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Publikation On the social life of a city anthem. semiotic objects, ideologies of belonging, and the reproduction of sociocultural difference(Routledge, 2015) Del Percio, AlfonsoThis article takes a closer look at the role of semiotic objects such as texts, monuments, songs, and flags in the definition of both sociocultural boundaries and legitimation of the resulting relations of difference. The focus is a specific anthem, Z'Basel an mym Rhy [In Basel on my Rhine], which is the official anthem of Basel, a city in northwest Switzerland. In line with Appadurai's [1996. The Social Life of Things. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] claim in favor of a complex analysis of an object's social life, this article is a historiographical investigation of the circulation of this semiotic object across time and space – from the moment of its conception as a poem in 1806, to the present day. The analysis centers on how this specific semiotic object has been re-appropriated and transformed continuously, throughout its social life, by new actors, in new contexts, and for new purposes. Indeed, from its origin as a romantic ode for intimate private consumption, this text gradually emerged as an object of cultural consumption on a larger scale, taking on the role of an instrument of pride and power, and becoming a tool to legitimize social structuration.01A - Beitrag in wissenschaftlicher ZeitschriftPublikation Migration(Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, 2021) Del Percio, Alfonso01A - Beitrag in wissenschaftlicher ZeitschriftPublikation On poverty porn(Cambridge University Press, 2023) Del Percio, Alfonso; Cowan, Hannah; Del Percio, Alfonso04A - Beitrag SammelbandPublikation Introduction. language, work and affective capitalism(De Gruyter, 2022) Dlaske, Kati; Del Percio, AlfonsoThis special issue contributes to scholarship on language and affective economy by exploring the role played by affect in shaping work and workers under current configurations of capitalism. We take as a starting point the observation of increased valorisation and instrumentalisation of affect in the contemporary phase of capitalism. In this editorial introduction to the special issue, we set the scene by first outlining our questions, aims and objectives. Subsequently, we situate the contribution made by this issue in a larger social theorisation of affect and capitalism, particularly the notion of affective capitalism, and reflect on how this theorisation can contribute to sociolinguistic scholarship on work. The introduction concludes with an outline of the articles in this special issue, highlighting the way, empirically and conceptually, each article contributes to our understanding of the intersections between language, work and affective capitalism.01A - Beitrag in wissenschaftlicher ZeitschriftPublikation Writing banal inequalities. How to fabricate stories that disrupt(Cambridge University Press, 2023) Cowan, Hannah; Del Percio, Alfonso; Cowan, Hannah; Del Percio, AlfonsoIn this Element, the authors write about the everyday production and experiences of banal inequality. Through a series of sections, each comprising of a blogpost written for Disruptive Inequalities, and a commentary from the author on the predicaments they encountered in the writing process, this Element shares, and confronts, the ways we fabricate stories and use writing to resist. It makes visible the choices, practices, and reflections that have led to the writing of our stories and offers the tools we have used to fabricate them, to all those who may find them meaningful to appropriate, adapt, and translate to fight the struggles that they want to fight. These tools are formulated in a way for writers to develop their own methods of storytelling and activism. The authors hope this Element contributes to an ongoing debate on how writing serves banal resistance.03 - SammelbandPublikation Language and political economy(Oxford University Press, 2016) Del Percio, Alfonso; Flubacher , Mi-Cha; Duchêne, Alexandre; Garcia, Ofelia; Flores, Nelson; Spotti, Massimiliano04A - Beitrag SammelbandPublikation Turning language and communication into productive resources. Language policy and planning and multinational corporations(Oxford University Press, 2018) Del Percio, Alfonso; Tollefson, James W.; Perez Milans, MiguelSociolinguistic production has recently turned its attention to the analysis of language and communication in multinational corporations. Scholars have explained that, under current capitalist conditions, language and communication have been resignified by managers, consultants, and marketing specialists as economic assets that contribute to the individualization or customization of products and services. This chapter discusses the techniques, tactics, and forms of expertise through which language and communication are governed and then turned into productive resources within multinational corporations. Drawing on an ethnographic documentation of the management of language and communication within a Swiss multinational, the chapter demonstrates that corporate actors’ policing of language and communication is not merely linguistic policing. Rather, it is a means to discipline and express control over those actors producing language and communication. That is to say, such forms of policing are a method of enhancing multinationals’ productivity and securing their competitiveness under changing market conditions.04A - Beitrag SammelbandPublikation Resetting minds and souls. Language, employability and the making of neoliberal subjects(Routledge, 2020) Del Percio, Alfonso; Wong , Sze Wan Vivian; Martin Rojo, Luisa; Del Percio, AlfonsoIn this chapter, we present an ethnographic documentation of an employment program that is provided by a charity located in East London. We generate a critical understanding of the ways these programs contribute to the governmentality of poverty and unemployed subjects in London. This paper then argues that the investigated employability program strives to disrupt poverty and unemployment through a set of disciplining techniques that target the individuals’ minds and souls. We will show that, these techniques are anchored in larger histories of knowledge about, and discipline of, “poverty” and the “poor”. In the same time, we will show that that the investigated program is emblematic for a form of neoliberal governmentality that asks the participating subjects to understand their subjectivity in terms of quality, competitiveness and freedom. We will finally argue that the complex set of ideas informing this training program do not determine the actions or thinking of the participating subjects. This neoliberal rational is rather mobilized, rationalized and dialectically engaged with on the ground by (some of) the unemployed subjects who contest this program’s ability to promote their access to jobs and socioeconomic inclusion.04A - Beitrag SammelbandPublikation Language and the political economy, language and labor(Wiley-Blackwell, 2020) Del Percio, Alfonso; Stanlaw, JamesThis entry discusses how scholars studying language in society have been thinking about the ways language and labor are interconnected with capitalism and social inequality. It asks why specific questions about language and labor become salient in specific places and in specific moments in time, and it asks which circumstances and logics led to the stories about language and labor being told in specific ways and specific places and not in others.04A - Beitrag SammelbandPublikation Neoliberalism, language and governmentality(Routledge, 2020) Martin Rojo, Luisa; Del Percio, Alfonso; Martin Rojo, Luisa; Del Percio, AlfonsoThis chapter examines how the concepts of neoliberal governmentality and political rationality contribute to the understanding of neoliberalism as a contemporary form of governance of populations, institutions, practices, language, and subjects, focusing on the key elements addressed in Foucault’s governmentality: the population as a target; the notion of “political economy” as the predominance of market mechanisms and hence limited state involvement; and the “apparatuses of security” as the specific techniques involved in the management of populations. The chapter analyses how governmentality is constructed in discourse as a form of rationality, the knowledge thus generated (such as neoliberal principles and models of subjectivity), and the technologies of power mobilised to govern subjects and their behaviour. The discourse-knowledge-power triad is illustrated by reference to two powerful ways in which neoliberalism colonises social and personal life, apart from its impact on the economy: the neoliberalisation of institutions and the creation of neoliberal subjects. In each of these dimensions, language plays a key role. Thus, neoliberal rationalities shape our understanding of language, impacting on social classes and ethnic groups, and producing neoliberal speakers trained to accumulate language skills and capital in order to survive in a world of competition, life-long education, and unceasing demands for greater productivity.04A - Beitrag Sammelband