Mapping Intercultural Communication Imperatives of Police-Public Interactions in Rural Spaces

This research note seeks to generate fruitful pathways to advance a new discourse on intercultural encounters between the police and individuals from multilingual communities in Australia’s increasingly diverse rural and regional settings. How might police officers better relate and communicate with groups of migrants whose language practices are complex, unpredictable and eschew the widely used logics of translation and interpretation? How might we encourage hope in our social communities that intercultural understanding between policing agencies and new migrants is key to co-creating peaceful and resilient rural communities? How might police communication protocols that assist in supporting the retention of migrants’ linguistic capabilities and funds of knowledges contribute to the wellbeing of regional communities? What would policing rural and regional communities look like if we were to centre sociolinguistic and intercultural imperatives? In this research note, we consider these questions in our search for the next steps in mapping police communication protocols that work for all in Australia’s rural and regional settings. The goal is to contribute new conceptual approaches we can use to foster partnerships and trusting relationships between the police and our increasingly diverse rural populations

Sindhī Multiscriptality, Past and Present: A Sociolinguistic Investigation into Community Acceptance

This thesis is on the sociolinguistics of writing. It investigates the use of scripts for the Sindhī language of South Asia, both from a diachronic and synchronic perspective. The thesis first analyses the rich but understudied script history of the Sindhī language from the tenth century to modern times. In doing so, it investigates the domains in which certain scripts were used, and identifies definite patterns in their distribution. Particular attention is paid to Perso-Arabic and Devanāgarī, which emerged as the two most widely used scripts for the language in the twentieth century. The diachronic analysis draws on several linguistic, literary and other academic works on the Sindhī language and brings to the fore hitherto neglected data on historical script use for the language. The thesis then presents and analyses oral interview data on community opinion on the recent proposal to use the Roman script to read and write Sindhī. The synchronic analysis is based on original fieldwork data, comprising in-depth qualitative interviews with fifty members of the Indian Sindhī community of diverse backgrounds and ages from various geographical locations. Empirically, this work is one of the first to provide a comprehensive diachronic and synchronic review and analysis of script practices in the Sindhī community specifically from a sociolinguistic perspective. It also provides revealing insights into the kinds of expectations an urbanised, highly educated and socioeconomically successful minority has of a writing system for its language. In doing so, the study challenges the prevalent simplistic claim in the literature that minority communities are desirous of seeing their language in writing. Most importantly, this work indicates the emergence of a so-called new variety of Sindhī phonology in India, which differs subtly from the old variety phonology. The implications of this subtle shift in phonology for Sindhī pedagogical material form a key part of the findings of this study. Theoretically, this work contributes to the concept of orthographic transfer, which is the phenomenon of phoneme-grapheme correspondences in a particular orthography being inadvertently applied to another orthography. The study also affirms the presence of a scriptal diglossia, or digraphia, in script use for the Sindhī language, where the use of particular scripts for the language is implicitly determined by domain and context. The potential impact of orthographic transfer and digraphia on the pedagogy of lesser-learnt languages is a key part of the study’s findings. Methodologically, the juxtaposition of historical and present-day sociolinguistic factors at play offers a fresh and nuanced look at the rise and fall of scripts in the context of a language with a centuries-old written tradition. The study concludes that usage of a particular script for a language is not the result of a simplistic binary opposition between authoritarian imposition and voluntary choice. Rather, it is a reflection of several pragmatic and symbolic considerations by the community in question. The thesis puts into perspective the various psychological, socioeconomic and cultural forces at work in determining script use for the Sindhī language. In doing so, the thesis makes several additions not just to the existing body of knowledge on the Sindhī language, but also to the fledgling field of inquiry that is the sociolinguistics of writing. These varied and unique contributions set the study apart from previous research on the subject

Diaspora Capital, Capacity Development and African Development: Role of Nigerian Migrants in Australia

