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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 125

Thematic Session (Papers belonging to this Thematic Session)

The legitimate speaker in a transforming political economy

Authors: Flubacher, Mi-Cha; Del Percio, Alfonso; Duchêne, Alexandre
Submitted by: Flubacher, Mi-Cha (University of Teacher Education/University of Fribourg, Switzerland)

It is the aim of this thematic session to discuss the relation between political economy and the construction of the legitimate speaker in different contexts of social life (Gal 1989). For this purpose, the legitimacy and “value” attributed to languages and their speakers is brought into connection with current transformations of the political economy. We are particularly interested in how these transformations affect and produce new ideologies, through which language practices and speakers are regimented and through which the access to resources as well as to prestigious positions in society is regulated (Bourdieu 1982). In short, the main focus lies on the articulation and negotiation of the legitimacy of languages and their speakers in the globalised world of late capitalism.

Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, an acceleration of political, economic and social trans­forma­tions has occurred. This process is known as “late capitalism”, which is characterized by the liberalization and deregulation of national markets on the one hand, the emergence of new markets and new economic actors on the other. Modernist ideologies based on concepts such as fixity, standardization and authenticity have been challenged in this process and are now competing with post-modernist ideologies of flexibility, variability and hybridity. These new ideologies are mirrored in the emergence of new technologies and of improved mobility that facilitate the global circulation of goods, capital, information and people. In different contexts of social life, such as the work place, schools, public administration, health care and other organizational contexts, these socioeconomic transformations have an impact on how speakers and their linguistic skills and practices are valued.

Sociolinguists have paid particular attention to the impact of these transformations with regard to language ideologies and language practices. Studies have been conducted in different spaces in which language is commodified for different purposes, varying from tourism and the globalized workplace of the new economy to sports, pop culture and art. “Language” was thus found to allow speakers and economic actors to reach transnational multilingual networks (Duchêne & Heller, in press). In other research contexts, “language” was capitalized on with regard to distinctive, local and “authentic” features of linguistic practices (Heller 2010). Finally, languages of wider communication were used to perform “internationalism”.

In line with these studies, we would like to initiate a discussion in this panel on the relation between political economy and the legitimate speaker. This discussion will be empirically driven, i.e. we will discuss the empirical question of how the political economy impacts on how speakers and languages are constructed and valued. Therefore, we would like to discuss if, why and under which conditions the transformations of the political economy lead to the emergence of new language ideologies and practices that construct languages, their speakers and publics as legitimate or not. We will also use the opportunity to draw on the main theme of the conference in opening up a discussion on the dichotomy between the city and rural areas with regard to the articulation of shifting language ideologies and practices. At the same time, we will pay attention to the ideologies and practices that have not been transformed by the shifts in the political economy, but have persisted – sometimes having remained as they were, but appearing under a new form.

Our thematic session appreciates interdisciplinary approaches to language and political economy as well as various methodologies. This will open the floor for contributions that address the relationship between political economic transformations and new language ideologies regarding the legitimacy of languages and their speakers from an empirical viewpoint. We would like to encourage an international discussion reaching beyond a Eurocentric analysis of the phenomena that is conducive to a multiplicity of perspectives.

Key References:

Bourdieu, Pierre (1982). Ce que parler veut dire: l'économie des échanges linguistiques. Paris: Fayard.

Duchêne, Alexandre/Heller, Monica (in press). Language policy in the workplace. In Bernard Spolsky (ed.). Cambridge Handbook of Language Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gal, Susan (1989). Language and political economy, Annual Review of Anthropology 18. 345-367.

Heller, Monica (2010). Language as resource in the globalized new economy. In Nik Coupland (ed.). Handbook of Language and Globalisation. Oxford: Blackwell. 350-365.