Langkit : Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities

Editorial

Lived Language, Contested Worlds: Identity, Power, and Learning

This issue of Langkit Journal brings together five empirically grounded and theoretically engaged studies that examine how language, identity, power, and learning are lived and negotiated in concrete social contexts. While the studies span applied linguistics, socio-pragmatics, linguistic typology, education, and queer studies, they share a commitment to localized inquiry and to understanding social life beyond abstract or aggregate frameworks. Collectively, they foreground how knowledge generation emerges from diverse methodological and theoretical orientations, which remain indispensable to contemporary social inquiry.

The first paper by Kari of SIL Global contributes to Austronesian linguistics and typology through a detailed analysis of voice constructions in Duri, an under documented language of South Sulawesi. By demonstrating that topicality—rather than applicative morphology—drives voice selection, the study highlights how speakers manipulate grammatical structure to foreground participants in discourse. This finding has broader relevance for linguistic research in Southeast Asia, where many languages exhibit complex voice systems. The paper reinforces the importance of integrating discourse-pragmatic factors into grammatical analysis, especially in the documentation, revitalization, and theorization of regional languages.

The second paper by Yaeko Hori advances identity research in applied linguistics by proposing a critical phenomenological reconceptualization of identity as a constituting self. Drawing on longitudinal narratives of two Catholic women—one Japanese and one Filipino—living in Japan, the study reveals how identity is shaped not only by mobility and multiplicity but by moral orientation, affective continuity, and ethical struggle amid transnational uncertainty. Its focus on lived religion and lived translanguaging demonstrates how meaning-making extends beyond linguistic choice to embodied, emotional, and relational practices. For social research that advances a critical phenomenological approach, the paper offers a framework for examining identity formation in contexts marked by migration, religious plurality, and historical precarity, including diasporic and translocal communities.

The third paper by Oranggaga, Pacasirang and Balgoa examines translanguaging in Facebook discourse and uncovers its ambivalent role in digitally mediated linguistic conflicts. Through content analysis of posts by highly visible social media figures, the study shows how translanguaging can trigger resistance, satire, and moral judgment rather than consensus or inclusion. These findings challenge celebratory accounts of translanguaging and instead position it as a site where linguistic capital, social hierarchy, and ideological stance are actively negotiated. In countries characterized by intense multilingualism and social media saturation, the paper underscores the need for socio-pragmatic approaches that attend to power, conflict, and uptake in online public discourse.

The fourth article by Manaois  et al centers on the lived experiences of Filipino homosexual men in Muslim communities in Lanao del Sur, offering a rare intersectional and queer analysis grounded in a southern Philippine context. The study documents how participants navigate stigma, religious norms, and communal expectations through strategies of selective disclosure, identity compartmentalization, and reliance on informal support networks. Beyond documenting marginalization, it foregrounds agency and resilience, contributing to queer studies by expanding its geographical and cultural scope. For social research in Mindanao, the paper highlights the importance of culturally grounded approaches to sexuality, religion, and social inclusion.

The fifth  paper by Cagaanan brings educational research into sharp focus by localizing the World Bank’s Learning Poverty Framework in a community in Lanao del Norte. Its findings reveal alarmingly high levels of learning poverty, showing that school participation has not translated into foundational reading proficiency. By combining household-level schooling data with standardized literacy assessment, the study provides concrete evidence of schooling-without-learning at the community level. This contribution is particularly significant for Mindanao, where educational inequality intersects with poverty, conflict, and geographic marginalization, and it demonstrates how localized measurement can inform more responsive and equitable education interventions.

Taken together, these five studies demonstrate how localized, context-sensitive research can generate insights with broader theoretical and regional significance. Across diverse domains, they reveal how language mediates moral evaluation, power relations, and access to resources, whether in transnational identity formation, digital interaction, grammatical structure, educational opportunity, or sexual identity negotiation.  While the issue as a whole illustrates the value of interdisciplinary scholarship that takes lived experience seriously while remaining analytically rigorous, the five papers reiterate language and its central position in contemporary social research. Language is not merely a medium of communication; it is a constitutive force through which social relations, identities, moral orientations, and knowledge itself is produced.

This issue of Langkit Journal reaffirms the journal’s role as a platform for scholarship that bridges theory and context, and that prioritizes certain voices and social divisions. These reveal underlying power dynamics and ideological tensions  that shape the social landscape of research. By engaging questions of identity, power, and learning through localized empirical work, the contributions invite readers to rethink dominant frameworks and to investigate research agendas that are ethically responsive, socially grounded, and regionally informed.

Ivie Esteban

Associate Editor