Era Of Superdiversity Research Articles

‘Making vulnerability’ while negotiating family care practices: evidence from multigenerational living

ABSTRACT The article draws upon in-depth interviews conducted in Czech multigenerational living with representatives of three generations. The repeated interviews took place in 2018–2019 and then in spring 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The analysis focused on caring practices and dynamics of care between three generations and how these had been impacted by pandemic in 2020. We were interested in how the pandemic affected the daily lives of multigenerationally living family members and how through their caring practices they redefine what family in the era of super-diversity is. In order to do so, we particularly focus on how vulnerability has been constructed through the caring practices as a response to Covid-19. We followed the scholarship on vulnerability which emphasises its social character and sees it as a social construct. We put forward this discussion and aim at developing the concept of ‘making vulnerability’ – processes through which people make themselves and others vulnerable through daily taken-for-granted routines and rituals – as an essential part of family care practices.

A Reflection on Paradoxes and Double Binds in the Workplace in the Era of Super-Diversity

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a largely technical field, still guided by a biomedical model of health that seeks to isolate factors that cause injury. Despite a growing literature on organisational and managerial factors influencing occupational health, their full integration into the OHS concept has been slow. A broader understanding is still needed to recognise the restructuring of work and the link between well-being at work and management style. In the context of a rapidly changing world of work, increasing workforce diversity, and inequality, OHS needs to take account of the social sciences and humanities to broaden its reductionist vision. Occupational illnesses, distress, and suffering, especially in relation to relational or organisational issues, have no initial cause or specific ontology; they result from a long-standing process or repetitive relational pattern that needs to be exposed and understood in greater depth, considering contextual factors and dynamics. Using the authors’ anthropological backgrounds and the basic principles of the double bind theory developed many decades ago by Gregory Bateson and his colleagues at the Palo Alto School of Communication, we propose a reflection on pragmatic paradoxes or double bind situations in the workplace (which can be briefly defined as the presence of contradictory or conflicting demands or messages), their potential impact on workers’ health and well-being, and how to resolve them. This paper sought to explore the world of pragmatic paradoxes and double binds by discussing different categories, types, or forms of paradoxes/double binds that occur in the context of occupational health and their underlying mechanisms. It also includes a discussion of the possible link to the concept of super-diversity, as it too is associated with migration channels, employment, gendered flows, and local systems. Finally, we discuss the practical implications of this understanding for health professionals, researchers, and policymakers, from a perspective of promoting more holistic and context-sensitive interactional approaches to occupational health.

Moving Toward More Inclusive Government Communication in an Era of Superdiversity

Going beyond the practical obstacles of and facilitators for inclusive government communication, this study stresses the underlying tension between democratic and bureaucratic values in administrative structures and its implication for inclusive communication. The clash between on the one hand efficiency, market-driven patterns, and impartiality and on the other hand individual rights, advocating equal rights and social justice shows that in coming to terms with the reality of superdiverse societies governments need to reconcile these values on the level of actual decision-making and behavior by public communication practitioners.

Asian students in American higher education: negotiating multilingual identities in the era of superdiversity and nationalism

ABSTRACT This study focused on the experiences of three Asian undergraduate students at a private urban institution in the United States. The findings indicate that the participants' racial, cultural and linguistic identities are dynamic and complex, echoing features indicated by the concept of superdiversity. Yet, under the influences of the rising nationalism and the strong grip of monolingualism, participants have been constantly under the pressure from English-only ideologies and the so-called forever-foreigner stereotype against Asian Americans. This study sheds light on rethinking higher education teaching and learning from the perspectives of marginalized students in the era simultaneously featuring superdiversity and nationalism.

