN: 9780429463860.
@inbook{Theodoropoulou2020,
title = {Socio-historical multilingualism and language policies in Dubai},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.4324/9780429463860-5},
isbn = {9780429463860},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-11-03},
pages = {63-80},
publisher = {Routledge},
abstract = {The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the sociolinguistic research which has been and is currently being conducted in Dubai, and has been published in the English language. After providing a discussion of the mosaic of Dubai’s population, an attempt will be made to tap into the different and diverse areas of sociolinguistic research, while new directions for future research will be discussed as well. The three most important emerging strands include multilingualism, language policies, and the sociolinguistics of the Emirati dialect. After an overview of the most important research that falls under the scope of these three strands, suggestions for interdisciplinary (socio)linguistic projects will be made, which are in full alignment with the country’s attempt to become a knowledge-based economy, as is evident in the Dubai Vision 2021 and beyond.},
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The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the sociolinguistic research which has been and is currently being conducted in Dubai, and has been published in the English language. After providing a discussion of the mosaic of Dubai’s population, an attempt will be made to tap into the different and diverse areas of sociolinguistic research, while new directions for future research will be discussed as well. The three most important emerging strands include multilingualism, language policies, and the sociolinguistics of the Emirati dialect. After an overview of the most important research that falls under the scope of these three strands, suggestions for interdisciplinary (socio)linguistic projects will be made, which are in full alignment with the country’s attempt to become a knowledge-based economy, as is evident in the Dubai Vision 2021 and beyond.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Blue-collar workplace communicative practices: a case study in construction sites in Qatar Journal Article
In: Language Policy, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 363–387, 2020.
@article{Theodoropoulou2020b,
title = {Blue-collar workplace communicative practices: a case study in construction sites in Qatar},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1007/s10993-019-09518-z},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-09-01},
journal = {Language Policy},
volume = {19},
number = {1},
pages = {363–387},
abstract = {The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the role of language in multilingual blue-collar workplaces by investigating how communication is realized in construction sites in Qatar. The State of Qatar offers a unique and, hence, very interesting setting for the linguistic investigation of migration-related issues, such as multilingualism (Pietikäinen et al. in Sociolinguistics from the periphery: small languages in new circumstances, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2016), due to the fact that over 90% of its population consists of non-citizens (Ahmad, in: Kamrava, Babar (eds) Migrant labor in the Persian Gulf, Hurst & Company, London, pp 21–40, 2015). In addition, after its successful bid to host the World Cup 2022, the country is currently witnessing a rapid transformation of its landscape evident through its massive number of construction sites, where people of different national, ethnic and social class backgrounds from all over the world are hired to work together in developing the infrastructure that is part of the ambitious Qatar Vision 2030. Against this backdrop, the focus is on the sociolinguistic resources (Blommaert in The sociolinguistics of globalization, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010) mobilized in a construction site at a university in Qatar. The multilingual community of practice (Lave and Wenger in Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1991) investigated consists of blue-collar workers from India and their communication practices with their supervisors, who are project site engineers from all over the world. In such transnational fields, where effective communication is a sine qua non not only for the successful completion of the project or infrastructure itself but also, and perhaps most importantly, for the safety of everybody involved in the construction, multilingualism is the norm. It is argued that communication is realized through spatial repertoires (Canagarajah, in: Canagarajah (ed) The Routledge handbook of migration and language, Routledge, New York, pp 1–28, 2017), that are constructed and used as ingroup markers to facilitate communication among people from different nationalities, ethnicities and social classes. The ethnographic data, collected for almost 13 months, comprise voice-recorded interactions, field notes from on-site participant observation as well as ethnographic interviews with select blue-collar workers and their supervisors. The linguistic and exolinguistic analysis is contextualized in the broader socio-political and economic forces of Qatar (Fromherz in Qatar. A modern history, Georgetown University Press, Washington, 2012; Kamrava in Qatar: small state, big politics, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2015; chapters in Kamrava and Babar in Migrant labor in the Persian Gulf, Hurst & Company, London, 2015).},
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The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the role of language in multilingual blue-collar workplaces by investigating how communication is realized in construction sites in Qatar. The State of Qatar offers a unique and, hence, very interesting setting for the linguistic investigation of migration-related issues, such as multilingualism (Pietikäinen et al. in Sociolinguistics from the periphery: small languages in new circumstances, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2016), due to the fact that over 90% of its population consists of non-citizens (Ahmad, in: Kamrava, Babar (eds) Migrant labor in the Persian Gulf, Hurst & Company, London, pp 21–40, 2015). In addition, after its successful bid to host the World Cup 2022, the country is currently witnessing a rapid transformation of its landscape evident through its massive number of construction sites, where people of different national, ethnic and social class backgrounds from all over the world are hired to work together in developing the infrastructure that is part of the ambitious Qatar Vision 2030. Against this backdrop, the focus is on the sociolinguistic resources (Blommaert in The sociolinguistics of globalization, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010) mobilized in a construction site at a university in Qatar. The multilingual community of practice (Lave and Wenger in Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1991) investigated consists of blue-collar workers from India and their communication practices with their supervisors, who are project site engineers from all over the world. In such transnational fields, where effective communication is a sine qua non not only for the successful completion of the project or infrastructure itself but also, and perhaps most importantly, for the safety of everybody involved in the construction, multilingualism is the norm. It is argued that communication is realized through spatial repertoires (Canagarajah, in: Canagarajah (ed) The Routledge handbook of migration and language, Routledge, New York, pp 1–28, 2017), that are constructed and used as ingroup markers to facilitate communication among people from different nationalities, ethnicities and social classes. The ethnographic data, collected for almost 13 months, comprise voice-recorded interactions, field notes from on-site participant observation as well as ethnographic interviews with select blue-collar workers and their supervisors. The linguistic and exolinguistic analysis is contextualized in the broader socio-political and economic forces of Qatar (Fromherz in Qatar. A modern history, Georgetown University Press, Washington, 2012; Kamrava in Qatar: small state, big politics, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2015; chapters in Kamrava and Babar in Migrant labor in the Persian Gulf, Hurst & Company, London, 2015).
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Speech style as political capital: Barack Obama’s Athens speech Journal Article
In: Journal of Multicultural Discourses, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 1-15, 2020.
@article{Theodoropoulou2020bb,
title = {Speech style as political capital: Barack Obama’s Athens speech},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1080/17447143.2020.1800715},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-08-05},
journal = {Journal of Multicultural Discourses},
volume = {15},
number = {2},
pages = {1-15},
abstract = {This paper provides a speech stylistic analysis of Barack Obama’s 2016 Athens speech, and it argues for a culturally conscious take on speech style, which links it to the accumulation of political capital, at least in the context of political speeches. With a focus on stance and intertextuality, the main argument put forward is that Obama constructs a dialogue with Ancient Greek thought, which does not simply draw on experiences and events; rather, it recreates them and, eventually, it creates a whole understanding of cultural politics. Against this take on politics based heavily on Greek democracy legacy, for Obama, his performance serves as his consignment to the global political discourse through an effort to join a very well established and highly respected democratic tradition stemming from (Ancient) Greece, whose sociocultural impact is felt vividly in contemporary US. In this sense, his accumulation of political capital serves as his effort to achieve posthumous fame (ystero’fimia) after his stepping down from the US administration.},
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This paper provides a speech stylistic analysis of Barack Obama’s 2016 Athens speech, and it argues for a culturally conscious take on speech style, which links it to the accumulation of political capital, at least in the context of political speeches. With a focus on stance and intertextuality, the main argument put forward is that Obama constructs a dialogue with Ancient Greek thought, which does not simply draw on experiences and events; rather, it recreates them and, eventually, it creates a whole understanding of cultural politics. Against this take on politics based heavily on Greek democracy legacy, for Obama, his performance serves as his consignment to the global political discourse through an effort to join a very well established and highly respected democratic tradition stemming from (Ancient) Greece, whose sociocultural impact is felt vividly in contemporary US. In this sense, his accumulation of political capital serves as his effort to achieve posthumous fame (ystero’fimia) after his stepping down from the US administration.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Scripts of servitude: language, labor, migration, and transnational domestic work Journal Article
In: nternational Journal of the Sociology of Language , vol. 2020, no. 262, pp. 131-134, 2020.
