Language Activism
The Role of Scholars in Linguistic Reform and Social Change
Published on 6. February 2025
Book
Hardback
262 pages
978-1-108-83316-5 (ISBN)
Description
Bringing together a renowned group of scholars from a range of disciplines - sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, philosophy of language, and language documentation - this book explores the role academics can play in language activism. It surveys the most common tensions that language researchers experience in their attempts to enact social change through their work, such as how far they can become politically involved, how they can maintain objectivity in an activist role, whether their work can ever be apolitical, and what ideologies they propagate. In a series of concise original chapters, each author discusses their own experiences and personal concerns; some offering more theoretically informed elaborations on the topic of language activism. Showcasing the state-of-the-art in language activism, this book is essential reading for anyone considering the need for scholarly engagement with the public and the communities in which they work, and the impact that this activism can have on society.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
532 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-108-83316-5 (9781108833165)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Cecelia Cutler is Professor and Chair of the M.A./Ph.D. Program in Linguistics at the CUNY Graduate Center. Recent publications include Multilingual Youth Practices in Computer Mediated Communication (co-edited with Royneland, CUP, 2018) and Digital Orality (co-edited with Ahmar and Bahri, Palgrave, 2022). Unn Royneland is Professor and Center Director of MultiLing (Center of Multilingualism, 2021-24), University of Oslo. Recent volumes include Multilingual Youth Practices in Computer Mediated Communication (co-edited with Cutler, CUP, 2018) Multilingualism across the Lifespan and Spaces of Multilingualism (both co-edited with Blackwood, Routledge, 2022). Zvjezdana Vrzic is Adjunct Professor in Sociolinguistics at the Department of Linguistics of New York University. Recent work includes the publication Language Contact in Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas (co-edited with Angermeyer and Cutler, John Benjamins, 2017) and language collection Documentation of the Vlashki/Zheyanski Language ('ruo') (Endangered Language Archive, 2018).
Content
List of figures; List of excerpts; Notes on the contributors; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: perspectives on language activism Cecelia Cutler, Unn Royneland and Zvjezdana Vrzic; Part I. What Counts as Activism in Linguistics: Theoretical Perspectives: 2. Language activism and decolonialism: from extractivist to emergent politics Alastair Pennycook; 3. Language activism and social justice -why languages still matter Bjorn Torgrim Ramberg and Unn Royneland; 4. Getting to know the dairy cow: an inclusive and self-reflexive sociolinguistics in multispecies emotional encounters Leonie Cornips; Part II. Activism in the Lecture Hall and the School System: 5. Radical pedagogies: scholarship in times of insurgent social movements Nkululeko Mabandla and Ana Deumert; 6. Advocacy and activism: language policy in Israel over time Elana Shohamy and Michal Tannenbaum; 7. Labeling ethnolects: challenges and potentials Cecelia Cutler; Part III. Activism in Minoritized and Endangered Language Communities: 8. '?Para que sirve la utopia?' Aims and activism strategies in minoritized language research Haley De Korne; 9. Activism and endangered language work, with an arctic focus Lenore A. Grenoble; 10. The researcher's role in language policy processes - engagement and change Pia Lane; 11. About researcher ethics and activism: reflections on linguistic research in an endangered language community in Croatia Zvjezdana Vrzic; Part IV. Activism in the Public Space: 12. Becoming a public sociolinguist Quentin Williams; 13. Critical linguistic awareness - a tool for combating hate speech Anne Birgitta Nilsen; 14. Croatia's language ideologies and language activism Andel Starcevic, Mate Kapovic and Daliborka Saric; References; Index.