Talk on the move

Articulating mobility in West Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID3661233
AuthorsNikolas Sweet (0000-0002-3957-2888, Grinnell College, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume49
Issue13
Pages3511-3528
Publication date2023-08-09
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2021.1924050
OpenAlexW3171747254
LanguageEN
References cited40

This article explores meaning making in mobilities research by deconstructing the duality of experience and representation. In so doing, it situates language as a form of social action and not a mere representation of preexisting acts of mobility. Drawing on case studies from ethnographic field work in southeastern Senegal, this article examines routines of verbal creativity among West African migrants as well as the life of a migrant who must balance his social investment between linked sites. Viewing representations of mobility instead as articulations helps capture language as a form of social action and reveals an emergent process of site-making in which migrants constitute the sites they act across. This approach to meaning making and representation in studies of (im)mobilities helps resolve several theoretical tensions and offers insights on how to study mobility with an attention to linguistic practice

Creativity · Epistemology · Ethnography · Linguistics · Mobilities · Political science · Politics · Social mobility · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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