Kebijakan Bahasa dalam Lanskap Linguistik di Era Super-Diversity: Bahasa Asing (Bahasa Inggris) di Ruang Publik

This conceptual paper presents a literature review of language landscape studies on the interaction of multilingualism, multiculturalism, and globalization in the reality of English learning education (ESL). Language has a great influence on human life through the forms of expression it conveys. Likewise in the social life of the wider community in general. In addition, language also plays an important role. In addition, the central government has rules and guidelines that affect local governments. The same applies to government language policies. Language policy is followed by language planning, which leads to social change. The areas of language policy include education, economics, politics, regional languages ​​and literature, and law. All of that is inseparable from the language policies regulated by the governments of each country or region that use the language environment in the public sphere. Therefore, English cannot be used without another language, although it is subject to national and regional language policies. As a result, the use of English in public places requires the use of language equivalents in multilingual public forms, both in historical and cultural contexts, such as signage. However, because the unit of analysis in the linguistic landscape is the symbol, it provides the linguistic context of a particular region (roads, villages, buildings, countries, and environments), the linguistic landscape in this social conception, or the diversity of populations. English cannot be the only language used to represent signs. In the public sphere, taking into account the rise of bilingualism, the dominance of the national language, and a common language policy. However, the diversity of English is still growing. In short, English as used in this study of the linguistic landscape in the public sphere is a contradiction between language practice and language policy, and public understanding.
 Keywords: Language Policy, Linguistic Landscape, Era of Super Diversity, Foreign Languages (English).

Introduction: rethinking integration. New perspectives on adaptation and settlement in the era of super-diversity

ABSTRACTThis article outlines key arguments and contributions pertaining to new perspectives on the adaptation and settlement of migrants under conditions of superdiversification and ongoing migration ‘crisis’. We seek to re-ignite interest in the development of the concept of integration and to stimulate theoretical and research advancement beyond the normative integration paradigm. Given the growing complexity, acceleration of changes and increased interconnectedness across societies as well as diversification of migrants we argue that the concept of integration need to be reconsidered. Highlighting different ways of thinking about migrant adaptation and settlement we account not only for the multi-dimensionality of integration processes, but also for the diverse nature of migrants and how their multiple characteristics shape integration opportunities and challenges. Using perspectives from multiple countries in relation to voluntary and forced migrants within and outside of the EU, this paper offers theoretical and methodological insights into how the complexity associated with super-diversity might be captured and outlines new ways of conceptualising integration. It also sets up new research agenda around the integration of transnational or transit populations, integration within fluid and super-diverse communities or the relationship between integration and intersectionality with the focus on multi-dimentionality, relativeness and modalities of social relations.

Ideologizing age in an era of superdiversity: A heritage language learner practice perspective

Abstract SLA research on age in naturalistic contexts has examined learners’ ultimate attainment, while instructed research has emphasized the rate of learning (Birdsong 2014. Dominance and age in bilingualism. Applied Linguistics 35(4). 374–392; Muñoz 2008. Symmetries and asymmetries of age effects in naturalistic and instructed L2 learning. Applied Linguistics 29(4). 578–596). However, both streams of research, which view age as a biological construct, have overlooked this construct through an ideological lens. To address this gap, and in keeping with Blommaert’s (2005. Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) call to examine language ideologies and related ideologies in an era of superdiversity, our paper explores the ideology undergirding age-based research and examines it in conjunction with the practice-based approach to better understand the use of Burmese as a heritage language, a language characterized by a hierarchical and an age-determined honorific system. Drawing on data from a larger ethnographic study involving Burmese migrants in the US, analyses of the bilingual practice of address forms of generation 1.5 Burmese youth demonstrated that age was relationally constructed. While these youth strategically adopted ‘traditional’ linguistic practices ratified by Burmese adults when interacting with their parents, such practices were invoked and subverted in interactions involving their siblings and other Burmese adults less familiar to them. In focusing on the social and linguistic struggles encountered by these transnational multilingual youth, this paper also addresses the complexities surrounding heritage language learning.

Migrant cities: place, power, and voice in the era of super diversity

ABSTRACTImmigration scholars have long considered cities to be important environments that mediate how immigrants are incorporated into receiving countries. While most scholars recognise that cities have some importance, they continue to prioritise national-level institutions, organisations, networks, and cultural dynamics. This paper introduces the special issue on 'Migrant Cities'. The special issue asserts that cities are not simply backdrops where national-level processes and mechanisms unfold. The contributing scholars reveal how cities are distinctive environments with unique constraints and opportunities. Following a basic introduction, the paper examines how to apply these general assumptions about cities to understanding the political formation of immigrants. The paper does this by urbanising Nancy Fraser’s concept of 'counterpublic'. We suggest that cities possess certain qualities that enable the formation of immigrant counterpublics, which in turn become critical spaces of politicisation.

