Quote 1: “As is well known, there often emerges a conflict between the local demands on their time and the focal demands on that time—a conflict that is presumably becoming exacerbated as more and more higher education institutions are pressuring their faculty to publish in recognized international journals (Bennett 2014).”
Response: This quote immediately stood out to me considering what is happening right now. There is a constant pressure from both local and focal groups for researchers to quickly and effectively figure out the vaccine against the current virus.
Quote 2: “However, it is unclear whether, in this era of cell-phones, family dispersion, a fluid and uncertain job market for the young, the rise of international trade, and the decline of local crafts and industries, traditional speech communities continue to exist in meaningful numbers.”
Response: This quote reminded me of the many stories my parents used to tell me about their social groups and what they were into when they were younger. With the constant advancement of technology it would seem that discourse groups are becoming either more focal or more folocal since people now have a much broader circle of friends.
One discourse group I am part of is the one piece community. My friends and I would share what we think of the new chapters and sometimes even make artwork out of the characters. A second discourse community I am in is university. People of all backgrounds and age come together to achieve the same goal, in this case it would be the same major. The third discourse community I am part of is my friends. Even though we all have different paths in life we still actively communicate with each other because of our shared likes and our memories.
Nice point on the second quotation you picked.
I would encourage you to think more about your DCs. What are the values, beliefs, behaviors, ways of behaving, organizing, etc that define each. Is the One Piece Community an online group? That’s an interesting choice. Also think about the way that your college is a DC but that even within that you participate in various DCs the might be defined by clubs, majors, or other factors.