‘Как мы codeswitchаем’: the range of Russianness in Melbourne

© 2014 Dr. Sabina Joy VakserIncreased human mobility around the world has led to some conceptual reframing in sociolinguistics in recent years, with the aim of creating more dynamic models of language and society to reflect such movement. In line with recent theorizing, this thesis takes an ethnographically-informed case-study approach to experiences of Russianness among three families in Melbourne, Australia. Tracing migrant trajectories that span six countries – including Russia, Germany, a small republic of the Russian Federation, Belarus, the Ukraine, and Australia – I use a scalar analysis to explore the nature of Russian heritage maintenance and change in family life. Combining Bakhtinian heteroglossia with the recent lens of ‘super-diversity’, the research contributes to an emerging sociolinguistics of globalization, building upon current theories of multilingualism, maintenance, and authenticity in late-modernity. It also questions pervasive monolingual ideologies vis-à-vis naturally evolving semiotic repertoires. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, such studies provide important evidence of the effects that global changes have on the lives of specific individuals in specific contexts. To date, this dissertation marks a first attempt at engaging with experiences of Russian speakers in Melbourne from the perspective of a sociolinguistics of mobility, approaching migration histories and observed communication as non-linear, polycentric phenomena (Blommaert, 2010). It also answers the recent call for further qualitative studies in research on super-diversity (Vertovec, 2007), ones which incorporate “an anthropology of daily habits and interactions” and “tak[e] account of plurality of affiliation” (Creese & Blackledge, 2011: 568). The descriptive framework of superdiversity has allowed a deconstruction of one-dimensional social categories, such as the so-called ‘Russian community’, venturing beyond an ‘ethnic minority’ framework towards its inherent diversity. In so doing, I have aimed to capture some of the complexity characterizing current trends of migration and expatriation, and associated linguistic and cultural practices. A reflexive approach also illuminates researcher-researched dynamics and the ways in which these inform representation. Fundamentally, the thesis hopes to contribute not only to an understanding of the mobility and transformation of certain resources (Pennycook, 2012), but to the reconceptualization of ideas such as ‘broken language’, reframing discourses of brokenness as ‘bricolage-in-action’, or opportunities for ideological rethinking