Ethnography and Language Policy
by Teresa McCarty (9780415801409)

Illuminating, through ethnographic inquiry, how individual agents "make" language policy in everyday social practice, this volume advances the growing field of language planning and policy using a critical sociocultural and ethnographic approach. From this perspective, language policy is conceptualized not only as official acts and documents, but as modes of human interaction, negotiation, and production mediated by relations of power. The central theme is that decisions about language, whether officially sanctioned or not, are at their heart struggles for equality, justice, and human rights. Using this conceptual framework, the volume addresses a variety of pressing language policy and planning issues: the impacts of globalization, diaspora, and transmigration on language practices and policies; language shift, endangerment, and revitalization; medium-of-instruction policies; heritage-language maintenance; literacy and biliteracy; language and ethnic/national identity; and the tensions inherent in conducting language planning and policy research. These issues are contextualized in case studies by leading scholars in the field.

Extending previous work in the field, tapping into leading-edge interdisciplinary scholarship, and charting new directions, Ethnography in Language Policy:

• Joins language policy research with ethnographic methods and modes of analysis

• Takes a sociocultural approach to exploring how policy is enacted in everyday social practice



• Is both deeply local and broadly comparative, probing cases in-depth while offering parallels and contrasts from the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Pacific, and South Asia



• Exemplifies an ethnography for social justice allied with the interests of the communities with whom researchers work.

Recognizing that language policy is not merely or even primarily about language per se, but rather about power relations that privilege some languages and speech communities while marginalizing others, this volume seeks to expand policy discourses in ways that lead to social justice for all.

USD $49.95

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