Controlling "Good Science": Language, National Identity, and Occupational Control in Scientific Work. (August 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wells, Celeste C.
• Is Part Of: Management communication quarterly. Volume 27:Number 3(2013)
• Page Start: 319
• Page End: 345
• Publication Date: 2013-08
• Subjects: national identity -- language -- occupational control -- diversity -- science; Communication in management -- Periodicals; Communication in organizations -- Periodicals; 658.4505
• DOI: 10.1177/0893318913485440
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0893-3189

Abstract

This article addresses two intertwined aspects of difference that have yet to be deeply examined by organizational communication scholars—language and national identity. Accordingly, in this research, which is taken from a larger study on scientific occupational identity, I use Tompkins and Cheney's enthymeme as an analytical device to explore the ways that participants reject and simultaneously instantiate discrimination in the workplace. In doing so, I contribute to the theory of occupational control by demonstrating how perceptions of language and national identity are used as part of occupational decision making in order to evaluate "good science" at work. Findings in this article indicate, regardless of the common assumptions that "science does not discriminate, " that the concept of good science is based, in part, on the identity of the embodied subject and his or her English language performance.