Bourdieusian Reflections on Language: Unavoidable Conditions of the Real Speech Situation

The main purpose of this paper is to shed light on Pierre Bourdieu’s conception of language. Although he has dedicated a significant part of his work to the study of language and even though his analysis of language has been extensively discussed in the literature, almost no attention has been paid to the factthat Bourdieu’s account of language is based on a number of ontological presuppositions, that is, on a set of universal assumptions about the very nature of language. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature by offering a detailed overview of 10 key features which, from a Bourdieusian point of view, can be regarded as inherent in language. On the basis of this enquiry,the study seeks todemonstrate that——contraryto commonbelief——there is not only a Bourdieusian sociology of language but also a Bourdieusian philosophy of language, which provides a useful theoretical framework for examining the unavoidable conditions of the real speech situation. The paper draws to a close by reflecting on the flaws and limitations of Bourdieu’s approach to language

A Reply to My Critics: The Critical Spirit of Bourdieusian Language

Drawing on my article “Bourdieusian reflections on language: Unavoidable conditions of the real speech situation”, this paper provides a detailed response to the above commentaries by Lisa Adkins, Bridget Fowler, Michael Grenfell, David Inglis, Hans-Herbert Kögler, Steph Lawler, William Outhwaite, Derek Robbins and Bryan S. Turner. The main purpose of this “Reply to my critics” is to reflect upon the most important issues raised by these commentators and thereby contribute to a more nuanced understanding of key questions arising from Bourdieu’s analysis of language

Memberdayakan kembali ‘Kesenian Totua’: Revitalisasi Adat Masyarakat To Lindu di Sulawesi Tengah

During the new order era local adat was subjected to a process of cultural erosion due to the priorities accorded national integrations, as well as economic, social and development by the Indonesian government. However, the '90s have witnessed a resurgence of concern with adat as a vehicle for the local peoples' identity and as a mechanism for local government and dispute resolution, trends intensified since the beginning of the reformasi era with its relegitimation of discourse of regional autonomy. This essay presents a case study of these processes among Lindu people of Central Sulawesi, focusing upon how they have managed to reinvigorate their adat as a response to two forms of governmental imposition: 1) the encompassment of their land within a national park (i.e. Taman National Lore Lindu); and 2) the plan to construct a hydroelectric project, which would have forced the loss of land to rising water level and resettlement of the local population. The Lindu people have sought there empowerment of their adat by recasting it as a community resource management system that they argue can lead to greater sustainability of local natural resource than any imposed regimen of national park regulations. With assistance of NGOs such as Yayasan Tanah Merdeka, they have also adopted the discourse of 'indigenous people' to defend their continuing right of inhabitation in their homeland in the face of threatened resettlement. This essay explores the cultural politics of masyarakat adat as 'indigenous people' and the invocation of ecologically sound 'indigenous wisdom' as a warrant for resistance to development programs

Bugis Entrepreneurialism and Resource Use: Structure and Practice

Tulisan ini mengkaji beragam aspek dari pemukiman Bugis, organisasi ekonomi dan pemanfaatan sumber daya yang dilaksanakan orang-orang Bugis. Kajian yang dilakukan tidaklah terpaku pada analisis struktural masyarakat Bugis, tetapi lebih pada strategi-strategi dalam memperoleh pencaharian, bertolak dari perspektif teori 'praktis'. Kelenturan dalam komposisi rumah tangga dan para pengikut melandasi kelabilan pengusaha-pengusaha Bugis dan kemampuan pemukim-pemukim Bugis untuk beradaptasi pada kesempatan-kesempatan pasar, dan kemungkinan perolehan sumber-sumber daya lokal. Proses mengadopsi pengikut-pengikut sebagai kerabat, serta orientasi pada tingkat-tingkat yang berbeda dari otonomi perrorangan dalam tahap-tahap kehidupan yang berbeda, juga menyumbang pada kelenturan kemampuan berwirausaha orang-orang Bugis. Kemampuan untuk merekonseptualisasi wilayah-wilayah yang baru dihuni sebagai tempat-tempat yang telah dikenali sebelumnya, juga menyumbang pada kesuksesan pengusaha-pengusaha Bugis di luar tanah kelahirannya. Tulisan ini diakhiri dengan mengkaji bagaimana semua faktor itu menyumbang tidak hanya pada keberhasilan berwirausaha pemukim-pemukim Bugis, tetapi juga pada keacuhan mereka terhadap upaya mengkonservasi sumber daya dalam wilayah-wilayah yang mereka kunjungi

Searching for good fortune : the making of a Bugis shore community at Lake Lindu, Central Sulawesi

The Bugis of South Sulawesi have long been renowned for their exploits in trading and settling throughout the Indonesian archipelago. This thesis examines the movement of Bugis settlers to the upland plain surrounding Lake Lindu in Central Sulawesi and the nature of the community they have established in this region. In trying to explain the conceptions and behaviour of Bugis encountered both within and outside their homeland, Western observers have constructed a number of images of this group that contain contradictory elements. These contradictions arise largely from the conflict of notions of ascribed and achieved status and the divergent modes of behaviour of those with different places in the status system. Migration outside the homeland is in part a response to these contradictions impelling people into the periphery, but it is also conditioned by changing historical circumstances — internal wars, Dutch colonial impositions, climatic changes, varying demands and patterns of regional and world trade -- that regulate the volume of migration and its destinations, as well as the economic pursuits and social organization of the emigrant communities. In addition to overseas locations throughout the archipelago, areas of Sulawesi outside the Bugis homeland have provided a frontier for Bugis expansion. Bugis have been colonizing the coasts of the Kaili region of western Central Sulawesi for centuries, and in the period of Dutch rule acted as the primary intermediaries (i.e. cultural brokers) through whom the colonial overlords exercised their authority. Bugis penetration into Lindu in the Kaili hinterland began with the movement of refugees during the civil war (1950-1965) that racked the homeland after independence. However, this migration has been neither homogeneous nor continuous. Four contingents of migrants, each distinguished by its own network of kin ties, recognition of common origins within the homeland, and by allegiance to different pioneers, have settled as fishermen and farmers on the shores of Lake Lindu. Contemporary residential patterns preserve the disparate origins of these migrants at the subethnic level, as do the marketing networks established by competing fish entrepreneurs. Status in this nascent community depends largely on local economic achievement, but members of the different contingents recognize a variety of divergent status criteria. Economic enterprises retain aspects of traditional patronclient relations, but also are increasingly reliant on debt as a mechanism to maintain subordinates loyal to particular entrepreneurs. The Bugis have attained a position of economic control at Lindu by setting up enterprises to exploit the previously untapped resources of the lake. In addition, through assuming leadership in rituals orientated to the local spirit world and conceptually recasting this spiritual landscape, the Bugis have been able to exercise cultural hegemony as well as economic dominance. The situation at Lindu thus exemplifies Bugis settlement throughout the archipelago as a process involving economic, social, political and cultural mechanisms of penetration and domination