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Presents a situated, ethnographically grounded, sociolinguistic critique of politics of difference and inequality in contemporary Central Europe.
This book explores the construction of ‘languaged’ and professional subjectivities in the context of refugee support work in Austria. It presents ethnographic insights into how language and linguistic practice come to matter both as part of a migration infrastructure in transformation, and in the efforts within a particular institution to reinvent itself as it struggles for survival in the context of shrinking public and state support for refugee provision.
The author focuses on how transformation processes play out in counsellors’ and volunteer interpreters’ conceptions of themselves as professionals and speaking subjects when confronted with the political and ethical dilemmas of an increasingly precarised work context. It becomes clear that language, while being central to the services offered, remains a sign of Otherness in a ‘languaged’ institutional order.
How does being a responsible and professional social service worker position one within relations of power? Jonas Hassemer’s clear-eyed and thought-provoking ethnography traces the complex dynamics of language underlying refugee support work, uncovering the insidious process by which neoliberal subjectivities are crafted under precarious conditions of labor.
Through a carefully crafted ethnography and close attention to socially situated linguistic practices, this book offers rare and compelling insights into language as labor, as well as into the everyday lives and struggles of precarious institutions and workers committed to refugee support.
Jonas Hassemer is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, Austria. His research focuses on ethnographic approaches to multilingualism, language and social inequality, subjectivation and the lived experience of language.
Figures, Tables and Examples
Transcirption Symbols
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. From Speaking Subjects at Work to Languaged Workers
Chapter 3. 'We Have No Apartments'
Chapter 4. The Emergency List
Chapter 5. Being a 'Good' Counsellor
Chapter 6. Arabic-Speaking Staff
Chapter 7. Managing Volunteer Interpreters
Chapter 8. The Value(s) of Volunteering
Chapter 9. Volunteers’ Meetings
Chapter 10. Conclusions and Outlook
Bibliography
Index