Linguistic and social justice: towards a debate of intersections and disjuncture

Language and social justice in practice Netta Avineri Laura R. Graham Eric J. Johnson Robin Conley Riner Jonathan Rosa (Eds.) New York, NY: Routledge. 2019. 248 pp. Hb (9781138069442) £115.00 / Pb (9781138069459) £30.99 / Ebook: (9781315115702) £15.50. Language policy and linguistic justice: Economic, philosophical and sociolinguistic approaches Michele Gazzola Torsten Templin Bengt‐Arne Wickström (Eds.) Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. 2018. 535 pp. Hb (978‐3‐319‐75261‐7 160), €49 / Pb (978‐3‐030‐09184‐2) n/a / Ebook (978‐3‐319‐75263‐1 118) €9

A reflexive approach to researching bilingualism in Wales: language, legitimacy and positionality

This paper engages with the negotiation of insider and outsider researcher identities in the context of Welsh-English bilingualism in Wales. It aims to develop a reflexive approach to researching bilingualism, foregrounding the actions and experiences of doing bilingual research in a minority language context. Taking data from education and business as our starting point, we present two self-reflexive accounts of how our research identities, specifically our language profiles, (as an L1 British English speaker and an LX English user, both of whom have only limited understanding of Welsh), and positionalities are questioned, (de)legitimised and assessed in our research projects. In light of this, we reflect also on the methodological consequences and decisions that were taken during the research process. Taken together, these two reflective perspectives allow us to generate new theoretical, methodical and analytic understandings of language within the bilingual Welsh-English context specifically and researcher reflexivity more broadly

Language policy and governmentality in businesses in Wales:a continuum of empowerment and regulation

In this paper, I examine how language policy acts as a means of both empowering the Welsh language and theminority language worker and as a means of exerting power over them. For this purpose, the study focuses on a particular site: private sector businesses in Wales. Therein, I trace two major discursive processes: first, the Welsh Government’s national language policy documents that promote corporate bilingualism and bilingual employees as value-added resources; second, the practice and discourse of company managers who sustain or appropriate such promotional discourses for creating and promoting their own organisational values. By drawing on concepts from governmentality, critical language policy and discourse studies, I show that promoting bilingualism in business is characterised by local and global governmentalities. These not only bring about critical shifts in valuing language as symbolic entities attached to ethnonational concerns or as promotional objects that bring material gain. Language governmentalities also appear to shape new forms of ‘languaging’ the minority language worker as selfgoverning, and yet, governed subjects who are ultimately made responsible for ‘owning’ Welsh

Languaging the worker:globalized governmentalities in/of language in peripheral spaces

In the introduction to the special issue “Languaging the worker: globalized governmentalities in/of language in peripheral spaces”, we take up the notion of governmentality as a means to interrogate the complex relationship between language, labor, power and subjectivity in peripheral multilingual spaces. Our aim here is to argue for the study of governmentality as a viable and growing approach in critical sociolinguistic research. As such, in this introduction, we first discuss key concepts germane to our interrogations, including the notions of governmentality, languaging, peripherality and language worker. We proceed to map out five ethnographically and discourse-analytically informed case studies. These examine diverse actors in different settings pertaining to the domain of work. Finally we chart how the case studies construe the issue of languaging the worker through a governmentality frame

Elite Multilingualism. Discourses, practices, and debates

In the introduction to the special issue ‘Elite Multilingualism: Discourses, practices, and debates’, we focus on ‘elite multilingualism’ as a means to provide a window into the complex layers and nuances of today's multilingual, mobile and global society. Our aims here are to provide an empirical and conceptual discussion of a growing language-centred elitism. We also aim to expand current scholarship on the construction, valuation and instrumentalisation of multilingualism, and its consequences for the formation of social boundaries and inequalities. We first discuss major concepts such as the notion of elite/ness and multilingualism, commodification, authenticity and hierarchies and the linguistic market in a global knowledge economy. We also discuss the critical sociolinguistic, discourse and ethnographic approaches that frame this special issue and go on to outline the diverse manifestations of elite multilingualism in different educational and social settings. Finally, we conclude by reflecting on the value of the concept of elite multilingualism as a social practice, and argue for the importance of examining the lived experience of multilinguals on the ground

Multilingual language trainers as language workers:a discourse-ethnographic investigation

This article examines language trainers as language workers in an Austrian language education company. The study interrogates what the trainers’ discourses, ideologies and practices about the nature of their work are, and how these reside within the logic and discursive practices of their employer. A close analysis of interview, ethnographic and institutional data reveal that trainers get caught up between privileged and precarious working conditions. The findings emphasise that trainers identify shifting demands in language training that require them to act reflexively, empathetically and be able to connect the linguistic with the cultural and interpersonal. The results also suggest that the institutional discourse of the education company attempts an inclusive and emancipated diversity agenda but reproduces homogenous views of language, culture and the trainers’ work. This paper contributes to growing critical scholarship on the intersection of language, education and work in the globalised knowledge economy