Sociological Studies of Language When Language Escapes: Some Challenges?

This paper deals with inequalities regarding from whom discourses are considered and analysed. Notably, the aim of this paper is to critically discuss to which extent these inequalities might be methodological and theoretical challenges for sociological studies of language. The overall context is a research on sustainable housing, more specifically about how people define “sustainable housing”, and to put the collected meanings into perspective regarding the established institutional language. Regarding the challenges that came across, I moved the interviews forward to focus on these challenges themselves.

This paper is based on two specific contexts, where the challenges emerged. The first is related to adults who suffer from heavy epilepsy and mental disorders, with an extended minority status. Discourses exist about them but less from them. I wonder how to collect their discourses, and then analyse them as a sociological material. I also wonder how to consider the boundary line between sociology of language, psychology, and speech therapy. The second context consists of an organization that combats poverty, including homeless situations and inadequate housing. On one hand, the participants directly challenged the sociologist regarding the use of their discourse as a sociological material. On the other hand, the participants clearly underlined that they want the sociologist to focus on the smallest common denominator they choose for their communication, i.e. without taking into account the individual variability of their discourses. I wonder how to deal with this mise en abyme of language under a sociological perspective.