Placeholder text

Discourse, Materiality, and Agency within Everyday Social Interactions

Discourse, Materiality, and Agency within Everyday Social Interactions

0 - Default Title
Description
This Element investigates the interplay between language, discourse, and materiality by focusing on everyday social practices within corner shops and markets in Sydney, Australia. Drawing on linguistic ethnography and data from interactions involving objects, talk, and people, it explores how discourse and materiality are co-constituted. Employing theoretical perspectives from actor-network theory and the concept of mediational means/tools, the study reconceptualizes the role of non-human entities in meaning-making processes. It demonstrates that objects actively participate in shaping cultural practices and social dynamics, offering new insights that broaden applied linguistics' engagement with materiality. By treating objects as agents in discourse, this Element highlights the entanglement of language, agency, and the material world. It foregrounds the dynamic relationships between humans and non-humans in everyday communicative practices, bringing to the fore the significance of material conditions in the production of meaning and interaction.
Product details
Number of Pages:
88
Release Date:
2025-11-30
Publication Date:
2025-12-02
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
1009675370
ISBN13:
9781009675376
Weight:
291 g
Height:
157 cm
Width:
235 cm
Thickness:
10 cm
Currently sold out