Milani "unity in disunity"

Essentially, the argument is that there is a
constant tension between centripetal (unifying) and centrifugal (particularising)
forces which strive for the production of different, concomitant and often
conflicting national identities.

Initially - "celebrating diversity"
588
"In our view, however,
there are two interrelated elements that single out the Voices project: (1) its
openly celebratory aim of representing ethno-linguistic diversity in a time when
multilingualism and multiculturalism have become deeply imbued with negative
connotations in British public discourse (Blackledge 2005, Blackledge and Creese
2010); and (2) the reliance on old as well as new media technologies as tools with
a nationally unifying function."

'what is crucial here is how the “national” has been explicitly invoked by BBC
workers with regard to project about language representation — what people say
and write about languages and their speakers.'

"How is ethno-linguistic diversity represented both verbally and visually on the
Voices website? And how is such diversity mobilised in the imagining (Anderson
1983) of the nation? In order to provide an answer to these questions, we will
investigate two levels in the Voices website architecture: (1) the introductory web
page of “Multilingual Nation”, which is a section of the discussion forum of the
website called “Your Voice”; and (2) the discussion board within “Multilingual Nation”
dedicated to the Welsh language.1 This twofold level of analysis is not simply
motivated by a desire to offer a more holistic picture of the website than has been
provided thus far (see Davies et al. in press, Johnson et al. 2010), but is also justified
by our wish to better understand the macro institutional frame of the website
in relation to some of the micro, “folk” interactions that took place therein."
589
BBC methods
"They recorded 300 interviews with 1201 participants in different geographical areas
of the UK. Secondly, the website which accompanied the Voices programming
did not act just as an electronic platform through which to publicise the project
and showcase its findings. Rather, this too was a strategic instrument for further
data collection."

590
who is "we" what is "homeland"?
multilayered
" Instead, what should be highlighted pace Bakhtin (1981) is that it is a
context characterised by a tension between centripetal (unifying) and centrifugal
(particularising) forces which strive for the production of different, concomitant
and often conflicting national identities."

BBCis very aware of this

"very heart of the BBC, which has the public purpose of “reflecting the UK, its
nations, regions and communities” (BBC 2006: 2). This is also embodied in the
Voices project where a thrust to “unite people across the UK in a shared local and
national conversation” (Ord 2005) co-exists with a drive to “reflect, explore and
celebrate the unique mix of languages, accents and dialects to be found in Great
591
"Britain and Northern Ireland” (Rose and Mowbray, n. d.). One could infer then
that the BBC more broadly, and the Voices project in particular, are like magnetic
fields in which some forces pull inwards towards the envisioning of a unified
national identity for the UK as a whole at the same time as other forces push
outwards towards the recognition of the national specificities of England, Wales,
Scotland and Northern Ireland as well as regional and community diversity."

"In essence, a language ideological approach proposes that “What we think
about language will be related to how we perceive ourselves and eventually how
others perceive us” (Lanza and Woldemarian 2009: 189). This belief system is inter
alia the precipitate of discourses that create indexical links between: (1) perceived
or presumed features, genres, styles or varieties of language; and (2) broader images
of their purported speakers in terms of nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexuality,
aesthetics, morality and so forth (see e.g. Woolard 1998). From a language
ideological perspective then, the main research task lies in teasing apart “when
and how those links are forged, whether by lay participant or by their expert analysts,
through what semiotic and social processes, and with what consequences for
linguistics and social life” (Woolard 1998: 27)."

592
 analyze text on website?
Homepage

" On the one hand, there is
an attempt to imagine a unified national collective of speakers that coincides with
a particular political space. This is achieved by mapping — quite literally — these
speakers onto the territory of the UK. On the other hand, what is made salient
through images of these speakers is their diversity with regard to race/ethnicity,
gender, age, and locality. In the light of this, it could be argued that the BBC is seeking
to make “diversity” a key feature of the UK. That said, there are also traces of
other competing forces. Not only has southern England been made more visually
prominent than the rest of the UK, but multilingualism is also notable for its absence.
In fact, Standard British English is the nearly exclusive linguistic code chosen
for the verbal text — the only exceptions being a hyperlink in Welsh and a few
dialectal lexical items. Moreover, in spite of the acknowledgement of ethnic and
racial diversity, there are no pictures of those who are commonly associated with
multilingualism in contemporary British political and media discourse, namely
members of “Asian”, that is, Pakistani, Indian or Bangladeshi minorities."


597
"37 discussion boards. In the majority of cases, there is a one-to-one relationship
between language and discussion board, but in two instances this is arguably not
the case: (1) Croatian and Serbian, which are listed separately but lead to the same
discussion board; and (2) Urdu/Hindi, which are listed together, and lead to the
same discussion board (for a more in-depth discussion see Davies et al. in press).
Crucially, the denominations of the languages are given in English only, rather
than in their respective language with an English translation. Another critical issue
that is worth noting regards what languages have been selected for the list on the
introductory page. There is no doubt that the inhabitants of the UK speak many
more than 39 languages, and therefore many have been left out from the list. The
BBC gives the following justification of this ideological process on the page itself:"

598
 "In our discussion of the approach taken by the BBC Voice team, we saw their
invoking of the concept of a “national conversation”, where the website would be
“playing a vital role in the “folk linguistics” aspect of the project — the exploration
of what people say about the way they use language” (Rose and Mowbray n.
d.). This in turn was a strategy through which the BBC thought that they could
counterbalance what was perceived as a wide-spread shortcoming in the British
media, namely that “the perspective of bilingual Britain is largely unexpressed in
mainstream culture” (Rose and Mowbray n. d.). It is this perspective that will be
brought under investigation in this section."

599
Wales in national curriculum

Welsh tied to national identity integral -- but also centrifugal

600

commentary - "usefulness"

601-602
Welsh speaker
"That Welsh
is used for identity purposes also emerges at the very end of Sophie’s submission,
where she claims her affiliation to Welsh by linking language to her feelings of
Welshness. Here again the switching from English to Welsh is a key move that enables
the author to construct herself as an authentic speaker of the language. This,
in turn, is a linguistic strategy through which she can imbue with authority the
propositional content of her contribution (see Gal and Woolard 2001 for a discussion
of the notion of authority of authenticity)."

Annoyance at top down policy- activists

immigration

606
 "Indeed, Welsh is largely viewed as not having any relevance to those living
elsewhere in the UK. This can be in seen in part here by the discussion of Welsh
in relation to the concept of “foreignness” in Extracts 3, 4 and 10. If the focus is
expanded to other mediatised examples of metalinguistic discourse, then there
is further evidence of this position."

Living the distances that once separated communities

607