The narrative of the United States is of a "nation of immigrants" in which the language shift patterns of earlier ethnolinguistic groups have tended towards linguistic assimilation through English. In recent years, however, changes in the demographic landscape and language maintenance by non-English speaking immigrants, particularly Hispanics, have been perceived as threats and have led to calls for an official English language policy.This thesis aims to contribute to the study of language policy making from a societal security perspective as expressed in attitudes regarding language and identity originating in the daily interaction between language groups. The focus is on the role of language and American identity in relation to immigration. The study takes an interdisciplinary approach combining language policy studies, security theory, and critical discourse analysis. The material consists of articles collected from four newspapers, namely USA Today, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle between April 2006 and December 2007.Two discourse types are evident from the analysis namely Loyalty and Efficiency. The former is mainly marked by concerns of national identity and contains speech acts of security related to language shift, choice and English for unity. Immigrants are represented as dehumanised, and harmful. Immigration is given as sovereignty-related, racial, and as war. The discourse type of Efficiency is mainly instrumental and contains speech acts of security related to cost, provision of services, health and safety, and social mobility. Immigrants are further represented as a labour resource. These discourse types reflect how the construction of the linguistic 'we' is expected to be maintained. Loyalty is triggered by arguments that the collective identity is threatened and is itself used in reproducing the collective 'we' through hegemonic expressions of monolingualism in the public space and semi-public space. The denigration of immigrants is used as a tool for enhancing societal security through solidarity and as a possible justification for the denial of minority rights. Also, although language acquisition patterns still follow the historical trend of language shift, factors indicating cultural separateness such as the appearance of speech communities or the use of minority languages in the public space and semi-public space have led to manifestations of intolerance. Examples of discrimination and prejudice towards minority groups indicate that the perception of worth of a shared language differs from the actual worth of dominant language acquisition for integration purposes. The study further indicates that the efficient working of the free market by using minority languages to sell services or buy labour is perceived as conflicting with nation-building notions since it may create separately functioning sub-communities with a new cultural capital recognised as legitimate competence. The discourse types mainly represent securitising moves constructing existential threats. The perception of threat and ideas of national belonging are primarily based on a zero-sum notion favouring monolingualism. Further, the identity of the immigrant individual is seen as dynamic and adaptable to assimilationist measures whereas the identity of the state and its members are perceived as static. Also, the study shows that debates concerning language status are linked to extra-linguistic matters. To conclude, policy makers in the US need to consider the relationship between four factors, namely societal security based on collective identity, individual/human security, human rights, and a changing linguistic demography, for proposed language intervention measures to be successful. / <p>Diss. Luleå : Luleå tekniska universitet, 2011-01-31</p>

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In this thesis the main features of Harrison C. White’s general sociology are studied. Since the 1960s White has played a crucial role in the development of the social network approach. He is well known for both the fecundity of the analytical tools he has developed over the years and for the original contributions he has made to several sub­fields of the discipline. White has also developed an unconventional and highly individual approach to social reality that, as the end-result of a sustained synthesizing effort, has grown out of a long and persistent endeavor. Yet, more than a decade after its publication, this general theoretical approach still remains largely unexplored. The main argument of this study is that White’s approach represents one of the mast persistent, elaborated and systematic efforts to enrich the analytical rigorous of the social network approach by adding the substantive theoretical insights that have been elaborated mainly within the symbolic interactionist perspective and the tradition of phenomenological sociology. In this study, first the premises of White’s approach are examined. It is demonstrated how White uses social networks as an analytical tool in order to obtain causal explanations of social phenomena. It is also shown how White re- conceptualizes the notions of social relationship and embeddedness. Furthermore, it is also discussed how White, on the basis of these conceptual innovations, develops a novel image of modern social contexts. This study proceeds by presenting the set of new basic concepts that are derived from this image, seeking to locate these concepts within the larger and more familiar context of theoretical sociology. It is also demonstrated in this study that White’s particular image of modern social contexts leads him to pose new questions and to develop new modes of analysis to answer them. White’s view of modem societies radically alters the very nature and state of the question of social order as well as the premises of its answer. As White dismisses the conventional formulations of the problem of social order, he considers the issue to be a question of identifying the small enclaves of regularity within the social landscape that is dynamic, indeterminate and shifting. In more concrete terms, it becomes a question of identifying the limited, local and stable patterns or configurations of relationships that prove sustainable and thus observable, despite all the dynamics of embeddedness and connectivity. Finally, the basic theoretical features of White’s model of production markets are presented and discussed. Production markets is a topic to which White has devoted a great deal of interest. Ever since the mid-1970s he has produced a long series of work with the ambition of developing a sociological account of these markets. This account represents the most extensive application of White’s general sociology, where he fleshes out his abstract ideas and arguments and where one finds a concrete case of his account of the emergence of social structures and local orders out of network ties and flows. The main conclusion of this study is that, despite all its shortcomings, the general sociological perspective that White has developed is an important contribution. It provides sociology with a new foundation and shows the direction towards which the discipline should be moving. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2003</p> / digitalisering@umu

<p>Denna uppsats fokuserar på den amerikanska utrikespolitiken och dess inverkan på omskapandet av den chilenska politiken under 1970-talet. Valet att studera omskapandet av politiska strukturer grundar sig i en förståelse av Förenta Staterna som en viktig och central aktör inom den internationella arenan. Det som diskuteras och teoretiseras kring i uppsatsen är bland annat internationella relationer, begreppen hegemoni och makt, för en vidare förståelse av den amerikanska interventionen i Chile.</p>

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Denna uppsats fokuserar på den amerikanska utrikespolitiken och dess inverkan på omskapandet av den chilenska politiken under 1970-talet. Valet att studera omskapandet av politiska strukturer grundar sig i en förståelse av Förenta Staterna som en viktig och central aktör inom den internationella arenan. Det som diskuteras och teoretiseras kring i uppsatsen är bland annat internationella relationer, begreppen hegemoni och makt, för en vidare förståelse av den amerikanska interventionen i Chile.

No description available.