Language Policy in Business

Discourse, ideology and practice

Author

Elisabeth Barakos | University of Hamburg

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027207609 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027260697 | EUR 95.00 | USD 143.00

Language Policy in Business: Discourse, ideology and practice provides a critical sociolinguistic and discursive understanding of language policy in a minority language context. Focusing on Welsh-English bilingualism in private sector businesses in Wales, the book unpacks the circulating discourses, ideologies and practices of promoting bilingualism as a sociocultural and economic resource in the globalised knowledge economy. It sheds light on businesses as ideological sites for struggles over language revitalisation, which has been characterised by tensions and discursive shifts from essentialist ideologies about language, identity, nation and territory, to an increased commodification of bilingualism.
The book is premised on the understanding that language is a focal point for articulating and living out historical power relationships and inequalities, and that language policy processes are never apolitical. It adds to a body of literature about bilingualism in minority language contexts and, more broadly, about how the fields of politics, business and society are inextricably related.

[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 89] 2020. xv, 195 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.89

Table of Contents

List of figures | pp. ix–x

List of tables | pp. xi–xii

List of abbreviations | pp. xiii–xiv

Acknowledgements | pp. xv–xvi

Chapter 1. Introduction | pp. 1–18

Chapter 2. Language, power and political control in Wales | pp. 19–34

Chapter 3. Towards a discursive approach to language policy | pp. 35–50

Chapter 4. How to operationalise a multi-level discourse analysis | pp. 51–64

Chapter 5. Political and corporate language policy discourse: Shifting discourses across contexts | pp. 65–94

Chapter 6. Language policy, ideology and practice in Welsh business: Stakeholder perspectives | pp. 95–116

Chapter 7. Managers’ local promotion of bilingualism in business | pp. 117–140

Chapter 8. Conclusions: Taking stock of minority language policy in business | pp. 141–156

References | pp. 157–178

Transcription conventions | pp. 179–190

Index | pp. 191–195

“In developing a discursive approach to the promotion of Welsh in business, Barakos sheds light on the shifting dynamics of minority language policy processes as new actors, spaces, and discourses take on increasingly powerful roles in the production, interpretation, and realization of policy in the 21st century. This monograph will thus surely constitute a touchstone as the business world continues to emerge as a salient terrain for (research on) minority language revitalization.”

Sara C. Brennan, Université Toulouse 1 Capitole, in Journal of Language and Politics, published online on 7 July 2021

“A great strength of this monograph is the author’s consistent attention to her own positionality as a non-Welsh speaking researcher. She first alerts the reader to this fact and to her negotiation of her research circumstances at the outset of the book, thoroughly laying out the effects of her insider/outsider positionality. Throughout, Barakos also notes the partiality of not only her findings, but the findings of any research, which, she reminds us, never constitutes a “view from nowhere.” [...] Given the current scholarly interest in topics of governance and neoliberalism, labor and management, and language and branding, Barakos’s study provides useful avenues forward for students, researchers, and policymakers alike, within and well-beyond the Welsh context.”

Christa Burdick, University of Massachusetts Amherst, in Journal of Sociolinguistics, published online in July 2021

Sara C. Brennan, Université Toulouse 1 Capitole, in Journal of Language and Politics 20:6 (2021).

“The book unveils the tensions within this trend of conceptual transformation. [...] By illuminating these tensions, this case study on corporate language policy in Wales brings further implications beyond the immediate object of Welsh-English bilingualism. It highlights the critical position of corporates as actors mediating between (inter)national and local language policies, caught between linguistic revitalisation and commodification, purism and instrumentalism, and nationalism and neoliberalism.”

Zhao Zhen Wu, National University of Singapore, in Language in Society 51:3 (2022).

Cited by

Cited by 6 other publications

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Bonner, Elen, Cynog Prys, Siwan Mitchelmore & Rhian Sian Hodges

2024. Defining economic impact on minority languages: the case of Wales. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development ► pp. 1 ff.

De Malsche, Fien & Mieke Vandenbroucke

2022. Reconstructing over 20 years of language practice, management and ideology at a multinational corporation in Brussels: A scaled socio-historical approach to language policy. Language Policy 21:2 ► pp. 235 ff.

Gay, Brian Roland

2022. Dimensions in EDI Policy Development. In Mainstreaming Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as Future Workplace Ethics [Advances in Human Resources Management and Organizational Development, ], ► pp. 97 ff.

McNulty, Stephen Joseph

2023. Multilingual Perspectives from Europe and Beyond on Language Policy and Practice Bruna Di Sabato and Bronwen Hughes (eds) (2022). Sociolinguistic Studies 16:4

Selleck, Charlotte & Elisabeth Barakos

2023. A reflexive approach to researching bilingualism in Wales: language, legitimacy and positionality. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 44:8 ► pp. 672 ff.

[no author supplied]

2021. Publications Received. Language in Society 50:4 ► pp. 639 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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