@article{Theodoropoulou2020bb,
title = {Scripts of servitude: language, labor, migration, and transnational domestic work},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1515/ijsl-2019-2073},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-03-26},
journal = {nternational Journal of the Sociology of Language },
volume = {2020},
number = {262},
pages = {131-134},
abstract = {Beatriz Lorente’s book is an ethnographic study focusing on the relationship between language and the construction of transnational domestic worker identity with a special emphasis on Filipina domestic workers. It deals primarily with the ways in which language is embedded in the labor migration infrastructure that produces transnational Filipina domestic workers and the conditions that regulate their mobility. It is argued and illustrated through numerous examples that the transnational mobility of these domestic workers is dependent on the selection, assembly and efficient performance of particular bricolages of linguistic resources that construct migrants as labor and not as people. The various institutions and social actors that are involved in the migration infrastructure include the Philippine State, transnational maid agencies, Singapore and the domestic workers themselves. The book is split into seven chapters that deconstruct the aforementioned relationship at multiple analytical and methodological levels.
Chapter 1, “Language and transnational domestic workers”, provides the background of the study by presenting the core concepts used throughout the analysis, including those of scripts and transnational workers. The key components of migration process are also explained here. As templates that index domestic workers, scripts are embedded in large-scale and everyday processes that produce these workers as laboring personalities awaiting their selection and purchase by potential employers. In this sense, domestic work, which is inscribed in scripts, is highly ideological and it includes material processes of distinction, stratification and commodification. The author prefers to talk about scripts of servitude instead of scripts of domestic work to emphasize the dependency and submission present in paid domestic work. Another important category that informs her analysis is that of scripts of linguistic taylorism, which include concrete linguistic resources that connect language to profit. Against this backdrop, scripts are enacted and are subsequently converted into various forms of capital (e. g. economic, symbolic, social and cultural) by the actors involved in the migration infrastructure. The author presents their sociodemographic profiles along with her methodology that consists of ethnographic interviews and participant observation of training maids, whom the author herself has taught voluntarily. Her methodology also draws from a wide collection of official migration-related documents from institutions and maid agencies in Singapore and the Philippines in addition to media texts about the linguistic situation in the Philippines and foreign workers in Singapore.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
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Beatriz Lorente’s book is an ethnographic study focusing on the relationship between language and the construction of transnational domestic worker identity with a special emphasis on Filipina domestic workers. It deals primarily with the ways in which language is embedded in the labor migration infrastructure that produces transnational Filipina domestic workers and the conditions that regulate their mobility. It is argued and illustrated through numerous examples that the transnational mobility of these domestic workers is dependent on the selection, assembly and efficient performance of particular bricolages of linguistic resources that construct migrants as labor and not as people. The various institutions and social actors that are involved in the migration infrastructure include the Philippine State, transnational maid agencies, Singapore and the domestic workers themselves. The book is split into seven chapters that deconstruct the aforementioned relationship at multiple analytical and methodological levels.
Chapter 1, “Language and transnational domestic workers”, provides the background of the study by presenting the core concepts used throughout the analysis, including those of scripts and transnational workers. The key components of migration process are also explained here. As templates that index domestic workers, scripts are embedded in large-scale and everyday processes that produce these workers as laboring personalities awaiting their selection and purchase by potential employers. In this sense, domestic work, which is inscribed in scripts, is highly ideological and it includes material processes of distinction, stratification and commodification. The author prefers to talk about scripts of servitude instead of scripts of domestic work to emphasize the dependency and submission present in paid domestic work. Another important category that informs her analysis is that of scripts of linguistic taylorism, which include concrete linguistic resources that connect language to profit. Against this backdrop, scripts are enacted and are subsequently converted into various forms of capital (e. g. economic, symbolic, social and cultural) by the actors involved in the migration infrastructure. The author presents their sociodemographic profiles along with her methodology that consists of ethnographic interviews and participant observation of training maids, whom the author herself has taught voluntarily. Her methodology also draws from a wide collection of official migration-related documents from institutions and maid agencies in Singapore and the Philippines in addition to media texts about the linguistic situation in the Philippines and foreign workers in Singapore.
Chapter 1, “Language and transnational domestic workers”, provides the background of the study by presenting the core concepts used throughout the analysis, including those of scripts and transnational workers. The key components of migration process are also explained here. As templates that index domestic workers, scripts are embedded in large-scale and everyday processes that produce these workers as laboring personalities awaiting their selection and purchase by potential employers. In this sense, domestic work, which is inscribed in scripts, is highly ideological and it includes material processes of distinction, stratification and commodification. The author prefers to talk about scripts of servitude instead of scripts of domestic work to emphasize the dependency and submission present in paid domestic work. Another important category that informs her analysis is that of scripts of linguistic taylorism, which include concrete linguistic resources that connect language to profit. Against this backdrop, scripts are enacted and are subsequently converted into various forms of capital (e. g. economic, symbolic, social and cultural) by the actors involved in the migration infrastructure. The author presents their sociodemographic profiles along with her methodology that consists of ethnographic interviews and participant observation of training maids, whom the author herself has taught voluntarily. Her methodology also draws from a wide collection of official migration-related documents from institutions and maid agencies in Singapore and the Philippines in addition to media texts about the linguistic situation in the Philippines and foreign workers in Singapore.
2019
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Nostalgic diaspora or diasporic nostalgia? Discursive and identity constructions of Greeks in Qatar Journal Article
In: Lingua, 2019.
@article{Theodoropoulou2019,
title = {Nostalgic diaspora or diasporic nostalgia? Discursive and identity constructions of Greeks in Qatar},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1016/j.lingua.2019.05.007},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-06-01},
journal = {Lingua},
abstract = {This paper deals with the discursive constructions of transformative, agentive and creative ethnolinguistic self-conceptualizations and positionings of some select members of the approximately 3000-member Greek diasporic community in the State of Qatar. It is a digital and linguistic ethnographic study focusing on the linguistic and semiotic ways whereby Greeks in Qatar negotiate, challenge, process and ultimately respond to the sociopolitical and cultural narratives that constitute “nostalgia,” namely remembrance and homesickness for Greece. The main argument put forward is that multimodal and translanguaging group styling is employed for the construction of diasporic nostalgia discourse, and the assertion of nostalgic diasporic identities, which in unison construct community membership anew all the time. Nostalgia, as a constructed discourse with (in)authenticity-related spatiotemporal dimensions, and diaspora, as a web of creatively styled sociolinguistic and semiotic identities, are two concepts found in tension primarily due to the contextual precarity Greeks in Qatar live in. The paper contributes empirical and methodological knowledge to the field of language and identity in diaspora by focusing on an under-researched diasporic group, and by employing an emic ethnographic perspective in its discursive and sociolinguistic practices.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
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This paper deals with the discursive constructions of transformative, agentive and creative ethnolinguistic self-conceptualizations and positionings of some select members of the approximately 3000-member Greek diasporic community in the State of Qatar. It is a digital and linguistic ethnographic study focusing on the linguistic and semiotic ways whereby Greeks in Qatar negotiate, challenge, process and ultimately respond to the sociopolitical and cultural narratives that constitute “nostalgia,” namely remembrance and homesickness for Greece. The main argument put forward is that multimodal and translanguaging group styling is employed for the construction of diasporic nostalgia discourse, and the assertion of nostalgic diasporic identities, which in unison construct community membership anew all the time. Nostalgia, as a constructed discourse with (in)authenticity-related spatiotemporal dimensions, and diaspora, as a web of creatively styled sociolinguistic and semiotic identities, are two concepts found in tension primarily due to the contextual precarity Greeks in Qatar live in. The paper contributes empirical and methodological knowledge to the field of language and identity in diaspora by focusing on an under-researched diasporic group, and by employing an emic ethnographic perspective in its discursive and sociolinguistic practices.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Semioscaping Eutopia: Qatar as a place in Qatar Airways advertisements Journal Article
In: Sociolinguistic Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 57-82 , 2019.
