Fwd(2): NYU meeting of ILA 12/14

[Barnhart]

> International Linguistic Association

>

>  Rudolf P. Gaudio

>  Department of anthropology, purchase college, SUNY

>

>  THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CASUAL CONVERSATION,

>  or  WHY WE PAY TO TALK AT STARBUCKS

>
> This paper examines how so-called casual conversational practices in
>the

> contemporary United States are constrained and structured in terms of
>where,

> when, how, and with whom people choose and are able to interact
>socially.

> The focus of my analysis is the middle-class sociolinguistic practice
>of

> "coffeetalk"-a term I have borrowed from U.S. popular culture to
>signal the

> naturalized conflation of conversation with the commercialized
>consumption

> of coffee, space and other commodities.  My discussion of coffeetalk

> involves a number of research methods, including: critical analyses of
>the

> marketing rhetoric of coffeehouse corporations; informal interviews
>with

> coffeehouse owners, employees and patrons; and my own observations as a

> "native" participant in coffeetalk and other commodified modes of

> middle-class social interaction.  By situating coffeetalk within its

> spatial, temporal and social contexts, my analysis challenges the
>claim put

> forth by some sociolinguists that ("ordinary") conversation is a

> "naturally-occurring" phenomenon that is ontologically prior to other
>modes

> of talk.  My aim is to demonstrate how seemingly ordinary
>conversational

> practices are implicated in the political, economic and
>cultural-ideological

> processes of global capitalism, as symbolized by the increasingly
>ubiquitous

> Starbucks Coffee Company.

>

> Saturday, December 14, 2002  11 am



> New York University (room number will be posted in lobby)

>

> 100 Washington Square East (Northeast Corner of Washington Square Park)

>

> PLEASE POST

>
>Johanna Woltjer
>jwoltjer at earthlink.net