ERIC Number: EJ1039586
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 4
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1479-0718
EISSN: N/A
Commentary
Heller, Monica
International Journal of Multilingualism, v11 n4 p471-474 2014
The subject of multilingualism in institutions has long been a central interest in sociolinguistics, and it is worth asking why. The answer lies in the role of institutions in the modern nation state, a point made over and over again by Michel Foucault. Institutions control access to all the resources a state can distribute; it distributes them according to criteria which make the distinction between the deserving, included citizen, and the undeserving, excluded other. In the face of persistent diversity, and of conditions which make it harder and harder to erase or unify it, institutions created in the era of industrial capitalism and the modern nation state are having a hard time figuring out how to sustain their legitimacy, but at the same time, are wedded to their structures, their processes, and their values. Whether by marginalising bilingual bodies, or relegating "other" languages (languages of the other?) to spaces where nothing authoritative can happen through the techniques of interactional ordering, the result is the same: to recognise and dis-recognise at the same time.
Descriptors: Multilingualism, Sociolinguistics, School Role, Social Justice, Social Bias, Student Diversity, Ethnic Diversity, Politics of Education, Language Usage, Indigenous Populations
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A