@article{Theodoropoulou2019b,
title = {Semioscaping Eutopia: Qatar as a place in Qatar Airways advertisements},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1558/sols.36168},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-04-13},
journal = {Sociolinguistic Studies},
volume = {13},
number = {1},
pages = {57-82 },
abstract = {This paper deals with place branding as a multimodally constructed phenomenon in the digital semioscape of advertisements pertaining to the collaboration between Qatar Airways and FC Barcelona. Through its digital spatialisation, Qatar, and, by extension, Qatari leadership of the country, is argued to construct for and brand itself as an image of eutopia (i.e. a nice place to live) drawing on two techniques, inter-peopleisation and reterritorialisation. In this way, Qatar aims at engaging in controversially conveyed soft politics, whereby it can strategically secure its national sustainability by achieving recognizability, admiration and respect both inside and outside its borders. Qatar Airways’ semioscape is also argued to be a visceral semioscape, whose analysis creates academic fetish, namely added value for Qatar in academic scholarship from a person who has been living and working in the country for nine years. It is important to have such emic reflections, in order to do justice to a country that is usually portrayed in very negative and distorted terms in world media, by people who do not have deep knowledge of the country and its people.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
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This paper deals with place branding as a multimodally constructed phenomenon in the digital semioscape of advertisements pertaining to the collaboration between Qatar Airways and FC Barcelona. Through its digital spatialisation, Qatar, and, by extension, Qatari leadership of the country, is argued to construct for and brand itself as an image of eutopia (i.e. a nice place to live) drawing on two techniques, inter-peopleisation and reterritorialisation. In this way, Qatar aims at engaging in controversially conveyed soft politics, whereby it can strategically secure its national sustainability by achieving recognizability, admiration and respect both inside and outside its borders. Qatar Airways’ semioscape is also argued to be a visceral semioscape, whose analysis creates academic fetish, namely added value for Qatar in academic scholarship from a person who has been living and working in the country for nine years. It is important to have such emic reflections, in order to do justice to a country that is usually portrayed in very negative and distorted terms in world media, by people who do not have deep knowledge of the country and its people.
2018
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Social class struggle as a Greek political discourse Journal Article
In: Discourse and Society, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 85-102, 2018, ISBN: 095792651880108 .
@article{Theodoropoulou2018,
title = {Social class struggle as a Greek political discourse},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1177/0957926518801080},
isbn = {095792651880108 },
year = {2018},
date = {2018-09-28},
journal = {Discourse and Society},
volume = {30},
number = {1},
pages = {85-102},
abstract = {This article delves into the construction of social class division in Greek political discourse. More specifically, the focus is on ‘ταξική πάλη’ (class struggle) as a discourse that has started being carved in Greek media since the current leftist government party, Syriza, won the election in 2015 for the first time in the country’s political history. Contrary to Syriza, which always frames its arguments on the basis of a divisive class fight discourse between the elitists and laypeople, New Democracy, the liberal and main oppositional party, tries to play down this discourse by advocating a more unifying and social class inclusive discourse. The analysis suggests that social class struggle is a theme framed within a wider shifting (anti)populist discourse constantly being negotiated linguistically in ironic ways among political elites. Both the government and opposition parties engage in tactical maneuvering of competing political discourses that, in different ways, articulate attachments to the ‘people’. The theoretical contribution of this study is the discursive theorization of social class struggle as a digitally constructed and politically relevant discourse in the context of Greek populism and its discontents.},
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This article delves into the construction of social class division in Greek political discourse. More specifically, the focus is on ‘ταξική πάλη’ (class struggle) as a discourse that has started being carved in Greek media since the current leftist government party, Syriza, won the election in 2015 for the first time in the country’s political history. Contrary to Syriza, which always frames its arguments on the basis of a divisive class fight discourse between the elitists and laypeople, New Democracy, the liberal and main oppositional party, tries to play down this discourse by advocating a more unifying and social class inclusive discourse. The analysis suggests that social class struggle is a theme framed within a wider shifting (anti)populist discourse constantly being negotiated linguistically in ironic ways among political elites. Both the government and opposition parties engage in tactical maneuvering of competing political discourses that, in different ways, articulate attachments to the ‘people’. The theoretical contribution of this study is the discursive theorization of social class struggle as a digitally constructed and politically relevant discourse in the context of Greek populism and its discontents.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini; Alos, Julieta
Expect amazing! Branding Qatar as a sports tourism destination Journal Article
In: Visual Communication, vol. 19, no. 1, 2018.
@article{Theodoropoulou2018b,
title = {Expect amazing! Branding Qatar as a sports tourism destination},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou and Julieta Alos},
doi = {10.1177/1470357218775005},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-06-01},
journal = {Visual Communication},
volume = {19},
number = {1},
abstract = {This article focuses on the ways in which, after its successful bid to host the ‘mega event’ of World Cup 2022, Qatar is branded as a sports tourism destination in the online semioscape and linguascape of sports events. The promotional multimodal digital material that Qatar has already released to launch its ambitious sports-related projects in both its English and Arabic versions is analysed from a critical perspective of multimodal discourse analysis and social semiotics, focusing on image making. This includes the strategic use of symbolic and material markers that construct Qatar as a distinctive destination offering its visitors high quality sports while also being good value for money as it brings the world to its visitors through sports, inter alia. Finally, the argument put forward is that Qatar constructs a politically appealing and distinctive campaign, oscillating between tradition-driven utopia and the remarkably transformed modern landscape of the country.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
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}
This article focuses on the ways in which, after its successful bid to host the ‘mega event’ of World Cup 2022, Qatar is branded as a sports tourism destination in the online semioscape and linguascape of sports events. The promotional multimodal digital material that Qatar has already released to launch its ambitious sports-related projects in both its English and Arabic versions is analysed from a critical perspective of multimodal discourse analysis and social semiotics, focusing on image making. This includes the strategic use of symbolic and material markers that construct Qatar as a distinctive destination offering its visitors high quality sports while also being good value for money as it brings the world to its visitors through sports, inter alia. Finally, the argument put forward is that Qatar constructs a politically appealing and distinctive campaign, oscillating between tradition-driven utopia and the remarkably transformed modern landscape of the country.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini; Ahmed, Iglal
Ethnographing Gender Roles and Power in Intercultural Communication in Qatar Journal Article
In: Journal of Arabian Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 141-160, 2018.
