In what follows I review the previous scholarly works that used superdiversity as lens to approach their topics, as the case of my own study.
Ben Rampton (2016) in Drilling Down to the Grain in Superdiversity rejects the ‘old’ binaries- majority/minority, migrant/host, etc. and claims that these binaries no longer work. In order to dispose these binaries, we need to understand the social identification complexities and the best way to do so is through micro-ethnographic analysis. Guided solely by the ‘total linguistic fact,’ he challenges the social classification of the host-migrant binary by investigating the social and ideological positioning of Mandeep, a Punjabi informant who arrived in London in 2001 at age 28, based on his English proficiency. Mandeep did not speak English at all, as he said, when he arrived in London.Rsmpton argues that traditional patternization of individuals based on their linguistic repertoire should be rejected. Superdiverse cities such as London are no longer alien to newcomers.
Sirpa Leppanen and Ari Elo (2012) in Buffalaxing the Other: Superdiversity in Action on Youtube investigates the concept of buffalaxing—subtitling unintelligible videos of the “oriental other” in a homophonic way using Mondegreen or Soramimi techniques (p. 111)— and what the practice of buffalaxing reveal about cultures’ mergence and coalesce. Producers of buffalaxed videos, in the era of superdiversity, no longer consider these videos as foreign to them; they localize these oriental videos by given them local identity through the subtitles, which carry culturally and locally western meanings. However, authors do not turn a blind eye on other possible interpretations of the phenomenon of buffalaxing. Authors found Simon Weaver’s (2010) term liquid racism to possibly work here as well. However authors construct their argument depicting buffalaxing as a superdiverse rather than a liquid racist practice. Here are some examples of the two buffalaxed videos that the authors investigate:
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Crazy Indian Video … Buffalaxed!
Original text reads:
Male: if you stay / stay within the boundary/ my heart will push me to shatter it
Buffalaxed version:
I lick you … / Belinda … / The ninja made a movement.
2) Terojen Koettelemus (The trial of two heroes)
Original text reads:
We won’t give up our friendship/ we can give up our breathing/ but not leave each other
Buffalaxed version:
Yeah, we fucked, at least I’m gay/ I am gay, that’s okay, Damn, Tero, you’re gay
Jens Normann Jorgensen et al. (2011) in Polylanguaing in Superdiversity challenges the notion that language is a social or human phenomenon that can be separated into into different names Arabic, English, French, etc. Authors argue that languages are “socio-cultural abstractions” in which level of feature is better used than level of language to analyze everyday use of the language in the superdiverse societies (p. 137). Authors hence used the level of linguistic feature to analyze real life language use. Authors reject the sociolinguistic concepts of languages, varieties, sociolects, dialects, registers, etc. and replace these with the linguistics features as semiotic resources (Jorgensen 2004, 2008, 2016, Moller 2009). Hence, learning a language is not possible if done purely in a linguistic arena. And hence schools cannot decide how their students become a Spanish speakers because there is no linguistic criterion that can decide what Spanish is. The European Educational systems would “break down over a night if they were forced to teach language the way people really use language (p. 152).
Adrian Blackledge and Angela Creese (2016) in A Typical Gentleman: Metapragmatic Stereotypes as Systems of Distinction investigates interactions in a Punjabi-heritage family arguing that “social differences are regularly produced in the deployment of metapragmatic stereotypes” (p. 155). Authors wanted to find out how literacy and language can be used to negotiate identities and heritages. The study, which lasted for 30-month, was conducted in a Punjabi school in Birmingham, UK, that focuses on connecting the Punjabi children with their heritage and language. Researchers noticed that participants (teachers and students) made evaluative stereotypes of other people based on the way they speak or dress. Researchers argue that the complexity of the proposed concept superdiversity does not only include the new demographies but also the old established categories and stereotypes.
