The Power of Voice in Transforming Multilingual Societies

Edited by Julia Gspandl, Christina Korb, Angelika Heiling, Elizabeth J. Erling

Publication date:

07 July 2023

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781800412033

This volume aims to capture evidence of marginalized voices in various contexts globally and show how speakers seek to reclaim their voices and challenge power relations. The chapters reveal how speakers actively confront inequities in society such as the unequal distribution of resources. Through bottom-up initiatives and conscious involvement in language use, documentation and the development of language domains, speakers can address issues of language-based marginalization, (re)establish linguistic human rights and reclaim their linguistic and cultural identity. Chapters in the volume explore commitments to democratic participation, to voice, to the heterogeneity of linguistic resources and to the political value of sociolinguistic understanding. Drawing upon the framework of linguistic citizenship, they link questions of language to sociopolitical discourses of justice, rights and equity, as well as to issues of power and access within a political and democratic framework.

Contributors

Julia Gspandl, Christina Korb, Angelika Heiling and Elizabeth J. Erling: The Power of Voice in Transforming Multilingual Societies: An Introduction

Part 1. Multilingual Practices

Chapter 1. Mary Edward: Multilingualism in Adamorobe and the Case for Adamorobe Sign Language (AdaSL)

Chapter 2. Agnes Grond: Şexbizinî Facebook Groups: Virtual Communities as Spaces for Practice, Maintenance and Exploration of an Endangered Language

Chapter 3. Vlada V. Baranova: The Grassroots Initiatives for the Revitalization of Kalmyk: Who is Involved in Language Planning, and How?

Part 2. Facilitating Voice

Chapter 4. Sandra Radinger: Reclaiming Voice in the Austrian Refugee Context through Experiences of Ambiguity

Chapter 5. Melissa Barnes and Katrina Tour: Giving Voice to Mothers from Refugee Backgrounds: Their Agentic Roles in Children’s Learning

Chapter 6. Anik Nandi, Maite Garcia-Ruiz and Ibon Manterola: Reclaiming Voice through Family Language Policies: Parental (Socio)linguistic Citizenship in Castilian-Spanish-Dominated Multilingual Settings

Part 3. Building Communities of Voicing

Chapter 7. Danny Foster: (Socio)linguistic Citizenship in Rural Tanzania: A Perspective from the Capability Approach

Chapter 8. Eilidh McEwan: Deaf Capabilities in the Global South: Reflections on Sign Languages and Emancipation Using the Capabilities Approach

Chapter 9. Khoi Nguyen: Forming (Socio)linguistic Citizenship through Philanthropy on Facebook Pages of the Vietnamese Diaspora in the UK

Chapter 10. Phoebe Siu, Bong-gi Sohn and Angel M.Y. Lin: Reclaiming a Plurilingual Voice in EMI Classrooms: Co-creating Translanguaging Space through the Multimodalities-Entextualisation Cycle

Ben Rampton, Mel Cooke, Constant Leung, Dermot Bryers, Becky Winstanley and Sam Holmes: Afterword: Localising (Socio)linguistic Citizenship

Index

The Power of Voice in Transforming Multilingual Societies is an urgent call to analysts, theorists, researchers, think-tankers, policymakers, and governments to take seriously the voice and (socio)linguistic citizenship of marginalized citizens. Each chapter makes an important intervention on how to uplift every multilingual voice and advances the utility of (socio)linguistic citizenship, first developed in the global South.