@article{Theodoropoulou2018bb,
title = {Ethnographing Gender Roles and Power in Intercultural Communication in Qatar},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou and Iglal Ahmed},
doi = {10.1080/21534764.2018.1533697},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-01-02},
journal = {Journal of Arabian Studies},
volume = {8},
number = {1},
pages = {141-160},
abstract = {This ethnographic study examines how gender roles associated with male and female Qatari students in intercultural communication courses in a university in Qatar are negotiated between them and their two female instructors from the US and Greece. Our aim is to contribute towards the development of good practice related to the teaching of information exchange among group members who are not culturally alike, ¹ by arguing that an efficient way of overcoming misunderstandings between instructors and students is to engage in a pedagogical approach, which we call “dialogical infotainment”. This serves the ultimate goal of sharing various types of power in order to sharpen our cultural sensitivity and subsequent tolerance and respect for each other’s gender role-related peculiarities.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
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This ethnographic study examines how gender roles associated with male and female Qatari students in intercultural communication courses in a university in Qatar are negotiated between them and their two female instructors from the US and Greece. Our aim is to contribute towards the development of good practice related to the teaching of information exchange among group members who are not culturally alike, ¹ by arguing that an efficient way of overcoming misunderstandings between instructors and students is to engage in a pedagogical approach, which we call “dialogical infotainment”. This serves the ultimate goal of sharing various types of power in order to sharpen our cultural sensitivity and subsequent tolerance and respect for each other’s gender role-related peculiarities.
2017
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Impact of Undergraduate Language and Gender Research: Challenges and Reflections in the Context of Qatar Journal Article
In: Gender Studies 16(1):DOI:, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 71-86, 2017.
@article{Theodoropoulou2017,
title = {Impact of Undergraduate Language and Gender Research: Challenges and Reflections in the Context of Qatar},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.2478/genst-2018-0007},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-12-01},
journal = {Gender Studies 16(1):DOI:},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {71-86},
abstract = {The paper aims at raising female students’ awareness about sexism in language and designing and applying sociocultural linguistic interventions in Qatar. Contributing to the nascent feminist research tradition in this relatively new and rapidly up-and-coming country, it presents a tangible pedagogical proposal from the context of tertiary education. At the same time, in terms of its contribution to gender-related sociolinguistic theory this project can be seen as an attempt to offer a suggestion on how to theorise the positionality of sociolinguistic professionals in relation to issues and contexts they address.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
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}
The paper aims at raising female students’ awareness about sexism in language and designing and applying sociocultural linguistic interventions in Qatar. Contributing to the nascent feminist research tradition in this relatively new and rapidly up-and-coming country, it presents a tangible pedagogical proposal from the context of tertiary education. At the same time, in terms of its contribution to gender-related sociolinguistic theory this project can be seen as an attempt to offer a suggestion on how to theorise the positionality of sociolinguistic professionals in relation to issues and contexts they address.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Sociolinguistic insights into chick lit: Constructing the social class of elegant poverty Journal Article
In: Discourse, Context & Media, vol. 23, pp. 70-79, 2017.
@article{Theodoropoulou2017b,
title = {Sociolinguistic insights into chick lit: Constructing the social class of elegant poverty},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1016/j.dcm.2017.05.007},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-06-01},
journal = {Discourse, Context & Media},
volume = {23},
pages = {70-79},
abstract = {Aiming at suggesting ways whereby the sociolinguistic paradigm can benefit from the analysis of chick lit, this paper explores the ways through which the social class of “elegant poverty” is stylistically constructed in Modern Greek chick lit texts. Although chick lit has been analyzed primarily in terms of gender identity construction, I argue that it can be also seen as a goldmine of styles pertinent to social class due to its rather extravagant but meticulous treatment of social class cultural models and the caustic stylistic representation thereof, both of which aim at increasing the sales of chick lit. More specifically, chick lit offers analytical insights into social classes that are powerful but are traditionally hard to get ethnographic access to, such as elegant poverty in Athens. Relatively recently formed, elegant poverty consists of primarily former wealthy northern Athenian suburbanites who due to the financial recession are characterized by the ownership of estate but absolute lack of cash. Drawing on excerpts from chick lit authored by Pavlina Nasioutzik, it is argued that in chick lit elegant poverty is represented as the amalgam of socioeconomic and cultural models, which are styled through irony, satire and code-switching.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
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Aiming at suggesting ways whereby the sociolinguistic paradigm can benefit from the analysis of chick lit, this paper explores the ways through which the social class of “elegant poverty” is stylistically constructed in Modern Greek chick lit texts. Although chick lit has been analyzed primarily in terms of gender identity construction, I argue that it can be also seen as a goldmine of styles pertinent to social class due to its rather extravagant but meticulous treatment of social class cultural models and the caustic stylistic representation thereof, both of which aim at increasing the sales of chick lit. More specifically, chick lit offers analytical insights into social classes that are powerful but are traditionally hard to get ethnographic access to, such as elegant poverty in Athens. Relatively recently formed, elegant poverty consists of primarily former wealthy northern Athenian suburbanites who due to the financial recession are characterized by the ownership of estate but absolute lack of cash. Drawing on excerpts from chick lit authored by Pavlina Nasioutzik, it is argued that in chick lit elegant poverty is represented as the amalgam of socioeconomic and cultural models, which are styled through irony, satire and code-switching.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
In: Sociolinguistic Studies, vol. 11, no. (2-3-4), pp. 461-465, 2017.
@article{Theodoropoulou2017bb,
title = {Linguistic diversity and social justice: An introduction to Applied Sociolinguistics, Ingrid Piller, (2016), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-993726-4. pp. 283 (pbk)},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1558/sols.33777},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-05-26},
journal = {Sociolinguistic Studies},
volume = {11},
number = {(2-3-4)},
pages = {461-465},
abstract = {The book consists of eight chapters that delve into the concepts of ‘linguistic diversity’and ‘(social) justice’, which are the two core concepts running through the veins of the book. These two are discussed in the context of case studies from all over the world and an attempt is made for them to be anchored in social change owing to globalization and high levels of migration. Language is primarily discussed as a means of exclusion, discrimination and disadvantage, but the positive content of linguistic justice is also reflected upon at the end of the book. In the first introductory chapter, which provides an overview of the whole work, the intersection of language with gender, social class, status, race and legal status is highlighted and an attempt is made to spell out the three principal lines of inquiry: the dimensions of linguistic diversity related to economic inequality, cultural domination and imparity of political participation, respectively. The second chapter is titled ‘Linguistic diversity and stratification’and it provides a historical overview of linguistic ideological work focusing on attempts to homogenize (eg standardize) and (super) diversify languages and dialects. In addition, it makes the important argument that both these processes lay the groundwork for creating inequality, as they contribute towards the creation of linguistic domination and subsequent social stratification.},
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The book consists of eight chapters that delve into the concepts of ‘linguistic diversity’and ‘(social) justice’, which are the two core concepts running through the veins of the book. These two are discussed in the context of case studies from all over the world and an attempt is made for them to be anchored in social change owing to globalization and high levels of migration. Language is primarily discussed as a means of exclusion, discrimination and disadvantage, but the positive content of linguistic justice is also reflected upon at the end of the book. In the first introductory chapter, which provides an overview of the whole work, the intersection of language with gender, social class, status, race and legal status is highlighted and an attempt is made to spell out the three principal lines of inquiry: the dimensions of linguistic diversity related to economic inequality, cultural domination and imparity of political participation, respectively. The second chapter is titled ‘Linguistic diversity and stratification’and it provides a historical overview of linguistic ideological work focusing on attempts to homogenize (eg standardize) and (super) diversify languages and dialects. In addition, it makes the important argument that both these processes lay the groundwork for creating inequality, as they contribute towards the creation of linguistic domination and subsequent social stratification.
2016
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Translating the style of Aganaktismenoi (Indignants) on Facebook Journal Article
In: Multilingua, vol. 35, no. 5, 2016.