Rethinking integration: new perspectives on adaptation and settlement in an era of superdiversity

This paper explores how super-diverse sites encourage people to develop cosmopolitan attitudes, skills and competence (Vertovec 2009; Wessendorf 2014; Devadson 2010; Muller 2011). Drawing insights from an ethnographic study conducted within a leading management school in one of the UK’s most diverse boroughs, we argue that undergraduate management education provides an enhanced context to explore how people learn through coping with contrasting cosmopolitan narratives. Findings show touristic cosmopolitan narratives reliant upon privileged geographical mobility that are reproduced by transnational students can provoke informal learning for those with limited geographical or social mobility (Bauman 1996). Unable to leverage the same resources, local and home students find their own personal trajectories minimized by the white trashy English girl stereotypes they face in Managing Diversity seminars. Marginalized as if ‘vagabonds’ without choice of attending the school, they develop critical attitudes toward rich transnational students and legitimate their own mobilities by drawing on their own and others’ diversity as a narrative repertoire (Bauman 1996). This failure is significant because clear interest is placed upon preparing management students for globalized workplaces, although current approaches are largely found wanting (Lorbiecki and Jack, 2000; Taras et al., 2009: 415; Eisenberg et al., 2013: 604; Rosenblatt et al., 2013: 356; Ng et al., 2009). Today emphasis is placed upon developing management students’ cultural intelligence because “the context for action is constantly changing and students must learn to adapt swiftly” (Blasco, 2009: 177). Such aspects of managerial know- how or tacit knowledge however are harder to recognize “in action” and notoriously more difficult to represent and transmit through traditional teaching methods (Chia and Holt, 2008; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka and Toyama, 2007; Blasco, 2009; Taras et al., 2009). In response, emphasis is now placed upon ‘experiential learning’ interventions perceived to offer greater opportunity to develop more obscure aspects of management activity (Kolb and Kolb, 2005; Armstrong, 2008; Jones, 2003). “Cultural awareness”, for example, has been found to be most effectively learned through “direct, experiential exposure to intercultural situations where students are affectively as well as cognitively engaged” (Blasco, 2009:177). They also aim to cultivate management students‘ cultural intelligence through inviting critical reflection upon cultural stereotypes, or develop multicultural competencies through apparently intensive direct contact with other cultures via technological global virtual classrooms that link up seminar classes around the world. Other interventions aim toward developing students’ diversity awareness through study-abroad programs, or awareness to new management approaches through volunteering in different countries (MacNab and Worthley, 2012; Berger, 2001; Eisenberg, 2013: 616; Taras et al., 2009; Schwabenland, 2011; Erez et al., 2013). But although such approaches are popular they still lack relevance to management graduates’ experiences of globalized workplaces (Blasco, 2009: 176). Concluding, the paper argues super-diverse sites do not in themselves encourage cosmopolitan learning but can provide contexts within which learning arises informally between the sometimes conflicting narratives of different groups. As a result, research tends to ignore diversity within everyday management learning contexts and implications for student experiences. This also means most researchers presume management learning experiences are restricted to “purposefully designed experiential learning interventions” (Eisenberg, 2013: 616). The “construction of learning from experience” thereby appears to be “an intentional act” in which “learners must be (consciously) engaged for learning to occur at any level” (Fenwick, 2001: 4). There is little interest in day-to-day implications of diversity and management students might cope with, and learn from these. Instead, it appears management students can only learn to “manage diversity” through experiential learning interventions deliberately designed by educators who specify “the experiences to make figural for the day” (Yballe and O’Connor, 2004: 474).

