[Air-l] English as a journal language

[Eugene Gorny]

Dear all

Thursday, March 23, 2006, 8:58:49 PM, Nathaniel Poor wrote:

> until the day the net is beamed directly into our brains like in the
> Matrix or Ghost in the Shell, I vote a happy yes!

I think two thing should be done:

1) Empirical and theoretical research into non-English 'internets'.
Gradually, this occurs. "Internationalizing Internet Studies"
workshop and edited collection can serve an example.

(See for detail:
http://www.capstrans.edu.au/resources/conferences/2006/conferences-2006-inet-studies.html) 

This can provide insights into how the Internet is adopted,
appropriated, used and interpreted in various cultural contexts.


2) Translation of the studies about linguistically and culturally
specific 'internets' written in national languages into English
(perhaps with commentaries on some obscure terms and realities).

This could help to integrate non-English Internet scholarship into the
common (English-language) framework of Internet research and to
introduce ideas, concepts and approaches that might be quite
original/weird. This, in turn, could help to get rid of
overgeneralisations found in English-language Internet/cyberculture
studies and give lots of food for though.

However, both (1) and (2) require some institutional framework and
funding. I think it can be a good idea to establish an organization or
a programme dealing specifically with the issues of the 'other'
Internet.

The English language would remain lingua franca for Internet research
but other languages and cultures would be covered and integrated rather
that ignored.


Eugene Gorny
PhD candidate
Goldsmiths college, University of London
http://www.zhurnal.ru/staff/gorny/