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Microaggressions and Impoliteness at the Crossroads: EU academics in the UK facing hostility in the Brexit age

Guardamagna, Caterina
; 
Hampton, Jessica
; 
Roccia, Mariana
; 
Sredanovic, Djordje
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Other Contributors
Affiliation
University of Liverpool; University of Gloucestershire; University of Chester
EPub Date
Publication Date
2024-08-13
Submitted Date
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Social and Political Science
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Abstract
The Brexit process created a loss of rights and heightened hostility towards EU migrants within the UK, even among groups previously shielded from such animosity, notably EU academics. This paper is based on 24 clear instances of microaggressions, and two bordering hate speech involving EU academics in England and synthetises the psychology/philosophy literature on microaggressions with linguistic frameworks of “rapport management” and “impoliteness triggers” leading to a novel understanding of the phenomenon. Microaggressions are defined as a specific type of impoliteness “of the mild kind”, characterised by repetition at the individual and/or the collective level, which produces feelings of annoyance, irritation and shock. This study shows that Brexit-microaggressions usually involve social identity face and the breach of equity/association sociality rights. They mostly take the shape of formulae echoing slogans entrenched in the discourses of Brexit and arise out of a mismatch between pro-Brexit comments uttered in the presence of an EU migrant.
Citation
Guardamagna, C., Hampton, J., Roccia, M., & Sredanovic, D. (2024). Microaggressions and impoliteness at the crossroads: EU academics in the UK facing hostility in the Brexit age. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, vol(issue), pages. https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00113.gua
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing
Journal
Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
Research Unit
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10034/628966
DOI
10.1075/jlac.00113.gua
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
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Description
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a published work that appeared in final form in [Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict]. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00113.gua
Series/Report no.
ISSN
2213-1272
EISSN
2213-1280
ISBN
ISMN
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Unfunded
Additional Links
https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/jlac.00113.gua