The politics of Language, Culture and Identity

As the Council of Europe is shifting its traditional focus on learning European languages towards emphasizing the importance of speaking other languages of the wider world, an increasing number of schools are offering Mandarin as part of their official curriculum in the United Kingdom. This is being financially supported by transnational/inter-institutional networks headed by Confucius Institutes and linked to the Hanban in the People’s Republic of China. In addition, learning of this language is being legitimised by appealing to discourses of “social cohesion” and “internationalism”. This article draws from a sociolinguistic ethnography carried out in a London secondary school located in a working-class area. This school converted itself into a Language Specialist School teaching Mandarin because of difficulties in recruiting the institutionally required minimum number of students for being entitled receive public educational funding. In the framework of a partnership with Confucius Institute, which requires its affiliated schools to ensure success rate of students learning Mandarin meets a given ratio, this paper takes a closer look at the resulting local uncertainties, with focus on everyday discursive practices of “collusion” (McDermott & Tylbor 1986) through which teachers and students create a sense of smooth language learning environment even when the majority of the students have difficulties in achieving outcome targets.

This article examines the politics of language in plurinational states. First, I argue that the relationship between language and nationhood is politically constructed through two broad processes: state nation-building and 'peripheral' activism. Second, I present three broad strategies of territorial management to accommodate the normative and practical issues derived from the politicisation of languages: self-rule, shared rule, and symbolic recognition. Third, I illustrate the discussion drawing on the paradigmatic cases of Catalonia and Flanders.

The objective of this paper is inquire into the paradox that arises between the constructional identity of the Portuguese language in Africa (particularly in the three mainland countries which have Portuguese as their official language) and its role as a prime-mover of exclusion, owing to the fact that it continues to be the gatekeeper in relation to other languages (the ‘home languages’), under the transparent mantle of nation-building and linguistic pacification. All said and done, nothing more has been done than prolonging its colonial role. What language policies (in the plural) should be followed in such a complex setting of language diversity?
Keywords: Language policies – language diversity – colonial order – citizenship – ‘home languages’

La llamada  primavera árabe  en Marruecos planteó preguntas acerca de la importancia de las nuevas prácticas lingüísticas y discursivas de los movimientos sociales como nuevas formas de comunicación. Este trabajo se centrará en el Movimiento 20 de febrero (M20F en adelante) en Marruecos y su principal objetivo es analizar las relaciones que existen entre la aparición de estas nuevas prácticas lingüísticas y discursivas del M20F, consideradas como nuevo modelo de política lingüística y la aparición de nuevos escenarios y espacios de interacción revolucionarios. El análisis hará énfasis en: i) de la selección, el uso y distribución de la función de las lenguas maternas, a saber, el árabe marroquí y amazige como recursos lingüísticos locales y su papel en la construcción de un nuevo modelo de política de la lengua en Marruecos, ii) la función de las otras lenguas (árabe estándar, francés e inglés) en las estrategias de comunicación del M20F por un lado, y en la posterior internalización de las protestas, por otro lado.