Between ‘methodological nationalism’ and ‘transnationalism’: English and the transnational Ismaili community

Abstract

As sociolinguistics has increasingly turned its attention to globalization and its relationship to language use and ideology, the term ‘transnationalism’ has gained in currency. Yet it remains under-defined and under-theorized, such that it is often not clear what or who is transnational, in what sense, and how being or thinking transnational (Vertovec 1999; Dahinden 2009) relates to issues of language use and ideology. In this paper I aim to draw on my research on the role of English for the transnational Ismaili community to explore what a transnational perspective might both highlight and hide. Via consideration of examples collected during ethnographic fieldwork in two communities of Ismailis (Hunza, Northern Pakistan and Khorog, Eastern Tajikistan), I reflect on the various meanings of transnational; on the notions of ‘local’, ‘national’ and ‘transnational’; and on the challenge of their simultaneity or co-occurrence. At a more abstract level, this entails addressing the challenge of going beyond methodological nationalism without per se or a priori overemphasizing transnationalism.