Syria's New Neoliberal Elite: English Usage, Linguistic Practices and Group Boundries.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the emergence of a discrete new Syrian social group, the neoliberal elite, through shared, English-based linguistic practices. It demonstrates how this new group reacts to Syria’s liberalizing economy by adopting the same ideology that underpins official economic reform and applying it to the groups’ social and linguistic practices. As Syria’s adaptation of neoliberal ideology emphasizes local conceptions of personal development, skills-building and entrepreneurship, the neoliberal elite consider the patterned inclusion of key English terms and phrases into Arabic conversations as proof of such accomplishments. Group membership depends upon familiarity with and adherence to such neoliberal norms. In particular, this dissertation focuses on the deployment of these linguistic practices in venues associated with the neoliberal elite, such as Syria’s burgeoning entrepreneurship associations, venues of conspicuous consumption, private educational institutions and volunteer campaigns. The recent emergence of the new neoliberal elite is the culmination of years of political, economic and social shifts that have promoted private enterprise and wealth accumulation and allowed certain apolitical civic organizations to flourish. Syria’s two entrepreneurship associations are the primary incubators for the neoliberal elite. The linguistic practices used in them, specifically exclusionary deictic terms and English lexical items from transnational neoliberal ideology, work to erect group boundaries, determine group eligibility, and dictate the practices of its members. Neoliberal elites deploy two primary linguistic strategies for negotiating group boundaries: style, English and Arabic mixing according to set patterns, and stance, the linguistic calculation of appropriate English-based linguistic practices. Syrians can thus leverage successful linguistic practices in a range of local marketplaces that follow the same neoliberal ideology. In volunteer campaigns, charity interventions bring neoliberal elites into contact with non-elite Syrians who receive such assistance. The group’s linguistic practices and expectations play a powerful role in demarcating group boundaries and setting its terms of exclusion. Neoliberal elites must also navigate their relationship with an ambivalent and repressive Syrian regime. This new Syrian elite epitomizes an important regional and worldwide trend, where those who embrace the ideology of neoliberal adaptations to repressive governance coalesce as a distinct, powerful and often exclusionary local social group.