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Title
Esperanto revolutionaries and geeks : language politics, digital media and the making of an international community / Guilherme Fians.
ISBN
9783030842307 (electronic bk.)
3030842304 (electronic bk.)
9783030842291
3030842290
Published
Cham : Palgrave Macmillan, [2021]
Copyright
©2021
Language
English
Description
1 online resource : illustrations (chiefly color)
Item Number
10.1007/978-3-030-84230-7 doi
Call Number
PM8209 .F53 2021
Dewey Decimal Classification
499/.992
Summary
This book transcends the commonplace perception of Esperanto as a language of the past, drawing on an ethnography carried out primarily in France to investigate how Esperantos internationalism is manifested in the present. Constructed in the late nineteenth century as an attempt to promote global linguistic understanding, Esperanto has been associated with internationalism since its early days. Yet, if this language was previously linked to anarchism, communism and pacifism, what is its current political relevance? What impacts have new communication technologies such as digital media had on the dynamics of this speech community and language movement? Unpacking how Esperanto speakers are everywhere, but concentrated nowhere, the author argues that digital media have provided tools for people to (re)politicise acts of communication, produce horizontal learning spaces and, ultimately, build an international community. As Esperanto speakers question the post-political consensus about communication rights, this language becomes an ally of activism for open-source software and global social justice. This book will be of relevance to students and scholars researching political activism, language use and community-building, as well as anyone with an interest in digital media more broadly. Guilherme Fians is Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Brasilia, Brazil and Co-Director of the Centre for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems, Netherlands/USA. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester, UK. Committed to multilingualism in academia, he has published about themes such as prefigurative politics and digital media in several languages.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
Description based on print version record.
Chapter 1: Introduction: In the beginning was the word
Chapter 2: And the word was made flesh, or how to narrate histories
Chapter 3: Follow the (non-)native: Circulating, mapping and territorialising the Esperanto community
Chapter 4: When Esperanto speakers meet, or what makes this community international?
Chapter 5: Crocodiles, apples and owls: Language variation and standardisation in a no mans language
Chapter 6: On moving and standing still: The movement from the standpoint of an Esperanto association
Chapter 7: Communicating is freedom: human languages, programming languages and new technologies
Chapter 8: Esperanto in the making, making through Esperanto: prefiguration and the building of alternative presents
Chapter 9: Conclusion, or how not to put an end to the conversation.
