Nexus Analysis

Nexus Analysis presents an exciting theory by two of the leading names in discourse analysis and provides a practical guide to its application. The authors argue that discourse analysis can itself be a form of social action. If the discourse analyst is part of the nexus of practice under study, then the analysis can itself transform that nexus of practice. Focussing on their own involvement with and analysis of pioneering communication technologies in Alaska they identify moments of social importance in order to examine the links between social practice, culture and technology. Media are identified not only as means of expressing change but also as catalysts for change itself, with the power to transform the socio-cultural landscape. In this intellectually exciting yet accessible book, Ron Scollon and Suzie Wong Scollon present a working example of their theory in action and provide a personal snapshot of a key moment in the history of communication technology, as the Internet transformed Alaskan life.

Nexus Analysis presents an exciting theory by two of the leading names in discourse analysis and provides a practical guide to its application. The authors argue that discourse analysis can itself be a form of social action. If the discourse analyst is part of the nexus of practice under study, then the analysis can itself transform that nexus of practice. Focussing on their own involvement with and analysis of pioneering communication technologies in Alaska they identify moments of social importance in order to examine the links between social practice, culture and technology. Media are identified not only as means of expressing change but also as catalysts for change itself, with the power to transform the socio-cultural landscape. In this intellectually exciting yet accessible book, Ron Scollon and Suzie Wong Scollon present a working example of their theory in action and provide a personal snapshot of a key moment in the history of communication technology, as the Internet transformed Alaskan life.

Review: "Using as a study their own experience of pioneering computer-mediated communication in Alaska in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the authors conduct a 'nexus analysis' of those events and discourses. As email and audio/video conferencing technologies expanded the possibilities for education and social interaction, the authors played an active role in shaping and analyzing their use. Looking back on that early formative period and assessing its impact on the present world, the authors evaluate moments of social importance in order to examine the linkages among social practices, Alaskan peoples, and technologies. They consider the power of communication media to cause and ramify change."--BOOK JACKET

Approaches to discourse analysis -- Register and genre -- Developments in spoken discourse -- Educational applications -- Institutional applications -- Identity, culture and discourse.

Expanding the definition and use of literacies beyond verbal and written communication, this book examines contemporary literacies through action-focused analysis of bodies, places, and media. Nexus analysis examines how people enact and mobilize meanings that are largely unspoken. Wohlwend demonstrates how nexus analysis can be used as a tool to critically analyze and understand action in everyday settings, to provide a deeper understanding of how meanings are produced from a mix of modes in daily social and cultural contexts. Organized in three sections—Engaging Nexus, Navigating Nexus, and Changing Nexus—this book provides a roadmap to applying nexus analysis to literacy research, and offers tools to enable readers to compare methods across contexts. Designed to help readers understand the theoretical and methodological assumptions and goals of nexus analysis in classroom and literacy research, this book provides a comprehensive understanding of the theory, framework, and foundations of nexus analysis, by using multimodal examples such as films and media, artifacts, live action performances, and more. Each chapter features consistent sections on key ideas and methods, and a description of procedures for replication and application.

The Manual section of the Handbook of Pragmatics, produced under the auspices of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), is a collection of articles describing traditions, methods, and notational systems relevant to the field of linguistic pragmatics; the main body of the Handbook contains all topical articles. The first edition of the Manual was published in 1995. This second edition includes a large number of new traditions and methods articles from the 24 annual installments of the Handbook that have been published so far. It also includes revised versions of some of the entries in the first edition. In addition, a cumulative index provides cross-references to related topical entries in the annual installments of the Handbook and the Handbook of Pragmatics Online (at https://benjamins.com/online/hop/), which continues to be updated and expanded. This second edition of the Manual is intended to facilitate access to the most comprehensive resource available today for any scholar interested in pragmatics as defined by the International Pragmatics Association: “the science of language use, in its widest interdisciplinary sense as a functional (i.e. cognitive, social, and cultural) perspective on language and communication.”

Language Contact. An International Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of current topics in research on language contact. Broadly conceived, it stands out for its international approach to language contact, complementing the theoretical state-of-the-art with examples from traditionally eclipsed areas and languages. Next to a thorough introductory overview of the ground-breaking methodological and theoretical approaches that shaped the discipline, ample attention goes to the new and innovative insights on language contact in the 21st century. Combining concise introductory contributions with in-depth treatment of the most relevant case studies in the field, the handbook speaks to both junior and established scholars.

In contrast to other studies on identity, this book takes its point of departure in the complexities that characterize and shape both individuals and societies – past and present. Its chapters challenge demarcated fields of study and conceptions of identity as gender, identity as functional disability, identity as race, and identity as, or based upon language groupings. The contributions take a social practices perspective in their exploration of the performance, living and doing of identity positions across time and space. Many of the contributions take an intersectional stance and the majority report upon empirically driven studies that examine the ways in which micro-level analyses of naturally occurring human communication contribute to our understanding of identification processes. Specifically, they study the ways in which more recent dialogical and social theoretical-analytical frameworks allow for attending to the complexity and dynamics of identity processes; the ways in which institutional settings, media settings, community of practices and affinity spaces provide affordances and obstacles for different types of identity positions; and the ways in which shifts in identity positions can be traced across time and space.