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Variation within a Greek-Cypriot community of practice in London: Code-switching, gender, and identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2014

Katerina A. Finnis
Katerina A. Finnis*
Affiliation:
University of Central Lancashire, School of Language, Literature, and International Studies, Preston PR1 2HE, United KingdomKAFinnis@uclan.ac.uk
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Abstract

The past two decades have seen an explosion of interest in interactionally orientated perspectives on identity. The Community of Practice framework was employed by sociolinguists working within this paradigm because it firmly grounds identity in social practice seeing it as a process that speakers engage in during actual interactions. Interest in variation within communities of practice is growing, as the well-boundedness of linguistic and social concepts (including identity and language) is increasingly questioned. The current article develops this perspective by exploring code-switching practices of British-born Greek-Cypriots in two distinct contexts: community meetings and a dinner. Findings indicate that this community of practice does not constitute a uniform entity: complex interactions transpire between local and global variables including gender, community-specific setups, contexts, and discourse types. The study also problematizes the concepts core and periphery, used to describe variation within communities of practice, offering a revised understanding of practice, which focuses on silent participation. (Code-switching, community of practice, Greek-Cypriot, gender, identity, individual variation)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , June 2014 , pp. 287 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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