Cover not available

In:Identity Perspectives from Peripheries
Edited by Yoshiko Matsumoto and Jan-Ola Östman
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 352] 2025
► pp. 36–65

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 3
Location! location! location! (and transcultural capital)

Reframing peripherality as opportunity at an Istanbul kebab shop

 | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Published online: 13 June 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.352.03sch
Abstract
Focusing on identity construction through language choice (Bucholtz and Hall 2005), this chapter examines center-periphery relations by analyzing discourses about Turkish-only workplace language policies among the staff of a peripherally located Kurdish-run restaurant, a perspective that complements Schluter’s (2020) analysis of these policies at this restaurant’s centrally located counterparts. Extracts from interviews with three managers/workers address ideologies and capital as central influences on identity formation (Darvin and Norton 2015), indicating the capacity for trans-national ideologies to mitigate the effects of marginalizing, state-produced discourses. Capital legitimizes these ideologies and strengthens the kebab shop’s ability to deviate from the center’s norms, a finding that partially aligns with other non-centrally oriented peripheries (cf. Hiss 2017; Petrović 2018) and motivates a reconceptualization of the periphery.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Center vs. periphery
      • 2.1.1Language and the center–periphery distinction
    • 2.2Theoretical framing
      • 2.2.1Shortcomings of the Global Language System and the relevance of investment to the current analysis
        • 2.2.1.1Identity
    • 2.3Applying the center–periphery distinction to Kurdish in Turkey: Socio‑political, socio-economic, and spatial perspectives
    • 2.4Settings: The two research sites and their relative peripherality/centrality
      • 2.4.1Defining centrality and peripherality in Taksim according to spatial and socio-economic criteria
      • 2.4.2Tahmasp: The Kurdish restaurant/café located near Taksim’s Center
      • 2.4.3Chef Nuso: The kebab restaurant in the periphery
  • 3.Research design
    • 3.1Methods
    • 3.2Participants
    • 3.3Analysis
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Identity construction through Kurdish language use at Chef Nuso
    • 4.2Orienting to a Kurdish state: Ideology rooted in pan-Kurdish ethnonationalism
    • 4.3Legitimacy through capital ownership
  • 5.Conclusion
    • 5.1Chapter overview
    • 5.2Assessing the results with respect to center-periphery relations
    • 5.3Directions for future research
  • Notes
  • References
References (59)
References
Ahearn, Laura M. 2001. “Language and Agency.” Annual Review of Anthropology 30: 109–137. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan. 2010. The Sociolinguistics of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan, James Collins, and Stef Slembrouck. 2005. “Spaces of Multilingualism.” Language and Communication 25 (3): 197–216. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Translated by John. B. Thompson. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary, and Kira Hall. 2005. “Identity and Interaction: A Sociocultural Linguistic Approach.” Discourse Studies 7 (4–5): 585–614. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cornips, Leonie, and Vincent A. de Rooij. 2018. “Introduction: Belonging through Linguistic Place-making in Center-periphery Constellations.” In The Sociolinguistics of Place and Belonging: Perspectives from the Margins, ed. by Leonie Cornips and Vincent A. de Rooij, 1–13. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Çoşkun, Vahap, M. Şerif Derince, and Nesrin Uçarlar. 2011. Scar of Tongue: Consequences of the Ban on the Use of Mother Tongue in Education and Experiences of Kurdish Students in Turkey. Diyarbakır: DİSA Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Darvin, Ron, and Bonnie Norton. 2015. “Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics.” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 35: 36–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Swaan, Abram. 2001. Words of the World: The Global Language System. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Demir, İpek. 2017. “Shedding an Ethnic Identity in Diaspora: De-Turkification and the Transnational Discursive Struggles of the Kurdish diaspora.” Critical Discourse Studies 14 (3): 276–291. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dokuz8 Haber “Yedi Yılda en az Dört Kişi Kürtçe Konuştuğu ya da Müzik Dinlediği için Öldürüldü” [In Seven years, at least four people have been killed for speaking Kurdish or listening to Kurdish music].” Gündem, June 1st, 2020. [URL]
