“Digging deeper” into glocal place-making: A languagecultural analysis of the football marketing videos of PSV Eindhoven and KRC Genk

Description

The regions of Eindhoven (North Brabant, the Netherlands) and Genk (Limburg, Belgium) are both strongly affected by industrialization and labor migration, which has led to the emergence of superdiverse communites. The effect of this rapid industrialization of previously rural communities can be clearly observed in the marketing videos of the professional football clubs that predominate in these regions, i.e., PSV Eindhoven and KRC Genk. Drawing on previous work on the marketing videos of Club Brugge KV and RSC Anderlecht (Doreleijers & Vierendeels, forthcoming), we present a ‘staging language’ analysis (Bell & Gibson, 2011) of two videos that are part of the marketing campaigns ‘Forever.
Different.’ (PSV Eindhoven, 2024) and ‘Rise Above’ (KRC Genk, 2021). The analysis ‘sheds light on’ and ‘digs deeper into’ the enregisterment of specific linguistic and cultural features to portray a place-based club identity. In par6cular, we aim to illustrate how both football clubs consciously deploy opposing discourses of center vs periphery and global vs local, and how these are reflected in language choice and use. Through the narratives in the videos, they construct a ‘place’ by building on the region’s unique history and the club’s/community’s rootedness in it, such as (references to) coalmining (Genk) and technology and innovation
(Eindhoven). On a methodological note, we also aim to show that football marketing videos serve as rich linguistic laboratories for studying language varia6on, languageculture and identity expression. In fact, the intertwining of language varia6on and cultural semiotics in the videos proves to be a powerful marketing strategy, a ‘selling argument’ (cf. Del Percio & Duchêne, 2012: 46), in fan-engagement and local embedding (pride) as well as in commercial activities such as the sales of football kits (profit).

Période	27 sept. 2024
Titre de l'événement	Limburg as a linguistic laboratory: The impact of territorial reorganization and coalmining on language variation and grammar
Type d'événement	Colloque
Emplacement	Genk, BelgiqueAfficher sur la carte