A World without Capitalism?: Alternative Discourses, Spaces, and Imaginaries PDF
Preview A World without Capitalism?: Alternative Discourses, Spaces, and Imaginaries
A WORLD WITHOUT CAPITALISM? Inthisbook,ChristianW.Chunexaminesthewaysinwhich identities,discourses, and topographies of both capitalist and anti-capitalist imaginaries and realities are embodied in the everyday practices of people. A World without Capitalism? is a sociolinguistic ethnography that explores the heretofore limited research in applied linguisticsandsociolinguisticsonthediscursiveandmaterializedrepresentationsand enactments of capitalism. Engagingacrossdisciplinaryfields,includingappliedlinguistics,ethnography,poli- tical economy, philosophy, and cultural studies, Chun investigates in ethnographic detail howcapitalism doesand doesnotpervade people’s everydayexperiences.This book aims to further contribute to a much-needed understanding of how discourses operate inthe co-constructionsofcapitalistand anti-capitalistimaginariesand instan- tiated realities and practices as narrated, lived, and embodied by people and material artifacts. This book is vital reading for students and researchers working in the fields of applied linguistics, discourse analysis, and cultural studies, as well as those interested in understanding capitalism and questioning how to live beyond it. Christian W. Chun is Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Lin- guistics, University of Massachusetts Boston. He is the author of Power and Meaning Making in an EAP Classroom:Engaging with the Everyday (2015) and The Discourses of Capitalism: Everyday Economists and the Production of Common Sense (2017). A WORLD WITHOUT CAPITALISM? Alternative Discourses, Spaces, and Imaginaries Christian W. Chun Firstpublished2022 byRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN andbyRoutledge 605ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10158 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©2022ChristianW.Chun TherightofChristianW.Chuntobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeen assertedinaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,Designsand PatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinany informationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe publishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered trademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintentto infringe. BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Acatalogrecordhasbeenrequestedforthisbook ISBN:978-1-138-60534-3(hbk) ISBN:978-1-138-60536-7(pbk) ISBN:978-1-003-24104-1(ebk) DOI:10.4324/9781003241041 TypesetinBembo byTaylor&FrancisBooks CONTENTS List of figures vi Acknowledgments vii 1 A world without capitalism? 1 2 The spectral realities of capitalism 23 3 What’s in a name: working or ‘middle’ class? 46 4 The crucial role of race in American capitalism 66 5 “Working for the clampdown” 89 6 Workplaces, the city, and the world 109 7 The socio-spatialities of capital: urban landscapes and alternative imaginaries 131 8 What is to be done? 161 References 169 Index 185 FIGURES 4.1 Sign at a Defund the Police rally, June 2020, Boston City Hall 87 7.1 The Lucas, South End, Boston 134 7.2 Behind The Lucas, South End, Boston 135 7.3 “Coal Office” 1, Kings Cross, London 139 7.4 “Coal Office” 2, Kings Cross, London 139 7.5 Graffiti 1, Camden Town, London 141 7.6 Graffiti 2, Camden Town, London 142 7.7 Graffiti 3, Kentish Town, London 142 7.8 345 Harrison, Shawmut neighborhood, Boston 145 7.9 “Meatland,” Jamaica Plain neighborhood, Boston 146 7.10 Condominium, South End neighborhood, Boston 147 7.11 “The Social Type,” Silver Lake neighborhood, Los Angeles 149 7.12 Traditional stores in Los Angeles 150 7.13 Echo Park Lake, Los Angeles 152 7.14 Sign near City Hall, Los Angeles 152 7.15 Graffiti on statue of John Endecott 154 7.16 Terminal 2, Logan International Airport, Boston 155 7.17 Mural 1, Pershing Square, downtown Los Angeles 157 7.18 Mural 2, Pershing Square, downtown Los Angeles 158 7.19 Graffiti, Orange Line, Boston 159 7.20 Graffiti, Heathrow Express, London 159 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my publisher, Routledge, for inviting me to write this follow-up book to The Discourses of Capitalism. I also thank the participant interviewees that are featured in this book, and the graduate assistants in the Department of Applied Linguistics, University of Massachusetts Boston, who helped transcribe these interviews. In addition, I thank John Wiley and Sons for their permission to use my 2019 article that appeared in the Journal of Sociolinguistics, 23(4), entitled “Language, discourse, and class: What’s next for sociolinguistics?,” which has been amended and expanded in Chapter 3. I also thank Diggit Magazine for allowing me to use the published columns of mine throughout this book. Especially in this past year and a half of the pandemic, there have been many people who gave me the love and support I needed to not only carry on with my life, but also encouraged me to finish this book; in particular, my sister Lorraine, myniece Claire, mynephewKevin,and several dear friendsand colleagues around the world who have always supported me and my work, including the late Jan Blommaert. I dedicate this book to my late mother, Betty L. Chun, who taught me how to read and write before I started kindergarten, and encouraged my learning and love of both. Thank you, Mom. 1 A WORLD WITHOUT CAPITALISM? Capitalism is the crisis In 2018, I posted the following quote by Arundhati Roy (2003) on my social mediapage:“Anotherworldisnotonlypossible,sheisonherway.Onaquietday, I can hear her breathing” (p. 8). A good friend of mine replied to the post, “Well then, she better hurry the fuck up!” Can we imagine a world without the socio- economic and politically enabled system known as capitalism? A society that is no longer co-created, permeated, and indeed, invaded by the social, cultural, political, ideological, and discursive enabling domains that work in tandem to co-construct, support, perpetuate, and justify a capitalist-run and dominated economy? Can our world evenexist without capitalism?Inasmuch ascapitalism “existsinpartbecauseit inhabits our minds and hearts: we breathe its culture everyday” (Adamovsky, 2011, p.43),isitpossibletofreeourselvesfromitinourlifetime?Perhapsbyframingthese questions in positing there is only ‘one’ world, it may inadvertently enable abject resignationandfrustrationamongthoseofuswhoyearnforalifebeyondandfreeof capitalism with all its exploitations. Why even bother asking these questions? Are they futile or even foolhardy? There are a number of reasons why, many of which will be elaborated throughout this book, but the most pressing one in my opinion – and not only my opinion, but that of the overwhelming majority in the scientific community worldwide – is that prior to the time of this writing, it has been estimated by scientists that we havelessthan12yearstolimitcatastrophicclimatechangethatwillendangermany species including our own (Watts, 2018) with our extinction as a possible or even probable outcome. However, this estimation has now been recently revised by some to a mere 18 months as of June 2019 (McGrath, 2019). Our lives have become increasingly more endangered by the rapid and dire changes to our environment, dramatically evidenced in the recent wildfires around the world due DOI:10.4324/9781003241041-1
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