Student Mobility and the Canadian Francophonie
The present era of globalization has given rise to new sociological questions on the different forms of mobility that characterize today’s societies (Urry, 2005), with student mobility sparking special interest (Pilote & Molgat, 2010). Issues linked to student mobility are not always closely related to the internationalization of higher education. In fact, the identity dynamics that exist in any mobility process can also be found within national borders.
Identité linguistique et poids des langues : une étude comparative entre des jeunes de milieu scolaire francophone au Nouveau-Brunswick et anglophone au Québec
Cet article porte sur la construction identitaire en milieu linguistique minoritaire au Canada. Partant d’une demarche qualitative comparative entre des jeunes d’un milieu scolaire francophone au Nouveau-Brunswick et anglophone au Quebec, il examine les processus a travers lesquels les jeunes construisent leur identite linguistique, c’est-a-dire a travers une negociation entre leur definition subjective de Soi et des identites transmises par Autrui (en particulier la famille et l’ecole). Les resultats sont presentes a partir de configurations identitaires liees au type de familles dont sont issus les jeunes interroges : endogames majoritaires, endogames minoritaires et exogames (francais et anglais). L’analyse demontre que si l’identification « bilingue » est presente chez les deux groupes de jeunes etudies, les enjeux qui s’y rattachent varient en fonction du poids relatif de l’anglais et du francais dans l’environnement nord-americain.
Beyond East–West: Marginality and National Dignity in Finnish Identity Construction
Since the end of the Cold War it has become common for Finnish academics and politicians alike to frame debates about Finnish national identity in terms of locating Finland somewhere along a continuum between East and West. Indeed, for politicians, properly locating oneself (and therefore Finland) along this continuum has often been seen as central to the winning and losing of elections. For example, the 1994 referendum on EU membership was largely interpreted precisely as an opportunity to relocate Finland further to the West. Indeed, the tendency to depict Finnish history in terms of a series of “Westernizing” moves has been notable, but has also betrayed some of the politicized elements of this view. However, this framing of Finnish national identity discourse is not only sometimes politicized but arguably is also too simplified and results in blindness towards other identity narratives that have also been important through Finnish history, and that are also evident (but rarely recognized) today as well. In this article we aim to highlight one of these that we argue has played a key role in locating Finland in the world and in formulating notions of what Finland is about, what historical role and mission it has been understood as destined to play, and what futures for the nation have been conceptualized as possible and as providing a source of subjectivity and national dignity.