Negotiating Boundaries at Work: Talking and Transitions Hardback - 2017

'This is a stimulating volume in the relatively new area of workplace sociolinguistics. It gives detailed insights into the experience of being and belonging in environments of change. The crossing of physical, social and ideological barriers and its emotional toll is robustly addressed through micro-interactional analysis, while showing how institutions leak in at all points. The impressive range of workplaces speaks to complexities of transitions and, importantly, brings together the formalities of gatekeeping encounters and the coping and balancing strategies required to manage ordinary working conditions.' Celia Roberts, Kings College London Moving across linguistic, professional and national boundaries for work is now commonplace. The concept of a 'job for life' is clearly outdated. Employees regularly move between jobs, countries and even professions during their working lives. However, the complex processes involved in redefining personal, social and professional identities are rarely reflected in current workplace research. This volume brings together workplace communication scholars from a range of disciplinary areas, each examining the challenges faced when transitioning into a new workplace, team or society, as well as within different professional communities. By analysing the strategies individuals adopt to navigate boundaries (whether these arise because of differences in language, workplace or country), this book demonstrates that transitions are intricately negotiated and constructed in the situated 'here and now' of workplace interaction while simultaneously positioned in the wider socioeconomic order. Jo Angouri is Reader and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick. Meredith Marra is Associate Professor in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Victoria University of Wellington. Janet Holmes is Emeritus Professor in Linguistics at Victoria University of and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Cover image: (c) iStockphoto.com Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-0313-9 Barcode