Insecurities in Language Policy and Planning
Decolonial Theories and Practices
Will be published approx. on 13. January 2026
Book
Hardback
404 pages
978-1-83668-192-2 (ISBN)
Description
Invites readers to question whether language planning and policy can survive decolonialization.
This book represents a vital step forward in the process of decolonizing language policy and planning (LPP). It addresses both theoretical and practical aspects of LPP, while exploring its intersection with domains including security, politics and education. A decolonized LPP invites us to view language as an interconnected phenomenon, with boundaries that are not defined by structural, territorial, ethnic or historical limitations.
The chapters in this book problematize the positivist, instrumental, pragmatic and technical dimensions of LPP, while offering a renewed perspective in dialogue with contemporary struggles and claims. It covers a range of geopolitical contexts, with particular attention to the dialogues and contradictions between the North and the South.
This book represents a vital step forward in the process of decolonizing language policy and planning (LPP). It addresses both theoretical and practical aspects of LPP, while exploring its intersection with domains including security, politics and education. A decolonized LPP invites us to view language as an interconnected phenomenon, with boundaries that are not defined by structural, territorial, ethnic or historical limitations.
The chapters in this book problematize the positivist, instrumental, pragmatic and technical dimensions of LPP, while offering a renewed perspective in dialogue with contemporary struggles and claims. It covers a range of geopolitical contexts, with particular attention to the dialogues and contradictions between the North and the South.
Reviews / Votes
This volume is a veritable tour de force. It brings out the complexities and pitfalls of Language Policy and Planning, starting with the pervasive slipperiness of key concepts found lacking in operational definition. The contributors highlight the significance of bringing into the equation the often-sidelined voices from the Global South. * Kanavillil Rajagopalan, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil * This book practices decolonization as active, historical, situated praxis. With sharp insight and critical self-awareness, it challenges language policy and planning to reckon with their colonial inheritances, offering a transformative lens rooted in what decolonization does, rather than what it merely means. As such, it is mandatory reading for critical eyes in search of non-extractivist LPP built around notions of embodied knowledge and epistemologies of the Souths. * Clarissa Menezes Jordao * This volume, a fascinating decolonial project, brings together chapters designed to draw readers (in)to dialogue(s) with prominent academics on language planning and policy (LPP). While highlighting insecurities, violence and marginalisations in the ideologies and practices of the inherited Euro-American LPP, it provides novel perspectives and directions for decolonial LPP and research in the Global Souths. * Felix Banda, University of the Western Cape, South Africa *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Bristol
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Channel View Publications Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 251 mm
Width: 179 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
918 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83668-192-2 (9781836681922)
DOI
10.21832/MAKONI1922
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
Other editions
Additional editions
Sinfree Makoni | Cristine Gorski Severo | Ashraf Abdelhay
Insecurities in Language Policy and Planning
Decolonial Theories and Practices
E-Book
01/2026
Multilingual Matters
€14.49
Available for download
Sinfree Makoni | Cristine Gorski Severo | Ashraf Abdelhay
Insecurities in Language Policy and Planning
Decolonial Theories and Practices
E-Book
01/2026
Multilingual Matters
€14.49
Available for download
Persons
Sinfree Makoni is Director of African Studies, Liberal Arts Professor of African Studies and Applied Linguistics, The Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Cristine Gorski Severo is an Associate Professor at Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil and a CNPq national Fellow.
Ashraf Abdelhay works for the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar, as an Associate Professor in the program of Linguistics and Arabic Lexicography.
Alissa J. Hartig is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Portland State University, USA.
Cristine Gorski Severo is an Associate Professor at Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil and a CNPq national Fellow.
Ashraf Abdelhay works for the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar, as an Associate Professor in the program of Linguistics and Arabic Lexicography.
Alissa J. Hartig is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Portland State University, USA.