Jie Dong (2012) in Mobility voice and symbolic restratification: An Ethnography of ‘elite migrants’ in urban China examines class restratification of modern Chinese society through analyzing the usage of various semiotic resources employed by a group of ‘elite migrants’ that are highly mobile nationally and internationally. The researcher does so through identifying two sets of semiotic resources arguing that they are two varied forms of voice that articulate the varying shapes and directions of class distinction. The first set of resources is linguistic in which members of this elite group share the same control of two languages:Putonghua and English. These two languages are not tied to a certain place but rather to the mobile group itself. This signals the groups social class. The second set of resources is business. This group of people’s interest match when it comes to the consumption of certain commercial commodities. All the members of this group are interested in and consumers of the Saab car.
Jan Blommaert and Ico Maly (2016) in Ethnographic linguistic landscape analysis and social change: A case study investigates the linguistic landscape of the central shopping street Wondelgemstraat of the historic city of Ghent in Belguim. The paper starts with a chronological overview of the city from mid-to-late 19th century till now. The area now is composed of different demographic ethnicities. If you look at the languages used, you can recognize Arabic, English, Turkish, Chinese, French, Spanish, Dutch, Bulgarian, Slovak, Polish, and Italian. However, Dutch functions as the lingua franca among the superdiverse groups. It is hence superdiverse from demographic and linguistic perspective. The population is stratified into four layers. 1) homeowners and shopkeepers: these are the native Belgians and old migrants. 2) 21st migrants: these are the migrants that use this place as temporary place in their migration plans. 3) Recent migrants: those who come from different regions and are potential customers and tenants. 4) users of the district: those who do not live in the area but commute to it to do their shopping. Authors conclude that these processes of superdiversity change the used-to-be rural, non-diverse places into superdiverse spaces that have no one set of forces (p. 215).
Piia Varis and Xuan Wang (2011) in Superdiversity on the internet: A case from China investigates a case of a Chinese rapper MC Liangliang and his online activities. Liangliang migrated to Beijing several years ago and used internet as his visibility apparatus without which he would not have been visible to many populations and communities, especially those related to hip-hop. Liangliang meets his crew online and publish their songs online as well. This paper analyzes his webpage and songs both in which language-mixing (English, Chinese, and Korean) appear to be a creative aspect of his visibility and his superdiverse being on the internet. Authors noticed two normativities: authenticity/normativity (by adhering to what makes hip hop a hip hop; i.e., looks, words, moves, etc.) and creativity (by inserting local features to the global hip-hop). Such normativity and creativities constitutes a superdiverse identity for the hip hop singer.
Celia Roberts (2012) Translating Global Experience into Institutional models of Competency: Linguistic Inequalities in the Job Interview investigates inequality in job interviews that raises the issue of the conflict between “institutional standards and diversity” despite the policies of equal opportunities (p. 255). Immigrants do not meet the linguistic plans of the British recruiter/ employer and hence get penalized by not getting into the job merely for their linguistic incompetency that do not match the L1 British speakers. This study relies on 61 video- recorded interviews for UK white-collar jobs. Drawing from data, Roberts found that there exists some power that draws “discursive regimes that position migrant applicants as less capable within the competence-based interview” (p. P. 240). British born candidates regardless of their local work backgrounds become better fitters for the jobs than their migrant rivals for their linguistic competencies.
Massimiliano Spotti (2016) in Sociolinguistic Shibboleths at the institutional gate: Language, Origin, and the Construction of Asylum Seekers’ Identities debunks the effectiveness of the LADO (Language Analysis for the Determination of Origin). The paper analyzes an asylum case, in the Netherlands, of Sudanese person who speaks Arabic as a first language. The seeker lacked any documents that proved his claims that he came from the Nuba, tribe of the Ghulfan, in Sudan. Hence, he had to undergo LADO which is a sociolinguistic interview which lasts between 30 to 45 minutes to determine the validity of the seeker’s claim that he came from Nuba. The results came with utmost certainty that the man did not come from where he claimed and that his language is used in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan. Spotti used this to disprove the validity of LADO. Spotti used a number of sociolinguistic studies that have findings contradict the claims of the language analyst who composed the report. Spotti also concludes that such tests makers as LADO had an assumptions that languages and customs of communities are solid rather than fluid, and fluidity is hence a quality of a superdiverse society. Spotti adds that LADO analysis seems to be driven by a belief that language is a “spatio-temporal resource, linked to macro sociopolitical events that have characterized the life and the migration history of the applicant” (p. 274).