This thesis examines the role of Australian-based skilled migrants from Nigeria in the capacity development of their country of origin. The dataset that formed the basis for the analysis was collected through semi structured interviews and surveys with two cohorts of skilled migrants. The first set of data is about the lived experiences of forty-five skilled migrants and two Nigerian diplomats in Australia. The trans-national activities, emotional ties, and social and professional networks that these sets of skilled migrants maintain across Nigeria and Australia are examined to ascertain their relevance for the capacity development of Nigeria through the transfer of professional skills. The second set of data consists of survey responses and semi- structured interviews obtained from twenty-two returned migrants who have gone back to Nigeria after their studies or employment in Australia. Underpinned by a qualitative approach to research design and a thematic approach to data analysis, the professional skills, and knowledge, economic, social, cultural and human capital of these skilled migrants are discussed as a form of migrants' social remittances and diaspora capital in the context of capacity development. Capacity development of Nigeria is discussed as an independent process that can be achieved with the contribution of migrants' diaspora capital. The thesis introduces the new concept of non-financial remittances, which marks its significance and contribution to research on migration and diaspora capital. This thesis is important because it examines the lived experiences of Nigerian diaspora members in Australia, trans-migrants and return migrants who have returned to Nigeria after spending extended periods of time studying and working in Australia. The diaspora capital of these diaspora members and returned migrants is examined in terms of their contributions to capacity development through their transfer of skills for the capacity development of Nigeria. Diaspora capital in the context of this study is defined to have an encompassing meaning that entails several benefits that the Nigerian diaspora own and can be used to contribute to capacity development of Nigeria. This thesis looks beyond the argument of the negative effects of brain drain of skilled migrants by highlighting the idea that financial and social remittances can compensate for brain drain and migration of skilled migrants in developing countries. The diaspora option to enhance capacity development, migrant's social networks and trans-national activities are suggested as countervailing trends that may mitigate the negative effects of skilled migration from the homeland. The framework of analysis for the study is built around Bourdieu, Putnam and Coleman's idea of social capital theory to examine migrants' bonding, bridging, linking and digital social capital and their effects on social network formation transfer of professional skills and capacity development. The research findings highlighted six major themes that include diaspora capital, modes of professional skills transfer and challenges that impede the use of diaspora capital for capacity development. Based on these analyses, the thesis argues that social networks, professional networks and transnational activities of skilled migrants such as professional visits to Nigeria, virtual online activities and volunteering can counter-balance the negative effects of brain drain and the exodus of skilled migrants on the capacity development of Nigeria. The study found that there are several inefficiencies and structural weaknesses that hinder the optimal utilisation of the skills of these groups of skilled migrants for capacity development. In the concluding chapter, the thesis provides policy recommendations on how the Nigerian government might more fully harness and utilise the skills of the Nigerian-born migrants of the diaspora

On Politic Behaviour: The Personal Pronoun as an Address Term in the Ndebele Language of Zimbabwe

The use of the personal pronoun as an address term in different speech communities around the world is widely documented. The pioneering work of Brown and Levinson (1987), Brown and Gilman (1968), Friedrich (1972), Gumperz (1982), and Gumperz and Hymes (1972) on politeness strategies long established that both singular and plural personal pronominal forms are often used to express respect, social distance, intimacy and solidarity. More recent studies (Watts 2003; Allan and Burridge 1991, 2006; Allan 2012) concur with the early studies on politeness strategies. Most of their conclusions are based on data mainly from French, Italian, Russian and English speech communities. This chapter presents the most recent empirical evidence from the Midlands Ndebele speech community of Zimbabwe to support the argument that the personal pronominal address system is more complex than is currently acknowledged in the literature. The data indicates that the use of both the singular (wena - you SING) and plural (lina - you PL) forms of the personal pronoun in the Ndebele language betrays an uneasy and unpredictable situation. This uneasiness and unpredictability revolves around a lack of clarity about when it is deemed appropriate to be euphemistic, when to display solidarity or endearment and when to express social distance

Reading Robert Mugabe through the Third Chimurenga: Language, Discourse, Exclusion