Content
Contributors
Jose del Valle: Preface
Sinfree Makoni, Ashraf Abdelhay and Cristine Severo: Introduction
Chapter 1. Bernard Spolsky: Continued Thoughts on Language Policy
Chapter 2. Michal Tannenbaum and Elana Shohamy: A New Multilingual Educational Policy in Israel: The Role of Research as a Contributing Factor
Chapter 3. Rochelle Pinto: Becoming a Language of State
Chapter 4. Ben Rampton, Daniel Silva and Constadina Charalambous: Sociolinguistics and Securitization as Another Mode of Governance
Chapter 5. Nicholas Faraclas: Longue Duree and Duree Profonde: Udumu, Utu and Bringing Language Back to Earth
Chapter 6. Joseph Gafaranga: Doing Translanguaging, Unknowingly and Differently
Chapter 7. Chaoqun Lian: Metaphorical Language Policy and Language Politics in the Arabic-Speaking World
Chapter 8. Yonatan Mendel: Arabic in Israel: The Consequences of Harnessing Language for Security
Chapter 9. Yasir Suleiman-Malley: Language and Conflict in the Israeli-Palestinian Sphere: The View from Below
Chapter 10. Foluk?? Adebisi: [Un]making the Wretched of the Earth: Can We Aim Towards Testamentary Life Within Legal Knowledge?
Chapter 11. David Karlander and Linus Saloe: Historicizing 'Semilingualism': On the Theoretical Origins of a Linguistic Pathology
Chapter 12. Frances Vavrus: Schooling as Uncertainty: An Ethnographic Memoir
Chapter 13. Priyadarshani Joshi: An Exploration of the Causes and Consequences of Private Schooling Expansion: Global Trends and Research Findings from Nepal
Chapter 14. Peter Mayo: Twenty Years' Engagement in Postcolonial Education: A Retrospective
Chapter 15. Mama Adobea Nii Owoo: From Unarchiving to Unbooking: How the Film No Vernacular Rethinks Language Policy Research for Global South Contexts
Ezra Nhampoca: Epilogue
Index
Jose del Valle: Preface
Sinfree Makoni, Ashraf Abdelhay and Cristine Severo: Introduction
Chapter 1. Bernard Spolsky: Continued Thoughts on Language Policy
Chapter 2. Michal Tannenbaum and Elana Shohamy: A New Multilingual Educational Policy in Israel: The Role of Research as a Contributing Factor
Chapter 3. Rochelle Pinto: Becoming a Language of State
Chapter 4. Ben Rampton, Daniel Silva and Constadina Charalambous: Sociolinguistics and Securitization as Another Mode of Governance
Chapter 5. Nicholas Faraclas: Longue Duree and Duree Profonde: Udumu, Utu and Bringing Language Back to Earth
Chapter 6. Joseph Gafaranga: Doing Translanguaging, Unknowingly and Differently
Chapter 7. Chaoqun Lian: Metaphorical Language Policy and Language Politics in the Arabic-Speaking World
Chapter 8. Yonatan Mendel: Arabic in Israel: The Consequences of Harnessing Language for Security
Chapter 9. Yasir Suleiman-Malley: Language and Conflict in the Israeli-Palestinian Sphere: The View from Below
Chapter 10. Foluk?? Adebisi: [Un]making the Wretched of the Earth: Can We Aim Towards Testamentary Life Within Legal Knowledge?
Chapter 11. David Karlander and Linus Saloe: Historicizing 'Semilingualism': On the Theoretical Origins of a Linguistic Pathology
Chapter 12. Frances Vavrus: Schooling as Uncertainty: An Ethnographic Memoir
Chapter 13. Priyadarshani Joshi: An Exploration of the Causes and Consequences of Private Schooling Expansion: Global Trends and Research Findings from Nepal
Chapter 14. Peter Mayo: Twenty Years' Engagement in Postcolonial Education: A Retrospective
Chapter 15. Mama Adobea Nii Owoo: From Unarchiving to Unbooking: How the Film No Vernacular Rethinks Language Policy Research for Global South Contexts
Ezra Nhampoca: Epilogue
Index