Language Activism
Language Activism
Unn Røyneland, Universitetet i Oslo
Zvjezdana Vrzić, New York University
£100.00
GBPBringing 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.
- Illustrates how language scholars across different disciplines and contexts think about the tensions between scholarly activism/advocacy and rigorous scholarly work
- Synthesizes and scrutinizes debates in sociolinguistics and related fields about what constitutes language activism and how definitions of language(s) shape the possibilities for enacting meaningful change through scholarly work on language
- Reveals individual scholars' personal experiences working with different communities and in different settings and how they grapple with the challenges and rewards of this engagement
Product details
February 2025Hardback
9781108833165
262 pages
235 × 159 × 20 mm
0.53kg
Available
Table of Contents
- List of figures
- List of excerpts
- Notes on the contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1. Introduction: perspectives on language activism Cecelia Cutler, Unn Røyneland and Zvjezdana Vrzić
- 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 Bjørn Torgrim Ramberg and Unn Røyneland
- 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 qué sirve la utopía?' 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 Vrzić
- 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 Anđel Starčević, Mate Kapović and Daliborka Sarić
- References
- Index.