@article{Theodoropoulou2016,
title = {Translating the style of Aganaktismenoi (Indignants) on Facebook},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1515/multi-2014-1019},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-09-01},
journal = {Multilingua},
volume = {35},
number = {5},
abstract = {The paper discusses translation challenges associated with the linguistic and multisemiotic stylistic ways (Kress 2010; Coupland 2007) Aganaktismenoi, the Greek indignants? movement, employ to produce a digital sense of their community and subsequent identities. It argues for the transfer of the cultural and sociopolitical element as being the hardest to translate into languages other than Greek. In light of this challenge, it is suggested that a functional variationist translation model (Theodoropoulou 2007), which takes into consideration the general context and the functions of individual illocutionary acts (Austin 1962), i.e. intended meanings, performed digitally could remedy this weakness by yielding translations that do justice to the original utterances. This is also enhanced by the fact that a multisemiotic style, such as a picture posted on Facebook Wall, offers lots of background information (e.g., colors and facial expressions, to mention just a few), which act synergistically in the deciphering and consequent translation of the text. The expansion of the use of the aforementioned sociopragmatic model of translation into multisemiotic texts is made on the basis of linguistic and multimodal analysis of posts with pictures and text from the Aganaktismenoi pages on Facebook and their translation into English.},
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The paper discusses translation challenges associated with the linguistic and multisemiotic stylistic ways (Kress 2010; Coupland 2007) Aganaktismenoi, the Greek indignants? movement, employ to produce a digital sense of their community and subsequent identities. It argues for the transfer of the cultural and sociopolitical element as being the hardest to translate into languages other than Greek. In light of this challenge, it is suggested that a functional variationist translation model (Theodoropoulou 2007), which takes into consideration the general context and the functions of individual illocutionary acts (Austin 1962), i.e. intended meanings, performed digitally could remedy this weakness by yielding translations that do justice to the original utterances. This is also enhanced by the fact that a multisemiotic style, such as a picture posted on Facebook Wall, offers lots of background information (e.g., colors and facial expressions, to mention just a few), which act synergistically in the deciphering and consequent translation of the text. The expansion of the use of the aforementioned sociopragmatic model of translation into multisemiotic texts is made on the basis of linguistic and multimodal analysis of posts with pictures and text from the Aganaktismenoi pages on Facebook and their translation into English.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Mediatized vernacularization: On the structure, entextualization and resemiotization of Varoufakiology Journal Article
In: Discourse, Context & Media, vol. 14, pp. 28-39, 2016.
@article{Theodoropoulou2016b,
title = {Mediatized vernacularization: On the structure, entextualization and resemiotization of Varoufakiology},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1016/j.dcm.2016.08.003},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-09-01},
journal = {Discourse, Context & Media},
volume = {14},
pages = {28-39},
abstract = {This paper focuses on the structure of mediatized discourses on the former Greek minister of finance Yanis Varoufakis, which are labeled Varoufakiology. Through a multimodal discourse analysis of cartoons and photographs, which have been collected systematically in social and mainstream media through hypermedia ethnography, it is argued that neolectal stylistic features, including body posture, clothing and negotiation style are the emerging themes that prevail in mediatized communication with and about Varoufakis. In unison, they create a sense of semiotic vernacularization, translated into interacting linguistic and semiotic simplification, boldness and unconventionality associated with a controversial and multidimensional personality with intense and impactful political, academic and popular activity. In this sense, the overall argument put forward is that this mediatized vernacularization is not only a linguistic but also a widely semiotic type of communication, which reframes and positions Varoufakis as a political leader brought to light through controversial aspects of his identity, leadership and politics.},
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This paper focuses on the structure of mediatized discourses on the former Greek minister of finance Yanis Varoufakis, which are labeled Varoufakiology. Through a multimodal discourse analysis of cartoons and photographs, which have been collected systematically in social and mainstream media through hypermedia ethnography, it is argued that neolectal stylistic features, including body posture, clothing and negotiation style are the emerging themes that prevail in mediatized communication with and about Varoufakis. In unison, they create a sense of semiotic vernacularization, translated into interacting linguistic and semiotic simplification, boldness and unconventionality associated with a controversial and multidimensional personality with intense and impactful political, academic and popular activity. In this sense, the overall argument put forward is that this mediatized vernacularization is not only a linguistic but also a widely semiotic type of communication, which reframes and positions Varoufakis as a political leader brought to light through controversial aspects of his identity, leadership and politics.
2015
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Diglossia Journal Article
In: International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, pp. 417-423, 2015.
@article{Theodoropoulou2015,
title = {Diglossia},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.53006-2},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-12-31},
journal = {International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences},
pages = {417-423},
abstract = {The article reviews the basic literature on diglossia with special reference to its linguistic and social features. A number of diglossic cases are discussed with special emphasis on diglossia in the Greek-speaking world, the Arab-speaking world, and Switzerland. The main argument put forward is that as it currently stands the term ‘diglossia’ does not do justice to the peculiarities found in the various contexts of diglossia.},
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The article reviews the basic literature on diglossia with special reference to its linguistic and social features. A number of diglossic cases are discussed with special emphasis on diglossia in the Greek-speaking world, the Arab-speaking world, and Switzerland. The main argument put forward is that as it currently stands the term ‘diglossia’ does not do justice to the peculiarities found in the various contexts of diglossia.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Intercultural Communicative Styles in Qatar: Greek and Qataris Book Chapter
In: pp. 11-25, Springer, Singapore, 2015, ISBN: 978-981-287-254-8.
@inbook{Theodoropoulou2015b,
title = {Intercultural Communicative Styles in Qatar: Greek and Qataris},
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isbn = {978-981-287-254-8},
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abstract = {This chapter investigates the intercultural communicative styles used by female Qatari students and their Greek instructor in their academic interactions at Qatar University. “Intercultural communicative style,” namely the way we share information with others through language, is seen as both shaping and shaped by oneʼs culture. The two research questions pursued are the following: (1) What are the basic communicative styles used by female Qatari students and their instructor and how are they similar to and different from each other? and (2) how do they contribute toward the construction of these peopleʼs perceptions of culture? My methodology includes linguistic ethnography, translating into participant observation, field notes from both inside and outside the classroom, and ethnographic interviews with my students. In addition, my data include e-mail exchanges in the context of lectures from sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and language and culture courses I taught at Qatar University during the period 2010–2013, and interview data, where my students are asked to reflect upon their intercultural communicative experience from their interaction with me. The rationale behind having these diverse data is to validate my findings through the comparison between the levels of production (i.e., linguistic behavior inside the classroom) and perception (i.e., what people think they are doing in terms of their intercultural communicative performance). The analysis sheds light on the ways whereby communicative styles help us decipher the whole process of culture construction, and it is set to explore the potential ways whereby sociolinguistics and cultural studies can be used as a means of improving peopleʼs (academic) lives in Qatar and elsewhere.},
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This chapter investigates the intercultural communicative styles used by female Qatari students and their Greek instructor in their academic interactions at Qatar University. “Intercultural communicative style,” namely the way we share information with others through language, is seen as both shaping and shaped by oneʼs culture. The two research questions pursued are the following: (1) What are the basic communicative styles used by female Qatari students and their instructor and how are they similar to and different from each other? and (2) how do they contribute toward the construction of these peopleʼs perceptions of culture? My methodology includes linguistic ethnography, translating into participant observation, field notes from both inside and outside the classroom, and ethnographic interviews with my students. In addition, my data include e-mail exchanges in the context of lectures from sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and language and culture courses I taught at Qatar University during the period 2010–2013, and interview data, where my students are asked to reflect upon their intercultural communicative experience from their interaction with me. The rationale behind having these diverse data is to validate my findings through the comparison between the levels of production (i.e., linguistic behavior inside the classroom) and perception (i.e., what people think they are doing in terms of their intercultural communicative performance). The analysis sheds light on the ways whereby communicative styles help us decipher the whole process of culture construction, and it is set to explore the potential ways whereby sociolinguistics and cultural studies can be used as a means of improving peopleʼs (academic) lives in Qatar and elsewhere.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Politeness on Facebook: The case of Greek birthday wishes Journal Article
In: Pragmatics, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 23-45, 2015.
