Languages and Social Cohesion

Reviews / Votes

"Comprehensive and in-depth, this transdisciplinary meta-analysis sheds light on the complex interplays between languages and social cohesion in an increasingly fragmenting world. A must read for policy makers, teachers, researchers, and students in education, and language sciences as well as political and cultural sciences."

Angel M. Y. Lin, Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Plurilingual and Intercultural Education, Simon Fraser University, Canada

"This book contributes to our understandings of how the ways in which language is conceptualized, used and accessed by different linguistic groups in various national contexts facilitates or hinders social cohesion. After conducting a rigorous study of the existing literature on language and social cohesion, Meier and Smala not only summarize and analyze the themes in the literature, but they provide readers with a much-needed conceptual framework to carefully question and evaluate their own situations."

Ofelia Garcia, Emeritus Professor in Urban Education, Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA

"Meier and Smala's compelling framework lays bare societal risks - and opportunities - that arise in contexts where diverse languages meet and where struggles around individual and societal belonging occur. This state-of-the-art overview of current knowledge critically reconstructs an impressive body of peer-reviewed literature from 50 countries: a go-to book for anyone globally who, like me, is concerned about the risk of proposing simple answers to complex societal problems."

Itesh Sachdev, Emeritus Professor of Languages and Communication, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK