Prof. Alexandre Duchêne

Title

Postcolonial encounters in globalisation

Duration

09.2019 - 09.2020

Lusophonia embraces different kind of groups and people.  If they share the Portuguese language, on the one hand, they do not share the same historical position on the other. This project on language, identity and labour migration attempts...

Title

Problematising inequality in the classroom

Duration

01.2017 - 12.2019

How can inequalities (in terms of social class, language, ability, race, gender) be addressed in the classroom by focussing on social processes and encouraging students to reflect on possible ways of challenging them? This question is explored...

Title

Gloto[economiá]política - Language under Capitalist (Trans)Formations

Duration

01.2017 - 12.2019

This collaborative project aims at moving beyond common and acritical assumptions about capitalism and language that tend to take them for granted, without sufficiently interrogating their historical development, their heterogeneous manifestations...

Title

A Web of Care

Duration

01.2015 - 09.2019

Using the healthcare industry as a site of study, this project aims to uncover the conditions in which particular configurations of language proficiency and speakers become desired commodities, as the demands of globally mobile patients are...

Title

Formulation, Performance and Instrumentalisation of the German-French Language Border in Swiss Tourism

Duration

01.2013 - 04.2016

The project examines the German-French language border in Switzerland through the analysis of touristic discourses and activities. By looking at the language border through the eyes of tourism, the project places Swiss multilingualism clearly...

Title

AME (Accueil, Migration, Ecole)

Duration

01.2012 - 12.2013

The goal of the project mandated by the department of education of the Canton of Geneva was to understand the role which available orientation measures, including courses, play in the scholastic and professional integration of young immigrants....

Title

Performing Swissness

Duration

01.2010 - 12.2013

Work in our project “Performing Swissness: institutions, discourse and social transformation” focuses on ways in which discourse practices at Swiss institutions for culture, tourism and economic development construct a particular image of...

Title

Towards a critical pedagogy of diversity

Duration

01.2010 - 12.2013

This project lays out a critical approach towards a pedagogy of diversity that takes social inequality among children as a starting point and reflects on how social processes at school transform social inequality into educational inequality....

Title

Multilingualism and Mobility

Duration

01.2010 - 12.2012

This project focuses on the study of multilingualism from the perspective of the recent mobilities and globalisation paradigm. This paradigm takes up the analysis of linguistic practices by mobile people with transnational trajectories such...

Title

When language becomes the subject of work: multilingualism in Biel/Bienne’s call centres

Duration

01.2010 - 12.2011

The city Biel/Bienne is experiencing an economic boom. Alongside the traditional watch industry, Biel/Bienne has set its sights on diversification and is now exploring the service and communication sector. This recent development is particularly...

Title

The Management of Multilingualism in Institutional Sites

Duration

01.2007 - 12.2010

The object of the present investigation is to undertake ethnographic studies at three sites: a non-governmental organization dedicated to adult education, a public hospital, and a multinational company based in Spain. The specific objectives...

Title

Languages, Identity and Tourism

Duration

01.2005 - 12.2009

This project adopts a sociolinguistic approach to examine the linguistic aspects of tourism on three levels: 1. How do people deal with multilingualism in basic interaction, for example, at the airport or the tourist information desk? 2....

Title

Languages in vocational training in Switzerland: discipline, tools and historical discourses

Duration

09.2020 - 08.2025

As the question of the teaching-learning of French in vocational schools in Switzerland is under debate once again, it is essential to study and understand the place and role of French as a school discipline, a working tool and a subject...

Title

Tales from the field

Duration

01.2020 - 12.2024

The project offers a space for methodological reflections about critical ethnographic sociolinguistic research based on researchers’ experiences. On a dedicated website, the team makes available a collection of personal tales about specific...

Title

Cold rush

Duration

01.2016 - 12.2020

The Cold Rush project examines the transforming Arctic North as an expanding hotspot at the juncture of economic development and cultural transformation, focusing on the ways in which language and identity matter in these processes. We have...