@article{Theodoropoulou2015bb,
title = {Politeness on Facebook: The case of Greek birthday wishes},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1075/prag.25.1.02the},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-03-01},
journal = {Pragmatics},
volume = {25},
number = {1},
pages = {23-45},
abstract = {Facebook forms one of the most widely used online social networks, through which people manage their communication with diverse contacts or ‘friends’, ranging from members of the family and schoolmates to work colleagues and popular cultural idols or other people, whom they admire. Hence, it can be seen as an integral part of people’s digital presence. Against this backdrop, the aim of this paper is to investigate the ways politeness is constructed in a context, in which it is not very typical to find politeness in the Western world: The reception of birthday wishes. The focus is on the (para)linguistic reception of birthday wishes on behalf of 400 native Greek users of Facebook, aged between 25–35 years old, as evidenced in the ways they respond to birthday wishes posted on their walls. By using a combination of interactional sociolinguistics, discourse-centered online ethnography and offline ethnographic interviews, I argue that native speakers of Greek do not just stick to the politic behavior found in other languages, like English, of personally thanking their friends for their birthday wishes; rather, they employ contextualization cues, such as shifts in spelling, emoticons and punctuation markers, in order to construct frames and footings of politeness by actually reciprocating the wishes they received from their friends. The value of this study lies not only in being, to my knowledge, the first description and interpretation of an important cultural phenomenon for Greeks, which is the exchange of birthday wishes, but also it contributes towards understanding politeness in online environments, such as Facebook, which in turn is used for establishment and maintenance of interpersonal relationships, hence it can lead to smooth communication.},
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Facebook forms one of the most widely used online social networks, through which people manage their communication with diverse contacts or ‘friends’, ranging from members of the family and schoolmates to work colleagues and popular cultural idols or other people, whom they admire. Hence, it can be seen as an integral part of people’s digital presence. Against this backdrop, the aim of this paper is to investigate the ways politeness is constructed in a context, in which it is not very typical to find politeness in the Western world: The reception of birthday wishes. The focus is on the (para)linguistic reception of birthday wishes on behalf of 400 native Greek users of Facebook, aged between 25–35 years old, as evidenced in the ways they respond to birthday wishes posted on their walls. By using a combination of interactional sociolinguistics, discourse-centered online ethnography and offline ethnographic interviews, I argue that native speakers of Greek do not just stick to the politic behavior found in other languages, like English, of personally thanking their friends for their birthday wishes; rather, they employ contextualization cues, such as shifts in spelling, emoticons and punctuation markers, in order to construct frames and footings of politeness by actually reciprocating the wishes they received from their friends. The value of this study lies not only in being, to my knowledge, the first description and interpretation of an important cultural phenomenon for Greeks, which is the exchange of birthday wishes, but also it contributes towards understanding politeness in online environments, such as Facebook, which in turn is used for establishment and maintenance of interpersonal relationships, hence it can lead to smooth communication.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Intercultural communicative style in Qatar: Greek and Qataris. In Raddawi, Rana (ed.) (2015). Intercultural Communication with Arabs: Studies in Education, Professional, and Societal Contexts. New York: Springer Book Chapter
In: pp. 11-26, Springer, Singapore, 2015, ISBN: 978-981-287-254-8.
@inbook{Theodoropoulou2015bb,
title = {Intercultural communicative style in Qatar: Greek and Qataris. In Raddawi, Rana (ed.) (2015). Intercultural Communication with Arabs: Studies in Education, Professional, and Societal Contexts. New York: Springer},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
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abstract = {This chapter investigates the intercultural communicative styles used by Qatari female students and me, their Greek instructor, in their academic interactions at Qatar University. "Intercultural communicative style" is the way in which we share information with others through language. This way is seen as both shaping and shaped by one's culture. The two research questions pursued are: 1) what are the basic communicative styles used by my various Qatari students and me, and how are they similar and different from each other? 2) how do they contribute towards the construction of these people's perceptions of culture? In light of the aforementioned research questions, my methodology includes linguistic ethnography (Rampton et al., 2004), translating into participant observation, field notes from both inside and outside the classroom, and ethnographic interviews with my students. In addition, my data include email exchanges in the context of lectures from sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and language and gender courses, which I have taught during the period 2010-2013 at Qatar University, and interview data, where my students are asked to reflect upon their intercultural communicative experience they (have) gain(ed) from their interaction with me. The rationale behind having these diverse types of data is to validate my findings through the comparison between the levels of production (i.e. linguistic behavior inside the classroom) and perception (i.e. what people think they are doing in terms of their intercultural communicative performance). In my analysis, which is embedded within the analytical traditions of interactional sociolinguistics and cultural studies, I draw on Coupland's (2007) and Tannen's (2005) work on style, and Shaules' (2007: 11-12) notion of "deep culture".},
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This chapter investigates the intercultural communicative styles used by Qatari female students and me, their Greek instructor, in their academic interactions at Qatar University. "Intercultural communicative style" is the way in which we share information with others through language. This way is seen as both shaping and shaped by one's culture. The two research questions pursued are: 1) what are the basic communicative styles used by my various Qatari students and me, and how are they similar and different from each other? 2) how do they contribute towards the construction of these people's perceptions of culture? In light of the aforementioned research questions, my methodology includes linguistic ethnography (Rampton et al., 2004), translating into participant observation, field notes from both inside and outside the classroom, and ethnographic interviews with my students. In addition, my data include email exchanges in the context of lectures from sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and language and gender courses, which I have taught during the period 2010-2013 at Qatar University, and interview data, where my students are asked to reflect upon their intercultural communicative experience they (have) gain(ed) from their interaction with me. The rationale behind having these diverse types of data is to validate my findings through the comparison between the levels of production (i.e. linguistic behavior inside the classroom) and perception (i.e. what people think they are doing in terms of their intercultural communicative performance). In my analysis, which is embedded within the analytical traditions of interactional sociolinguistics and cultural studies, I draw on Coupland's (2007) and Tannen's (2005) work on style, and Shaules' (2007: 11-12) notion of "deep culture".
2014
Theodoropoulou, Eirini; Mahgoub, Yasser
Investigating Qatari Traditional Architecture from an Interdisciplinary Approach Journal Article
In: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 477–485, 2014.
@article{Theodoropoulou2014,
title = {Investigating Qatari Traditional Architecture from an Interdisciplinary Approach},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou and Yasser Mahgoub},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-12-01},
journal = {Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences},
volume = {3},
number = {4},
pages = {477–485},
abstract = {This paper presents the findings of an Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) research project funded by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF). This interdisciplinary research project brings together architecture and sociolinguistics students and faculty members to develop a socio-cultural understanding and interpretation of the structures, designs, and physical dimensions of traditional elements employed by the members of the traditional society of Qatar from two complementary perspectives. The focus of this study is on identifying the multiple meanings and physical representations associated with elements of architecture, exemplified in the case of Qatari traditional architecture. These multiple meanings are dealt with from both architectural and multimodal discursive perspectives. The rationale behind this interdisciplinary approach is the fact that these two approaches are complementary to each other. This is because architecture spaces and elements act as a field and context where peoples' practices and activities take place, Hence, these practices are intricately interwoven with the architectural, i.e. structural and design, peculiarities of the individual spaces. One hundred Qatari traditional elements were selected for the purpose of this investigation within a framework of multimodal analysis. This approach takes into consideration the multiple modes through which meanings are constructed, i.e. building materials, structures and shapes of buildings, types of people who are entitled to use a particular building, activities that are organized around a space, to mention just a few. The project offers the opportunity to undergraduate students and faculty members from diverse disciplines to collaborate in an interdisciplinary research project, and thus to benefit from each other's background knowledge, ideas, and skills. The study recommends that this multidisciplinary approach be applied in undergraduate, postgraduate and other scholarly research pertaining to the study of traditional architecture and urban heritage. It proved to provide a better understanding and to serve as a strong motivation for students to engage themselves in research than an unidisciplinary approach.},
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This paper presents the findings of an Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) research project funded by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF). This interdisciplinary research project brings together architecture and sociolinguistics students and faculty members to develop a socio-cultural understanding and interpretation of the structures, designs, and physical dimensions of traditional elements employed by the members of the traditional society of Qatar from two complementary perspectives. The focus of this study is on identifying the multiple meanings and physical representations associated with elements of architecture, exemplified in the case of Qatari traditional architecture. These multiple meanings are dealt with from both architectural and multimodal discursive perspectives. The rationale behind this interdisciplinary approach is the fact that these two approaches are complementary to each other. This is because architecture spaces and elements act as a field and context where peoples' practices and activities take place, Hence, these practices are intricately interwoven with the architectural, i.e. structural and design, peculiarities of the individual spaces. One hundred Qatari traditional elements were selected for the purpose of this investigation within a framework of multimodal analysis. This approach takes into consideration the multiple modes through which meanings are constructed, i.e. building materials, structures and shapes of buildings, types of people who are entitled to use a particular building, activities that are organized around a space, to mention just a few. The project offers the opportunity to undergraduate students and faculty members from diverse disciplines to collaborate in an interdisciplinary research project, and thus to benefit from each other's background knowledge, ideas, and skills. The study recommends that this multidisciplinary approach be applied in undergraduate, postgraduate and other scholarly research pertaining to the study of traditional architecture and urban heritage. It proved to provide a better understanding and to serve as a strong motivation for students to engage themselves in research than an unidisciplinary approach.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Sociolinguistics of Style and Social Class in Contemporary Athens Book
John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2014, ISBN: 9789027269706.
@book{Theodoropoulou2014b,
title = {Sociolinguistics of Style and Social Class in Contemporary Athens},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1075/dapsac.57},
isbn = {9789027269706},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-09-24},
volume = {57},
publisher = {John Benjamins Publishing Company},
abstract = {This ethnographic study deals with the ways people in Athens, Greece, use style to construct their social class identities. Including a rich dataset comprising ethnographic interviews with actual people who live in the stereotypically seen as leafy and posh northern suburbs and in the stereotypically treated as working class western suburbs of Athens coupled with data from popular literary novels, TV series and Greek hip hop music, it argues that the relationship between style and social class identity is mediated by complex social meanings encompassing features from and discourses relevant to both areas, which are structured across different orders of indexicality depending on the genre of speech in which they are created. As such, it will be of interest to scholars in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, anthropology, sociology, Modern Greek studies, and to everyone who is interested in how social class is constructed via language.},
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This ethnographic study deals with the ways people in Athens, Greece, use style to construct their social class identities. Including a rich dataset comprising ethnographic interviews with actual people who live in the stereotypically seen as leafy and posh northern suburbs and in the stereotypically treated as working class western suburbs of Athens coupled with data from popular literary novels, TV series and Greek hip hop music, it argues that the relationship between style and social class identity is mediated by complex social meanings encompassing features from and discourses relevant to both areas, which are structured across different orders of indexicality depending on the genre of speech in which they are created. As such, it will be of interest to scholars in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, anthropology, sociology, Modern Greek studies, and to everyone who is interested in how social class is constructed via language.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Book review: Jose Marichal, Facebook Democracy: The Architecture of Disclosure and the Threat to Public Life Journal Article
In: Discourse and Society, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 569-571, 2014.
@article{Theodoropoulou2014bb,
title = {Book review: Jose Marichal, Facebook Democracy: The Architecture of Disclosure and the Threat to Public Life},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1177/0957926513508859b},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-07-07},
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Theodoropoulou, Eirini; Tyler, Joseph
Perceptual dialectology of the Arab world Journal Article
In: Al-cArabiyya, vol. 47, pp. 21 - 39, 2014.
@article{Theodoropoulou2014bb,
title = {Perceptual dialectology of the Arab world},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou and Joseph Tyler},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
journal = {Al-cArabiyya},
volume = {47},
pages = {21 - 39},
abstract = {This study discusses perceptions of variation across dialects of Arabic in the Arab world as revealed through a perceptual dialectology map task. On a map of the Arab world, female undergraduate students at Qatar University provided information about boundaries where people speak differently and labels for those boundaries. A correlation analysis of the boundaries showed that participants viewed Arabic dialects as constituting five major dialect groups: the Maghreb, Egypt and Sudan, the Levant, the Gulf, and Somalia. A closer analysis of the content of the labels revealed variation in terms of the principal (Goffman 1981) on which they draw in their judgments, being either individual, regional (intermediate), or wide-scope generic. This analysis not only identifies more granularity in the concept of principal, it also quantifies the different kinds of principal and identifies statistical relationships between them, the labels, and the boundaries.},
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This study discusses perceptions of variation across dialects of Arabic in the Arab world as revealed through a perceptual dialectology map task. On a map of the Arab world, female undergraduate students at Qatar University provided information about boundaries where people speak differently and labels for those boundaries. A correlation analysis of the boundaries showed that participants viewed Arabic dialects as constituting five major dialect groups: the Maghreb, Egypt and Sudan, the Levant, the Gulf, and Somalia. A closer analysis of the content of the labels revealed variation in terms of the principal (Goffman 1981) on which they draw in their judgments, being either individual, regional (intermediate), or wide-scope generic. This analysis not only identifies more granularity in the concept of principal, it also quantifies the different kinds of principal and identifies statistical relationships between them, the labels, and the boundaries.
2013
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Book review: David Machin, Analysing Popular Music: Image, Sound, Text Journal Article
In: Discourse and Society, vol. 24(4):, no. 4, pp. 508-510, 2013.
@article{Theodoropoulou2013,
title = {Book review: David Machin, Analysing Popular Music: Image, Sound, Text},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1177/0957926513486580b},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-06-28},
journal = {Discourse and Society},
volume = {24(4):},
number = {4},
pages = {508-510},
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Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Sociolinguistic Variation in Athenian Suburban Speech Journal Article
In: Journal of Greek Linguistics, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 30-53, 2013.
@article{Theodoropoulou2013b,
title = {Sociolinguistic Variation in Athenian Suburban Speech},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1163/15699846-13130104},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-01-01},
journal = {Journal of Greek Linguistics},
volume = {13},
number = {1},
pages = {30-53},
abstract = {This article focuses on the description and interpretation of the social meaning of sociolinguistic variation in Athenian suburban speech. A descriptive statistical and a Varbrul analysis of the syntactic variable Verb and presence or absence of Prepositional Phrase (V +/– PP), as it is used by native northern and western suburbanites of Athens, suggests that primarily the area (northern and western suburbia) and, to a lesser extent, the sex of the speakers are statistically significant macro social factors constraining variation. In an effort to tease out the social meaning of the variation, a further analysis of some micro factors within each area, including the group of speakers, the topic, and the stance towards the rivalry between the aforementioned suburban areas, suggests that variation in both areas is interactionally constrained, but in the northern area it tends to be more friendship group-constrained, while in the western area it is more education-constrained. In light of these findings, the sociolinguistic implications of the study translate into the analytical need to account for the relationship between interactional and social factors in the description of variable grammars.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article focuses on the description and interpretation of the social meaning of sociolinguistic variation in Athenian suburban speech. A descriptive statistical and a Varbrul analysis of the syntactic variable Verb and presence or absence of Prepositional Phrase (V +/– PP), as it is used by native northern and western suburbanites of Athens, suggests that primarily the area (northern and western suburbia) and, to a lesser extent, the sex of the speakers are statistically significant macro social factors constraining variation. In an effort to tease out the social meaning of the variation, a further analysis of some micro factors within each area, including the group of speakers, the topic, and the stance towards the rivalry between the aforementioned suburban areas, suggests that variation in both areas is interactionally constrained, but in the northern area it tends to be more friendship group-constrained, while in the western area it is more education-constrained. In light of these findings, the sociolinguistic implications of the study translate into the analytical need to account for the relationship between interactional and social factors in the description of variable grammars.
