Call for Papers: Ethnicity, Language and Culture in the Post-Soviet Multi-Ethnic City

[Curt Woolhiser]

 *Dear SEELANGers,**As the January 31st deadline for submission of
abstracts for the 19th Sociolinguistics Symposium at the Freie Universität
Berlin (August 22-24) is rapidly approaching, I wanted to bring to your
attention a proposed thematic session that may be of interest to SEELANGS
subscribers. In connection with this year’s symposium theme of “Language
and the City,” Natalia Kosmarskaya *(Department of the CIS, Institute of
Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences) and *Anastassia Zabrodskaja
(Tartu University/Tallinn University, Estonia) have proposed a session on
“Language, Culture and Ethnicity in the Post-Soviet Multi-Ethnic City.” The
session description follows below, along with a link to a complete list of
thematic sessions and other information about the 2012 Sociolinguistics
Symposium.*** *Ethnicity, Language and Culture in the Post-Soviet
Multi-Ethnic City*

Proposed by: Kosmarskaya, Natalia; Zabrodskaja, Anastassia
Submitted by: *Zabrodskaja, Anastassia* (University of Tartu / Tallinn
University, Estonia)

The last decade has witnessed a rise in scholarly interest towards the
post-Soviet language situation. The agenda remains dominated by research in
language policy and macro-sociolinguistics (Korth 2005, Hogan-Brun et al.
2008) as well as overall descriptions of the status change of Russian
(Pavlenko 2008a, 2008b).

Under post-Soviet conditions one of the most topical socio-linguistic
dilemmas covers a variety of issues related to changing language
hierarchies (Russian versus titular languages). Numerous manifestations of
this radical turn include top-down initiatives of the so called
nationalizing states (incl. the legislative measures) as well as shift in
individual linguistic behaviour and cultural orientations (in the everyday
life, in career building, educational choices, marriage preferences, etc.).
Big cities, especially capital cities, provide a very good site for
exploring these changes, with their thick communicative environment;
variety of cultural products produced and consumed; rapidly changing public
spaces; visualization of “national revival” measures embodied in changes in
toponymy, re-symbolization of city space, appearance of new cultural
markers, etc. In addition, population of many cities of the New Independent
States (NIS) has undergone serious ethno-cultural transformation after the
break-up of the USSR, starting with massive outflow of the so called
Russian-speakers (ethnic Russians and other non-titular Russophones) during
the 1990s, and ending with influx of transnational and/or internal rural
migrants during the current decade.

The general aim of the session is to throw light on everyday linguistic
practices and identities’ (re)negotiation of urban dwellers contextualized
within transformation of post-Soviet urban socio-cultural and linguistic
environment. As far as more concrete objectives are concerned, we expect
contributions which will take into account striking heterogeneity of
regions within post-Soviet space and between the countries within these
regions in what is related to *de facto* and *de jure* status of the
Russian language and popular perceptions of challenges provoked by changes
in socio-linguistic situation. Thus, as minimum, two distinct regions might
be defined; these are the Baltic countries and those of Central Asia (the
cases polarity of which in regard to Russophones’ position and Russian
language status is deeply rooted in the pattern of colonization of the two
regions). These territories within the post-Soviet space, in their turn,
provide a contrasting picture in comparison with Ukraine, Belarus and
Azerbaijan, also being the regions with a noticeable presence of
Russian-speakers.

Questions to be raised by the session participants may include, but not are
limited to, the following ones:

- Can mastering of Russian as a native language be taken as a synonym of
urban culture and a base for urban identity?

- Do parameters of cultural identity overlap or not with those of ethnic
self-identification?

- What urban ethno-cultural groups are most liable to this kind of
divergence/convergence?

- How is identity negotiated in bilingual (multilingual) environments?

- To what extent do post-Soviet cities of the NIS, being multi-ethnic,
still retain practices of Russian or titular monolingualism?

- What ethno-cultural groups are most successful in maintaining/enriching
these practices?

- Can Russian linguistic and cultural space in post-Soviet cities be taken
as a “Cheshire cat smile”, functioning without Russians themselves? What
could be the factors contributing to maintenance/erosion of this space?

The other themes of interest might include:

- Russian-based cultural urban spaces versus those dominated by titular
languages;

- Monolingual versus multi-lingual public spaces (linguistic landscapes);

- Pragmatism versus cultural nostalgia as motors of titulars’ interest
towards studying of the Russian language;

- Last but not least, differences in attitudes towards above-mentioned
issues among Russian-speakers, members of titular groups and non-Russian
and non-titular minority groups.

*References*

Hogan-Brun, Gabrielle, Uldis Ozolins, Meilute Ramoniene, Mart Rannut 2008.
Language Politics and Practice in the Baltic States. – Ed. by Robert Kaplan
& Richard Baldauf, *Language Planning and Policy in Europe. The Baltic
States, Ireland, and Italy* (pp. 31–193). Clevedon, Buffalo, Toronto:
Multilingual Matters.

Korth, Britta 2005. *Language Attitudes Towards Kyrgyz and Russian.
Discourse, Education and Policy in Post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan*. Bern · Wien:
Peter Lang.

Pavlenko, Aneta 2008a (ed.) Multilingualism in post-Soviet countries.
– *International
Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism*, 11 (3&4).

Pavlenko, Aneta 2008b. Russian in Post-Soviet Countries. – *Russian
Linguistics*, 32, 59–80.
*Call for Papers and list of thematic sessions:* *
http://www.sociolinguistics-symposium-2012.de/thematic_sessions*

===========================

Curt Woolhiser

Department of German, Russian and Asian

Languages and Literature

Brandeis University

415 South Street MS-024

Waltham, MA 02454 USA


Tel. (781) 736-3200
Fax (781) 736-3207
Email: cwoolhis at brandeis.edu

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