“Out gay boys? There’s, like, one point seven five”: Negotiating identity in super-diversity

AbstractExamining processes through which identity and semiotic markers of race, gender, and sexuality are constructed, this article looks at the ways categories like “gay”, “Asian”, and “Latino”, for example, are articulated, counted, and delineated as well as complicated by intersecting lines of difference that entangle subject positions. Drawing on findings from a three-year ethnographic study in a Northern California urban public high school, this research connects the micro-level processes of language and the macro-level processes through which difference is constructed. Arguing that notions of enoughness and authenticity are used to assess participants’ claims to identities, this article further pushes scholars of super-diversity to consider the role of power and privilege in shaping such forms of legitimacy. Focusing on power and privilege in the negotiation of identity is significant for scholars of super-diversity because it moves us toward an analysis of the ways unequal power relations are produced and articulated through people, their interactions and relations, and perceived differences. In an era of super-diversity, subjects live with multiple, overlapping, mutually inflecting identities, far from previous tick-box approaches which treat identity as a static set of categories one may check off as representing. Considering intersecting lines of difference, we see that identity is not just discrete categories, but a process of drawing boundaries, taking positions, playing with representations, and making meaning out of symbolic resources.

Migrant maternity in an era of superdiversity: New migrants' access to, and experience of, antenatal care in the West Midlands, UK

Rapid increase in the scale, speed and spread of immigration over the past two decades has led to an increase in complexity of populations termed superdiversity. Concerns have been expressed about impacts of the pressure that superdiversity is said to place upon maternity services. High migrant fertility and infant and maternal mortality rates have long been observed in diverse areas with inadequate antenatal monitoring seen as a major causal factor in migrants' maternity outcomes. Using qualitative data from a study of new migrants' access to maternity services in the UK's West Midlands region, with some of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in Europe, this paper looks at the reasons migrants' access to antenatal care is poor. The paper finds that contrary to earlier studies which pointed to a lack of priority placed on such care by migrants, a combination of structural, legal and institutional barriers prevent migrant women accessing effective antenatal care.

Delivering maternity services in an era of superdiversity: the challenges of novelty and newness

The population complexity associated with superdiversity brings a wide range of challenges for social welfare providers. Commentators have outlined concerns about the ability of service providers to meet the welfare needs of ever diversifying populations and point to potential problems in identifying the nature of need in rapidly changing superdiverse neighbourhoods as conventional approaches to consultation based around ethnicity become practically impossible. Using data collected in the West Midlands, which explored maternity service needs from the perspectives of new migrants and maternity professionals, some key barriers to effective welfare delivery in superdiverse areas are explored. The paper outlines the emergence of two challenges important in shaping new migrant access to maternity care in an era of superdiversity – novelty and newness – and proposes further research to examine the extent to which these challenges are faced in other social welfare services.

Housing, Home and Neighbourhood Renewal in the Era of Superdiversity: Some Lessons from the West Midlands

Following two decades of new migration, the EU is now home to the most diverse population ever. Much new migration has occurred into superdiverse escalator areas already experiencing high levels of deprivation. In the UK, housing market renewal areas (HMRA) had a particular challenge to address housing market failure and the high population turnover often associated with new migration while meeting the needs of established residents. Lack of knowledge about the diverse housing needs of residents risked hampering renewal efforts. This paper uses qualitative data collected from a superdiverse sample of settled and new residents located in the Urban Living HMRA in the West Midlands to examine the ways in which they conceptualise home. The paper argues that understanding the ways in which diverse residents conceptualise home and home making, offers potential for policymakers to understand how residents' needs can be met.

Failing to Adapt: Institutional Barriers to RCOs Engagement in Transformation of Social Welfare

Britain has entered a new era of super-diversity and many regions of the UK are experiencing the arrival of new communities. Refugee Community Organisations (RCOs) have developed following the arrival of new asylum seeking and refugee communities, and have been charged with the role of supporting the integration of these newcomers. However, there is much evidence to suggest that they are functioning only with individuals rather than working with institutions to transform systems and ensure welfare provision is adapted to account for diverse needs. This paper looks at the role of RCOs in attempting transformation and, using data collected through survey, interviews, and participatory action research, examines the extent to which RCOs are able to engage with the public and wider voluntary sector, to ensure that refugees' welfare needs can be met. It finds that in addition to the much-researched functional barriers to transformation, there are major institutional barriers to engagement. Institutions have failed to adapt their systems to enable representation of new communities instead expecting RCOs to build their own capacity to communicate. The paper ends by offering some ideas around resourcing RCOs to be represented and developing the capacity of institutions to adapt to new diversity.