[Air-l] Languages on the Internet - air-l Digest, Vol 20, Issue 28

[Jeremy Hunsinger]

small ideological digression:

I think that there are at least two identifiable ideological  
groundings of these debates about language and the internet.  There  
is the gramscian concept of hegemony and its requisite subaltern/ 
s  .  Then there is the more pervasive hegelian teleology of history,  
where the spirit of the age or spirit of man is embodied in the idea  
of one leading state/national entity.  The hegelian thematics were  
very prominent  in english history during the empire, they parallel  
the american ideology today, the extension of the  manifest destiny  
into the future pax americana or 'new american century'.   In any  
case, I think that AoIR and all international organizations have a  
responsibility to resist these ideologies of dominations in the name  
of the equality and merit of their members and their members global  
citizenship as exemplified in the organization.  There is a  
cosmopolitan politics that should be promoted above and beyond any  
identity politics.   If we take a cosmopolitical ideal as the  
foundation for  our normativity, we can resist tendencies to assert  
identities, nationhoods, and even academic tribalisms in the name of  
an inclusive global purpose.

Thus the languages of the internet debate in my mind is often a  
debate about ideologies as represented by repurposed facts, either  
hegelian or gramscian.  I think Nancy's post exemplifies how the  
british repurposed facts for their ideological purposes and how by  
stating these facts clearly and without emphasis, and that by  
appealing to the brute fact of the divergent narratives, we can see  
that there is a place for agreement about Marconi outside of  
national, linguistic, or other portrayals.   This critical space  
where truth can be seen between the stories is far more important for  
global awareness then whether the internet is, will be, can be, the  
hegemonic territory of a linguistic system that becomes the defacto  
'right' or 'good' language.

Isn't the cosmopolitan goal to have a plurally linguistic internet  
for all, with global access and its related cultural production as  
appropriate to the people/s participating?  Granted of course... the  
internet is still mostly owned by corporations... which are owned by  
people....


On Mar 23, 2006, at 10:58 AM, Nancy Baym wrote:

> Michel writes:
>
>> Prof. Crystal mentioned by Alex Kuskis
>>> "Every significant cultural innovation of modern times - from the  
>>> invention
>>>  of the radio, to the Internet, to air traffic control - began in an
>>>  English-speaking country or was immediately facilitated by an
>>>  English-speaking country. It really is amazing."
>> it is sort of ... hum, symptomatic of the kind of cultural chauvinism
>> human kind would be well inspired to keep away from.
>> Note the absence of a mention of television and a few other things.
>
>
> I have been reading (finally) Carolyn Marvin's When Old Technologies
> Were New and she has a lovely section on how the British discounted
> Marconi over and over (insisting on calling him "Senor Marconi")
> until it couldn't be denied that he was responsible for the invention
> of the radio and then suddenly they started emphasizing that he had a
> British mother and wasn't really all that Italian afterall...
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jeremy hunsinger
jhuns at vt.edu
www.cddc.vt.edu
jeremy.tmttlt.com
www.tmttlt.com

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