Sociolinguistics Symposium 19
Freie Universität Berlin | August 21-24, 2012
Programme: accepted abstracts
Abstract ID: 773
Part of Session 130: Language in Multilingual Cities (Other abstracts in this session)
How do different spaces enable multilingualism in the city of Munich? Language policies and their manifestation in space
Authors: Becker, Susanne
Submitted by: Becker, Susanne (Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main, Germany)
In my presentation I want to discuss preliminary findings from my ongoing Ph.D. project in which I examine negotiations about (the value of) multilingualism in the city of Munich, Germany. I will analyse municipal language politics, national discourses on multilingualism in Germany and everyday language practices in two districts of the city. In this presentation I want to focus on the question how language policies are manifested in different urban spaces and how this enables different language practices.
What can be observed empirically is that in the area of “Schwabing” which is perceived as a middle-class area there are a lot of private bilingual nurseries where children can learn English, French Italian or Spanish in addition to German from a very early age. In their self-representation (e.g. on their homepages) these institutions promote multilingual language skills as helpful for later success in life and as important for personal development. They produce spaces in everyday life where the children are encouraged to make use of their bilingual speaking abilities. Thus multilingualism is recognised as valuable.
In contrast to that in the area of “Hasenbergl” which is perceived as a socially deprived area with a high percentage of migrants, educational institutions and social services provide a variety of offers to improve migrants German language skills or to compensate an assumed lack of German language skills. (Obligatory) German language courses are offered by social services in cooperation with local schools. There are no bilingual nurseries in this area and the multilingualism of the inhabitants is mostly addressed as a handicap. Because the institutional settings in this area focus on the promotion of German language skills there are only a few institutionalized spaces for multilingualism. Therefore public spaces and so called non-places (Marc Augé) which are not as highly regulated by local language policies become relevant for multilingual language practices. The local shopping centre, bus stops, underground stations as well as buses and underground trains are places where multilingualism takes place in everyday life. Although the language policies promote monolingual German language skills in this area multilingual spaces do emerge after all.
While the overall language politics of the city is aiming at acknowledging all languages equally, the spaces that are created by local institutions are not always supporting multilingual language practices. Whether the spaces that are created do enable multilingualism depends on the area of the city and the main actors there. I argue that in the area of “Schwabing” institutionalised spaces are created which enable multilingualism whereas in the area of “Hasenbergl” spaces are created which delegitimize multilingual practices. This is why public spaces and non-places (Marc Augé) become important in this area when it comes to multilingualism. These non-places allow negotiations about the legitimacy of multilingualism because they are not as highly regulated by language policies as institutional spaces are. So these are the places where language conflicts can be negotiated.