SAGA: Translanguaging and Urban Green Transitions

“Finding the right words in place for the green transition” in Helsinki and Copenhagen is a component of the larger, SSHRC Insight grant SAGA: Translanguaging and Sustainability (2024-29). Building upon a foundation of policy discourse analysis specific to the terminology of green transition in these two cities in Finnish and Danish, respectively, interns will pursue an ecocritical analysis of justifications and the strategies for ecological transition in policy documents completed in the English language, intended for external, international communication, and compare the results with the previously completed analysis in native language policy discourse. This analysis will serve the objective of identifying key arguments, strategies, and processes related to urban ecological transition that may be distinctively available in a place-based language, compared with items that may be equally easily expressed in English language. As a study of ecocritical discourse analysis, it will also document the evolution of language of the ecological transition in each of these cities. An engaged component of the research will entail constructive discussion of the products of the discourse analysis with bilingual researchers and experts on urban change and the ecological transition and participant observation of the implementation of a number of case sites of ecological transition.

Faculty Supervisor:

Meg Holden;Annika Airas

Student:

Partner:

University of Tampere

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Sustainability and the Environment; Public Service, Policy, and Governance; Social Innovation

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program: