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Article published In:
Linguistic Landscape
Vol. 6:3 (2020) ► pp.297–325

Minority positioning in physical and online spaces

ORCID logo | Stockholm University

The study examines how a Sweden Finnish minority language activist group positions themselves by inserting graffiti-like stickers into the Swedish Linguistic Landscape, and how the majority populations in Sweden and Finland react to these revitalisation efforts. Protesting by placing stickers in physical environments is classified as an act of linguistic citizenship (Isin 2009) and, from the majority’s point of view, these acts are a threat to the shared cultural moral order. The data consists of pictures posted on Instagram that depict actual physical environments where activists have placed stickers that encourage the minority to “speak their own language”. The activists utilise temporal, spatial, textual, and multimodal elements in their discursive construction. As a theoretical framework, I apply Harré and Langehove’s (1991) positioning theory. The results show how minorities position themselves in relation to the Swedish majority population with the aim of justifying their status and their right to exist.

Keywords: positioning, linguistic citizenship, activism, mediated linguistic landscape, protest
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The context of the present study
    • 1.2Literature review and research questions
  • 2.Linguistic Landscape as interaction and as a site of activism
    • 2.1Linguistic Landscapes as a site of protest
    • 2.2Positioning
  • 3.Method and data
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Tags and statements
    • 4.2Sticky ideologies
    • 4.2.1Old history
      • 4.2.2Recent history
      • 4.2.3Claiming rights with graffiti
    • 4.3The majorities strike back
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 June 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.18031.vuo
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