Multilingualism, Representations, Voices of the French-Speaking World, Interculturality, Communication and Sociolinguistics (PREFICS)

Presentation

PREFICS is an interdisciplinary Research Unit composed of two internationally oriented teams of researchers working mainly in the fields of information and communication sciences and language sciences (sociolinguistics). The work carried out aims to understand the language and communication dynamics leading to the organization of formal and informal contemporary social spaces: formal, such as States, institutions, associations, local authorities, companies, etc., or more informal such as social groups, social networks, geographical and intercultural spaces.

Research Topics

CERESIF (Centre for Sociolinguistic Research on the French-speaking world) studies multilingualism in French-speaking areas: local (sociolinguistic and intercultural dynamics in Brittany and metropolitan Rennes in relation to urban policy), national and international (analysis of social practices and the teaching of French in multilingual contexts: Maghreb, Sub-Saharan Africa, Indian Ocean, South America, Caribbean, Canada, Asia, Europe). Two programmes: Territorialization and discrimination in French-speaking spaces and Discourse, linguistic diversit-y-ies and digital practices.

CERSIC (Research Centre on Information and Communication Sciences) studies the social, organizational and institutional changes associated with the development of digital technologies and the evolution of information and communication practices. New forms of social structuring (networks, etc.), workplace changes (“digital” skills, “collaborative” practices), organizational streamlining, accompanying discourses, in different types of market (industry and services) and non-market activities. Two programs: Digital Anthropology: social training, sociability regimes and subjectivities and Organizational Communications: reconfigurations, normalizations, rationalizations.