The discursive construction of place-identity : British lifestyle migrants in the Algarve

• Main Author: Torkington, Kathryn Mary
• Published: Lancaster University 2011
• Subjects: 325.4696
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.588512

This thesis takes an interdisciplinary, critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to investigate the discursive construction of place-identity. For the purposes of this research, place-identity is understood as the relationship between the discursive construction of place and the discursive construction of the multiplicities of the individual and collective self. The main data is provided by interviews with British lifestyle migrants in the Algarve, Portugal. I develop a framework for investigating both the individual and the collective dimensions of migrant place-identity by combining elements from Systemic Functional Linguistics (in particular Appraisal theory) and Cognitive Linguistics. This allows an analysis of both strategic features of the micro-level of discourse, such as evaluation of place{s), and apparently less conscious features, such as the use of spatial deixis. I draw on Positioning Analysis as a means of linking micro- and macro- levels of analysis. At the micro-level, the findings suggest that various modes of belonging are constructed in interaction by positioning the self as being attitudinally aligned (or not) with place{s) and by positioning the self as being (literally and metaphorically) inside/outside place{s). The macro-level context of the research is the growing contemporary trend of lifestyle migration, which is strongly related to tourism mobilities. Since this social phenomenon is fertile ground for the production of privileged, elite identities, one of the aims of this thesis is to expand the agenda of CDA research by developing an understanding of how such privileged identities are articulated, {re)produced, reinforced and negotiated through discursive positionings, and how these positionings are linked to hegemonic discourses that 'legitimise' certain types of migration. The study thus aims to show how the discursive construction of place- identity is not only an integral part of the discursive construction of migrant identities, but also how place-identity is linked to broader ideologies and contributes to the politics of place.