Dollinger, Stefan. 2019. “Debunking ‘Pluri-areality’: On the Pluricentric Perspective of National Varieties.” Journal of Linguistic Geography 7 (2): 98–112. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duchêne, Alexandre, and Monica Heller (eds). 2012. Language in Late Capitalism: Pride and Profit. Abingdon: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duchêne, Alexandre, Melissa Moyer, and Celia Roberts. 2013. “Introduction: Recasting Institutions and Work in Multilingual and Transnational Spaces.” In Language, Migration, and Social Inequalities: A Critical Sociolinguistic Perspective on Institutions and Work, ed. by Alexandre Duchêne, Melissa Moyer, and Celia Roberts, 1–21. Bristol, U.K.: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ekmekçi, Faruk. 2011. “Understanding Kurdish Ethnonationalism in Turkey: Socio-economy, Religion, and Politics.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 34 (9): 1608–1617. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ergin, Murat. 2014. “The Racialization of Kurdish Identity in Turkey.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 37 (2): 322–341. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haig, Geoffrey. 2004. “The Invisibilisation of Kurdish: The Other Side of Language Planning in Turkey.” In Die Kurden: Studien zu ihrer Sprache, Geschichte und Kultur [The Kurds: Studies on their language, history, and culture], ed. by Stefan Concerman, and Geoffrey Haig, 121–150. Schenefeld: EB-Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hall, Colin Michael. 2015. “Elaborating Core-Periphery Relations in Tourism.” In Challenges in Tourism Research, ed. by Tej Vir Singh, 162–169. Bristol: Channel view Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hall, Colin Michael, David Harrison, David Weaver, and Geoffrey Wall. 2013. “Vanishing Peripheries: Does Tourism Consume Places?” Tourism Recreation Research 38 (1): 71–92. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heller, Monica. 1995. “Code-switching and the Politics of Language”. In One Speaker, Two Languages: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Code-Switching, ed. by Leslie Milroy, and Pieter Muysken, 158–174. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. “Globalization, the New Economy and the Commodification of Language and Identity.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 7 (4): 473–492. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Repositioning the Multilingual Periphery: Class, Language, and Transnational Markets in Francophone Canada.” In Multilingualism and the Periphery, ed. by Sari Pietikäinen and Helen Kelly-Holmes, 17–36. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hidalgo McCabe, Elisa A., and Noelia Fernández-González. 2019. “Framing ‘Choice’ in Language Education: The Case of Freedom in Constructing Inequality.” In Language and Neoliberal Governmentality, ed. by Luisa Martín Rojo, and Alfonso Del Percio, 91–109. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hiss, Florian. 2017. “Workplace Multilingualism in Shifting Contexts: A Historical Case.” Language in Society 46: 697–718. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jamison, Kelda. 2015. Making Kurdish public(s): Language politics and practice in Turkey. [Doctoral Dissertation, The University of Chicago]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
. 2016. “Hefty Dictionaries in Incomprehensible Tongues: Commensurating Code and Language Community in Turkey.” Anthropological Quarterly 89 (1): 31–62. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaltenegger, Sandra. 2020. “Modelling Chinese as a Pluricentric Language.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 248–259.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kren, Karin. 1996. “Kurdish Material Culture in Syria.” In Kurdish Culture and Identity, ed. by Philip Kreyenbroek, and Christine Allison, 162–173. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leinonen, Anu. 2022. “Struggling against language shift: Kurdish language education in Turkey.” Kurdish Studies 10: 19–37. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martín Rojo, Luisa. 2018. “Neoliberalism and Linguistic Governmentality.” In The Oxford Handbook of Language Policy and Planning, ed. by James W. Tollefson and Miguel Pérez-Milans, 544–567. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
May, Stephen. 2014. “Contesting Public Monolingualism and Diglossia: Rethinking Political Theory and Language Policy for a Multilingual World.” Language Policy 13: 371–393. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McGill, Kenneth. 2013. “Political Economy and Language: A Review of Some Recent Literature.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 23 (2): E84–E101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mehretu, Assefa, Bruce W. Pigozzi, and Lawrence M. Sommers. 2000. “Concepts in Social and Spatial Marginality.” Geogrofiska Annaller 82B(2): 89–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Leary, Brendan, John McGarry, and Khaled Salih. 2005. The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Öpengin, Ergin. 2012. “Sociolinguistic Situation of Kurdish in Turkey: Sociopolitical Factors and Language Use Patterns.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 217: 151–180. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Petrović, Tanja. 2018. “What’s Up in Town: Place-making through the Use of Dialect in a Facebook Chronicle of Leskovac (Southeast Serbia).” In The Sociolinguistics of Place and Belonging: Perspectives from the Margins, ed. by Leonie Cornips and Vincent A. de Rooij, 177–204. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pietikäinen, Sari, and Helen Kelly-Holmes. 2013. “Introduction to Multilingualism and the Periphery.” In Multilingualism and the Periphery, ed. by Sari Pietikäinen, and Helen Kelly-Holmes, 1–20. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pietikäinen, Sari, Helen Kelly-Holmes, and Maria Rieder. 