This article interrogates narrow forms of nationalism and nativist ideologies that are hidden beneath post-colonial African political leader statements and rhetoric about reversing colonial imbalances. The focus is on Zimbabwe's Third Chimurenga spearheaded by Robert Mugabe during the last ten years of his presidency. An analysis of the linguistic and discursive aspects of economic nationalisation, land reform and indigenisation programmes in Zimbabwe—also known as the Third Chimurenga—enables us to see the elements of policy discord and inconsistencies that characterised the second half of Robert Mugabe's nearly four-decade rule. The argument is that the reified and reductionist framing of the Third Chimurenga resulted in two unintended consequences: (i) alienating the majority of the very same black people that the policy sought to empower and (ii) diminishing opportunities for beneficiaries to contribute towards realisation of the ideals and aspirational goals of pushing back the frontiers of colonially inherited social and economic inequalities. I conclude by suggesting that Robert Mugabe's language and discursive rhetoric around social transformation in Zimbabwe betray unhelpful commitment to political exigencies at the expense of sustainable economic empowerment of ordinary men and women

Zimbabwe's Postcolonial Language Policy Formulation Paradigms 1987-1998: another Recipe for the Marginalisation of Minority Languages

Zimbabwe's postcolonial language policy formulation initiatives are punctuated with numerous undemocratic tendencies that constitute fertile ground for the marginalisation of minority languages. The period 1987-1998 witnessed concerted efforts towards the fashioning of a nationalist-oriented language policy for Zimbabwe. All language policy formulation initiatives have so far been characterized by intolerance to linguistic pluralism and cultural diversity, insensitivity to minority languages and cultures as well as the over-politicization of the language policy formulation process. The institutional and functional status of Zimbabwe's minority languages are presently at low ebb, with the country's 'major' languages dominating in the media, education, law and administration, business and commerce. Under these circumstances, the future of minority languages in Zimbabwe has turned out to be quite bleak as they are increasingly becoming marginalised in all these spheres of national life. This paper provides a critique of the philosophical and pragmatic foundations of Zimbabwe's language policy formulation paradigms with the view to exposing their implications for the maintenance and survival of minority languages. It utilizes the conceptual framework of historical-structural approaches, which emphasize on the need to look at language policies within the context of the broader issues of power, ideology, the nation-state, hegemony, dominance and social structure

Decolonising sociolinguistics research: methodological turn-around next?

This short article argues that notwithstanding theoretical advances that have sought to unsettle the hegemony of mainstream theoretical frameworks, language in society researchers and other social science scholarly communities from the Southern orbit of the globe, continue to be wedded to conventional Euro-modernist methodologies. I suggest that the need to delink from imperial logics of doing research is a must and not an option. We need a language to explore spaces and modes of being that do not exist in the spaces of current Euro-modernist frameworks but that do exist in the majority of other communities around the world. In advancing this line of argument, I join ongoing conversations among indigenous and decolonial scholars speaking from the margins of the mainstream on the need for epistemic reconstitution of the discourse and praxis of research

Vehicular Cross-Border Languages, Multilingualism and the African Integration Debate: A Decolonial Epistemic Perspective

The proposition that African vehicular cross-border languages are best positioned to facilitate African integration is underpinned by a hegemonic and colonial philosophy that misdirects the African multilingual debate. This becomes apparent when the perceived utility of this category of languages is considered against the backdrop of contestations surrounding language definition traditions and the incidence of language multiversity in Africa. Drawing on the ideas of decolonial scholarship from the Global South, this article provides a critical analysis of African vehicular cross-border languages and perceptions about their ability to resolve the anticipated intercultural communication problems of an integrated Africa. The article seeks to bring to the limelight some of the fundamental omissions and blind spots of such projective conclusions about the potential of vehicular cross-border languages and how such projections are shaped by dominant, neo-liberal and conservative language ideologies and ideologies of (or about) language

Proposing a language-based framework for the form and structure of a United States of Africa

This article is conceived against the background of ongoing political and intellectual debates around the formation of a United States of Africa. Together with the drive for political and economic integration, the idea of a United States of Africa is about quests for a collective African identity. While the subject of African integration has attracted the most attention from a political, economic and trade perspective, it has remained least understood or researched sociolinguistically. By focusing on how patterns of language use across different national borders can potentially provide a framework for the form and structure of the proposed United States of Africa, this article contributes another dimension to the integration debate. The article argues for the need to recognize the diversity of African languages as an opportunity and not a liability to the prospects of African integration.S.Afr.J.Afr.Lang., 31(2) 201