Multilingualism and the Public Sector in South Africa

This book contributes to the discourse on language in South Africa with a specific focus on multilingualism and the public sector

Multilingualism and the Public Sector in South Africa

This book contributes to the discourse on language in South Africa with a specific focus on multilingualism and the public sector

Translanguaging as a class/lecture-room language management strategy in multilingual contexts: Insights from autoethnographic snapshots from Kenya and South Africa

The article explores complementary aspects of two nascent developments in (socio) linguistics, namely translanguaging and language management using auto-ethnographic snapshots from class/lecture-room contexts in Kenya and South Africa. Translanguaging entails recognition of a full account of speakers’ discursive resources, which posits that ‘languages are not sealed units with distinguishable boundaries, nor are they capable of being forced into boxes’. Instead, languages overlap one another in a continuum of discursive resources that are naturally available to multilingual speakers. Language management, on its part, is defined as a paradigm in the sociology and politics of language that seeks to achieve and deepen theoretical adequacy of language policy and planning epistemology and its application(s), especially in multilingual settings, with a view of developing and deploying optimal frameworks and strategies that harness and optimise language resources in society, with the ultimate aim of enlarging people’s choices. In line with an extensive corpus of literature that indicates that translanguaging optimises linguistic repertoires of interlocutors, especially in multilingual contexts, the discussion argues that this core character of translanguaging aligns it with the epistemic nexus of language management. The discussion tests and validates this core hypothesis through three autoethnographic snapshots from Kenya and South Africa

University Language Policies in an Era of Internationalisation: An Analysis of Language of Publishing Shift at a South African University

The research reported in this article sought to interrogate the impact of internationalisation on university language policies with a focus on how pressures of internationalisation influence the publication practices and choices of language of publishing by researchers at the University of the Free State, South Africa. The research uses the theoretical framework of linguistic culture and its dyad of overt versus covert language policies. The research analysed policy documents and research output data from 2000 to 2008. The results indicate that despite the university’s articulated overt trilingual language policy, the pressures of internationalisation have led the university to adopt other policies which constitute a covert language policy, which is leading to a significant shift in language of publication by UFS researchers. Analysis of research output data indicates a mean annual shift of 1.34% towards English as the preferred language of publication at the UFS. The results point to a near complete shift to English as the preferred language of publication by researchers in the university by 2018. This development indicates that in an era of internationalisation, university language policies are but a small component of the macro dynamic that determines language choice(s) within universities

Anti-black racism and the foreign black other: constructing blackness and the sporting migrant

The popularity and globalization of sport has led to an ever-increasing black athletic labor migration from the global South to, primarily, the U.S. and Western European countries. While the hegemonic ideology surrounding sport is that it brings different people together and ameliorates social boundaries, sociologists of sport have shown this to be a gross simplification. Instead, sport is often seen to reinforce and recreate social stereotypes and boundaries, especially as it regards race and the black athlete in body and culture. At best we can think of sport as a contested terrain for both maintaining and challenging racial norms and boundaries. The mediated black athlete has thus always, for better or worse, impacted popular white perceptions of blackness broadly and globally. While much work has been done to expose the workings of race and racism in sport, studies have tended to homogenize black populations and have not taken into account the varying histories and complexities of, specifically, black African migrant athletes. In my work here I take ten black African (im)migrant athletes as a conceptual starting point in order to analyze and interrogate discursive representations of blackness, anti-black racism and global white supremacy, in a transnational manner. The athletes examined in my research here are Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo, Didier Drogba, Mario Balotelli, Tegla Loroupe, Christian Okoye, Mwadi Mabika, Catherine Ndereba, Tirunesh Dibaba, and Tamba Hali. As athletic celebrities competing in the West, these athletes are wrapped in social and cultural meanings by predominantly white owned and dominated media organizations with histories of white supremacist discourse. Using an approach grounded in discourse analysis and cultural studies, I analyze the various power relations, via media texts, surrounding the athletes above as it regards race, gender, sexuality, class, and nationality. My aim throughout is to better understand which discourses are privileged and which are marginalized in the representations of black African migrant athletes. Additionally, with more recent black African immigration often conceived as a 'new' African diaspora, I engage with diasporic studies in order to theorize how the representations of black African athletes may impact the possibilities for diasporic communication, identity, and politics. Whereas previous African diaspora studies have tended to focus on the experiences and importance of African Americans, especially in sport, I argue that black African athletes in the U.S. and Europe are now equally significant to those recent immigrant communities in the West, not to mention their home countries. Black African migrant athletes, as highly visible actors, are potential points around which black immigrants can create or maintain a positive identity as 'Black' and/or 'African'. To do this, I focus on the inconsistencies, slippages or 'cracks', in the hegemonic media discourse and elsewhere where we can see the importance of these athletes to black immigrants which is otherwise hidden or made invisible. In a context that has seen black immigrant communities face recent increases in racial discrimination and violence, uncovering the cultural resources that help these communities struggle against white supremacy is important. Hence, in this interdisciplinary study I engage with various academic areas and theories in order to gain better insight into the workings and politics of anti-black racism, immigration, and diaspora in globalized sport

