Reading Working Papers in Linguistics 4 (2000) - The University of ...

SOCIAL NETWORKS IN A RURAL SETTING
the others (Milroys 1992: 22). The Milroys emphasise the conflict-based
notion of class, rather than the Labovian notion, which is consensus-based.
The main thrust of the article is therefore that there are macro-level social,
political and economic structures in society, which produce different modes of
production, or life modes, and that these in turn produce different types of
network, and that these then produce different types of social (including
linguistic) behaviour. The earlier absent explanation for just how a person
‘falls’ into a particular type of network is now supplied. The model is conflictbased
at two levels: the macro- and micro-levels.
Macro
Macro-level social, political and
economic structure. Højrup’s
(Marxist) notion of societal conflict
and inequality, which produce
different modes of production, or ‘life
modes’, such as self-employed people,
wage-earners, and career
professionals
Figure 4.
Micro
Strong and weak community-based
ties between groups, which, in the
case of strong ties, favour the
maintenance of non-standard forms,
and in the case of weak ties, favour
conflict of norms and therefore
change.
This concept is shown in figure 5, from J. and L. Milroy (1992:22):
Maintenance of non-legitimised
linguistic code
Dominance of legitimised
linguistic code
Mainly strong
Community-based ties
Mainly weak
Life Modes 1 2 3
Non-community-based
strong ties (coalitions,
power elites, etc.)
Macro level social, political and
economic structure
Figure 5.
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