Towards an appreciation of individual positionality and the global-local interface: Facebook Actorhood in Zambia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Using data from Zambian Facebook platforms, we argue for the complex intersectionality of the global-local semiotic assemblages for the production and consumption of a contested and unpredictable virtual landscape. While ‘glocality’ is a by-product of an on-going sociolinguistics of globalization, and that the local remains an active partner in the (co-)creation of glocality, the paper sees the virtual platform as a semiotic canvas on which individualized semiotic preferences are expressed within and beyond the pull and push of the sociolinguistics of globalization. The paper takes instances of translanguaging on Facebook as markers of semiotic and linguistic freedoms in which individual agency undercuts the global semiotic flows and goes against the normative expectation to act in an unpredictable way in the face of globalization. We thus argue for the role of assertiveness, spontaneity arising from the shared heritage, bilingualism and ‘play’ as motivation for the ‘messy’ yet meaningful virtual landscape.