Language politics and the struggle for the soul of the University of the Free State (UFS): A microcosm of the socio-political and economic struggles in the Free State Province through time

For the better part of the last century the University of the Free State (UFS) – as the “most prestigious” higher education institution in the province – has been a key site for institutional language politics in the province. This brand of institutional language politics has been characterised by several contestations and permutations which can symbolically be described as a struggle for the soul of the UFS because of its far-reaching implications on UFS’s “curriculum as institution” and linguistic culture. Four critical junctures have defined UFS’s language politics over the last century. After a detailed characterisation of these critical junctures, the article argues and demonstrates that the contestations and permutations that have characterised institutional language politics at the UFS are a  microcosm of the socio-political and economic struggles in the Free State Province through time, because of the centrality of the UFS in socio-political and economic discourses and dynamics of the province

Language practice as games: Implications for sociology of translation in development contexts in Africa

Drawing from Game Theory, the article conceptualises language practice as games, that is convergences of strategic interaction, and explores the implications of such a conceptualisation for sociology of translation (la sociologie de la traduction – Michel Callon) in development contexts in Africa. The discussion posits that a conceptualisation of language practice as games further enriches research into the sociology of translation in development contexts in Africa in several ways. First, it enables the delineation and specification of language permutations that characterise the hybridity of networks, which in turn defines sociology of translation in development contexts, which are defined and populated by a multiplicity of entities. Second, it allows for a conceptualisation, interrogation and exploration of optimal strategies for network establishment, sustenance and reproduction in the course of development processes, and of the role of language in these processes. Third, it locates sociology of translation at the core of the development process by highlighting its strategic value in the production of socially acceptable language goods and services.Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2013, 31(4): 481–49

Language management in Africa: The dialectics of theory and practice

From an Africanist standpoint, the paper maps the frontiers of the emerging language management paradigm in the study and practice of politics of language from the perspectives of theory, method, discipline, and practice. The discussion advances two core arguments. First, an Africanist interpretation of the discourse of the politics of language that underpins language management brings to the fore the peculiarities of language management within the African space. Second, it is imperative to develop the theoretical and practical advances in language management concurrently, especially in a continent that is known to rely on intellectual advances from other continents.Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2011, 29(3): 243–25

Language management and devolved governance in Kenya

The article explores interfaces between language management and devolved governance in Kenya against the backdrop of language management theory and the roles and responsibilities of devolved governance as defined by traditional fiscal federalism, new public management (NPM), public choice, new institutional economics (NIE), and network forms of local governance. This discussion establishes theoretically sound intersections between language and devolved governance, underpinned by the centrality of language in information and knowledge access, sharing and utilisation in governance processes and structures. The article applies this proposition to the language and devolved governance interface in Kenya and identifies engendering active citizenship, accountability and transparency, and mainstreaming indigenous knowledge into governance and development discourses as some of the interfaces between language management and devolved governance in Kenya. The article argues that language management is integral to the optimisation of devolved governance that is responsive, responsible and accountable in Kenya, and possibly elsewhere

Indigenous languages and the informal economy in Africa: A qualitative analysis of the economics of language dynamics in rural Kenya

There is a dearth of research on the economics of language of Africa’s official and national languages, not to mention non-official, non-national indigenous languages. The article seeks to fill this hiatus using qualitative data from rural Kenya. A key finding is the discovery and characterisation of reciprocal/symbiotic relationships between indigenous languages and informal economic activities which are amplified by adaptive broker-agent relationships at the indigenous languages/informal economy interface and three-dimensional resilient networks of linkages between non-official, non-national indigenous languages and the informal economy that largely defy the asymmetries that define and characterise the relationships between these languages and the formal economy in much of Africa. On the basis of these insights, the article argues that the linkages between non-official, non-national indigenous languages and the informal economy in Africa hold promise for discourses, processes and interventions that seek to engender the viability, vitality and resilience of indigenous languages on the continent