2019. “Minority Languages and Markets”. In The Palgrave Handbook of Minority Languages and Communities, ed. by Gabrielle Hogan-Brun, and Bernadette O’Rourke, 287–310. London: Palgrave MacMillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piller, Ingrid. 2015. “Language Ideologies.” In The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, vol. 2, ed. by Karen Tracy, Cornelia Ilie, and Todd Sandel, 917–927. (The Wiley Blackwell-ICA international encyclopedias of communication). West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polat, Nihat, and Diane Schallert. 2013. “Kurdish Adolescents Acquiring Turkish: Their Self-Determined Motivation and Identification with L1 and L2 Communities as Predictors of L2 Accent Attainment.” The Modern Language Journal 97 (3): 745–763. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pujolar, Joan. 2015. “Language, Immigration, and the Nation-State.” In The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology, ed. by Nancy Bonvillain, 301–316. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sabaté i Dalmau, Maria. 2013. “Fighting Exclusions from the Margins: Locutorios as Sites of Social Agency and Resistance for Migrants.” In Language, Migration, and Social Inequalities: A Critical Sociolinguistic Perspective on Institutions and Work, ed. by Alexandre Duchêne, Melissa Moyer, and Celia Roberts, 248–271. Bristol, U.K.: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saraçoğlu, Cenk. 2011. Kurds of Modern Turkey: Migration, Neoliberalism, and Exclusion in Turkish Society. NY: Tauris Academic Studies. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schluter, Anne. 2019. “Hybrid Language Practices on Turkey’s National Kurdish Television Station: Iconic Perspectives on Form.” In Metalinguistic Discourse on Multilingual Urban and Youth Speech Styles and Multilingual Awareness of Linguistic Practices, Special Issue ed. by M. Dorleijn, and J. Nortier. Applied Linguistics Review 10 (3): 417–442. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “When Socio-political Pressure is more Powerful than the Boss: Workplace Language Policies by Kurds that Restrict Kurdish. Language Policy 19: 339–361. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021a. “Atatürk’s Long Shadow: Standard Turkish Speakers as Younger, more Successful, and more Attractive than their Kurdish-accented, Regional Counterparts.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 42 (9): 840–853. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021b. “Language Practices through the Lens of the Neoliberal Imaginary in Kurdish-Owned Eating Establishments of Istanbul.” In Language, Global Mobilities, Blue-Collar Workers, and Blue-Collar Workplaces, ed. by Kellie Gonçalves, and Helen Kelly-Holmes, 128–146. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schluter, Anne Ambler. 2025. “Investment and the Inaudible Mother Tongue: Carving out a Space for Kurdish in the Soundscape of an Istanbul Kebab Restaurant.” Language in Society 54 (1): 89–112. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schluter, Anne, and Mahmut Sansarkan. 2014. “Language Choice as a Function of Power and Solidarity in the Istanbul Workplace.” In Rethinking Migration and Integration: Bottom-Up Responses to Neoliberal Global Challenges, ed. by Ahmet Içduygu, and Z. Gülru Göker, 127–175. Istanbul: The Isis Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sheyholislami, Jaffer. 2011. “Kurdish Identity” in Kurdish Identity, Discourse, and New Media, ed. by Jaffer Sheyholislami, 47–77. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stewart, William A. 1968. “A Sociolinguistic Typology for Describing National Multilingualism. In Readings in the Sociology of Language, ed. by Joshua A. Fishman, 531–545. The Hague: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Syrett, Stephen, and Janroj Yilmaz Keles. 2019. “Diasporas, Agency, and Enterprise in Settlement and Homeland Contexts: Politicized Entrepreneurship in the Kurdish Diaspora.” Political Geography 73: 60–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Triandafyllidou, Anna. 2009. “Sub-Saharan African Immigrant Activists in Europe: Transcultural Capital and Transcultural Community Building.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 32 (1): 93–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Urciuoli, Bonnie. 2008. “Skills and Selves in the New Workplace.” American Ethnologist 35 (2): 211–228. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vigouroux, Cécile. 2013. “Informal Economy and Language Practice in the Context of Migrations.” In Language, Migration, and Social Inequalities: A Critical Sociolinguistic Perspective on Institutions and Work, ed. by Alexandre Duchêne, Melissa Moyer, and Celia Roberts, 225–247. Bristol, U.K.: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1974. The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of The European World Economy in The Sixteenth Century. New York & London: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woolard, Kathryn. 2018. “Playing against Peripheralization: A Commentary.” In The Sociolinguistics of Place and Belonging: Perspectives from the Margins, ed. by Leonie Cornips, and Vincent A. de Rooij, 115–124. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yeğen, Mesut. 2007. “Turkish Nationalism and the Kurdish Question.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 30 (1): 119–151. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue