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London adolescents (re)producing power/knowledge: You know and I know

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2006

ANTHEA IRWIN
ANTHEA IRWIN
Affiliation:
Cultural Business Group, Glasgow Caledonian University, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow G4 0BA, [email protected]
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Abstract

This article links the use of you know in a group of mostly working-class London adolescents (WCG) and I know in a mostly middle-class group (MCG) to Foucault's notion of power/knowledge and, by extension, to group-specific (re)production of dominant discourses and power relations. Speakers in WCG use you know clause-finally to mark the information in that clause, which tends to be about the deviance of others, as dominant. Speakers in MCG use I know either clause-initially or as a stand-alone item in reaction to the previous speaker's utterance and to mark that utterance as dominant. Thus, the use of you know shows relatively active identity construction while the use of I know shows relatively reactive identity construction, but both groups construct their identities indirectly: WCG because they talk about others, and MCG because they react to others. Relations between these processes and class and gender identities are discussed.

Keywords

adolescenceidentityclassgender
Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , October 2006 , pp. 499 - 528
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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