2012
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Sociolinguistics of social class in globalized Qatar: Residents' self-reflections Journal Article
In: Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Volume, vol. 2012, no. 1, 2012.
@article{Theodoropoulou2012,
title = {Sociolinguistics of social class in globalized Qatar: Residents' self-reflections},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.5339/qfarf.2012.AHP47},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-10-01},
journal = {Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Volume},
volume = {2012},
number = {1},
abstract = {This is a sociocultural linguistic study on the ways whereby language is used by residents, both natives and expats, of Qatar, a highly globalized country in the Gulf area. The motivation for this study is Arabic sociolinguist Reem Bassiouney's observation that issues of social stratification and how the latter is reflected on language in the Arab world, and most prominently in the Gulf countries, are under-researched. Against this backdrop and trying to fill in this gap, the described methodology combines linguistic ethnography with research on archives and books describing issues of social organization relevant to contemporary Qatari society. Linguistic ethnography is seen as 'a method of social research, [which] seeks to capture and understand the meanings and dynamics in particular cultural settings'. My study includes data from ethnographic interviews with 3 people, one Qatari, one Italian and one Indian, who have been working in Qatar for at least six months (in this way, they are familiar with the (working) context of the country). The questions used in the interviews focus on the participants' (socio)linguistic choices, lifestyle choices, ideologies, beliefs, and values. It is argued that social class, at the level of people's self-reflections is constructed via sociolinguistic upscaling, namely by alluding to higher-order scales, which create social norms and are thus associated with power. Such an upscaling is further argued to index upward mobility. What this means is that higher orders tend to be more abstract, hence more powerful, exactly because they are associated with rules and norms of the society. In a nutshell, the basic finding in this study is that upward mobility in class consciousness takes place sociolinguistically by alluding to power via upscaling. Finally, the overarching argument put forward is that globalization tends to metamorphose the very essence of social class, as it renders it mobile, in constant flux, and eventually a new system consisting of resemiotized identity units. The findings will appeal to both linguists and sociologists working in and on Qatar.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This is a sociocultural linguistic study on the ways whereby language is used by residents, both natives and expats, of Qatar, a highly globalized country in the Gulf area. The motivation for this study is Arabic sociolinguist Reem Bassiouney's observation that issues of social stratification and how the latter is reflected on language in the Arab world, and most prominently in the Gulf countries, are under-researched. Against this backdrop and trying to fill in this gap, the described methodology combines linguistic ethnography with research on archives and books describing issues of social organization relevant to contemporary Qatari society. Linguistic ethnography is seen as 'a method of social research, [which] seeks to capture and understand the meanings and dynamics in particular cultural settings'. My study includes data from ethnographic interviews with 3 people, one Qatari, one Italian and one Indian, who have been working in Qatar for at least six months (in this way, they are familiar with the (working) context of the country). The questions used in the interviews focus on the participants' (socio)linguistic choices, lifestyle choices, ideologies, beliefs, and values. It is argued that social class, at the level of people's self-reflections is constructed via sociolinguistic upscaling, namely by alluding to higher-order scales, which create social norms and are thus associated with power. Such an upscaling is further argued to index upward mobility. What this means is that higher orders tend to be more abstract, hence more powerful, exactly because they are associated with rules and norms of the society. In a nutshell, the basic finding in this study is that upward mobility in class consciousness takes place sociolinguistically by alluding to power via upscaling. Finally, the overarching argument put forward is that globalization tends to metamorphose the very essence of social class, as it renders it mobile, in constant flux, and eventually a new system consisting of resemiotized identity units. The findings will appeal to both linguists and sociologists working in and on Qatar.
2010
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Jennifer Hay, Margaret MacLagan and Elizabeth Gordon, Dialects of English: New Zealand English. Edinburgh Journal Article
In: Language in Society, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 295-296, 2010.
@article{Theodoropoulou2010,
title = {Jennifer Hay, Margaret MacLagan and Elizabeth Gordon, Dialects of English: New Zealand English. Edinburgh},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.1017/S0047404510000163},
year = {2010},
date = {2010-04-01},
journal = {Language in Society},
volume = {39},
number = {2},
pages = {295-296},
abstract = {Language in Society is an international journal of sociolinguistics concerned with language and discourse as aspects of social life. The journal publishes empirical articles of general theoretical, comparative or methodological interest to students and scholars in sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and related fields. Language in Society aims to strengthen international scholarship and interdisciplinary conversation and cooperation among researchers interested in language and society by publishing work of high quality which speaks to a wide audience. In addition to original articles, the journal publishes reviews and notices of the latest important books in the field as well as occasional theme and discussion sections.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Language in Society is an international journal of sociolinguistics concerned with language and discourse as aspects of social life. The journal publishes empirical articles of general theoretical, comparative or methodological interest to students and scholars in sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and related fields. Language in Society aims to strengthen international scholarship and interdisciplinary conversation and cooperation among researchers interested in language and society by publishing work of high quality which speaks to a wide audience. In addition to original articles, the journal publishes reviews and notices of the latest important books in the field as well as occasional theme and discussion sections.
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Dialects of English: New Zealand English by Jennifer Hay; Margaret Maclagan; Elizabeth Gordon Journal Article
In: Language in Society , vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 295-296, 2010.
@article{Theodoropoulou2010b,
title = {Dialects of English: New Zealand English by Jennifer Hay; Margaret Maclagan; Elizabeth Gordon},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.2307/40606087},
year = {2010},
date = {2010-04-01},
journal = {Language in Society },
volume = {39},
number = {2},
pages = {295-296},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Theodoropoulou, Eirini
Popular Literature Discourses in Athenian Suburbia: The Northern Suburbs Journal Article
In: Articulo - Journal of Urban Research, 2010.
@article{Theodoropoulou2010bb,
title = {Popular Literature Discourses in Athenian Suburbia: The Northern Suburbs},
author = {Eirini Theodoropoulou},
doi = {10.4000/articulo.1571},
year = {2010},
date = {2010-01-01},
journal = {Articulo - Journal of Urban Research},
abstract = {Suburbia, home to a life-style many people aspire to, could be seen as a marriage between urban and countryside life, and, as such, it should be seen as a vital arena for interdisciplinary research on the urban-rural paradigm. This paper explores the ways whereby discourses on what is stereotypically seen as posh northern Athens suburban culture (Voreia Proastia) are represented in popular literature. The main argument is that Voreia Proastia suburban culture could be seen as positioned on an urban/countryside continuum. This is grounded on the simple reason that, both at the speech level and in terms of lifestyle, it encompasses features of urban and rural worlds, the former associated with the “new-poor” or “elegant poverty” people, the latter with the “new-rich”.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Suburbia, home to a life-style many people aspire to, could be seen as a marriage between urban and countryside life, and, as such, it should be seen as a vital arena for interdisciplinary research on the urban-rural paradigm. This paper explores the ways whereby discourses on what is stereotypically seen as posh northern Athens suburban culture (Voreia Proastia) are represented in popular literature. The main argument is that Voreia Proastia suburban culture could be seen as positioned on an urban/countryside continuum. This is grounded on the simple reason that, both at the speech level and in terms of lifestyle, it encompasses features of urban and rural worlds, the former associated with the “new-poor” or “elegant poverty” people, the latter with the “new-rich”.