Studying religious music at the grassroots level: a look into the discourse practices of Christian metal bands online

Religious issues are studied in various ways, most prominently by sociologists of religion. This paper suggests that in today’s world of globally intersecting webs of people, places, ideas and action, scholars and readers interested in religion will find themselves benefiting from cross-disciplinary approaches which help them to conceptualize and describe today’s phenomena at different levels. This paper describes how the emerging discipline of the sociology of language and religion may be applied to studying Christian metal bands’ discourse online. Although previous studies give a good idea of the structures, practices and tendencies in and related to Christian metal, little is reported on what happens at the very micro-level of Christian metal – for example, how they represent themselves to their audiences, what they sing about, and what else they say and, importantly, how they say it. To fill this gap, Christian metal bands’ online presence is examined with a particular interest in how the bands utilize online spaces to build up Christian metal identity and culture with the help of textual, discursive, and multimodal resources. This includes a look at the online self-representation of Christian metal bands, a more detailed investigation of the uses of the Bible on bands’ websites, as well as perspectives on an important part of Christian metal; namely the lyrics

Translocal Religious Identification in Christian Metal Music Videos and Discussions on YouTube

This chapter shows that, although the geographical roots of Christian metal (CM) bands do play a role, not least for the audiences, the crossing of national borders in online settings is equally important both to the audience and to the bands themselves. A detailed look into the discourse and interaction around Finnish CM music on YouTube.com is the basis for considering social media sites, such as YouTube, as providing a space for translocal negotiation of and identification on the basis of religiosity, music, language and place

Kielestä kiinni? Työperusteisten maahanmuuttajien kieli- ja kulttuurikoulutusmahdollisuudet Etelä-Pohjanmaalla

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Life-story pedagogy for identity:Through linguistic and cultural recognition to participation and equity

Identity as a life story is constructed in social interaction with the surrounding world in a narrative continuum through language. When given pedagogic recognition for active meaning-making and construction of personal identity, the student is encounteredin a just and holistic manner. In school, skills related to identity construction are taught especially in language education. In Finland, the central aim established in the Core Curriculum for learning mother tongue and literature is to teach students linguistic skills with which to word, interpret, understand, make meaning and construct oneself and the world in interaction with others. Although the identity-mission is shared by all curricular activities, the importance of mother tongue and literature gives reason to call it the ‘identity subject’ proper. Yet, in multilingual educational contexts, not everyone’s mother tongue is equal, as analysed in multi-professional interview data in this paper. For migrant-language speakers, there is a major expectation to learn one of the national languages for participation and active citizenship. This leads to undermining two things. First, the process can also take place vice versa: participation enhances feelings of belonging, which enhances language learning. Second, the first language plays a central role in constructing life-story identity. Although identity constructionis cherished in the Core Curriculum, it is not automatically valued, offered, or endorsed in the context of migrant students learning their own first languages. Linguistic and cultural recognition helps to support the significance of life-story identity,and acknowledging it in structural support and in pedagogic practices will further promote all students’ equity and participation as active involvement. Keywords:language learning, narrative identity, life story, mother tongue, heritage language, belonging, participation, translanguaging, pedagogyPeer reviewe

Kielikoulutus tukemaan maaseudun väestökehitystä

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