XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 13-19, 2014)

July 13 - 19, 2014

442

Markets, Power and Language

RC25 Language and Society (host committee)

Language: English

Globalization has intensified both the internationalization of workplaces and increasing demands for information. The increasing importance of information and information technologies has meant that language has a central role in economy, while increasing internationalization makes the management of linguistic diversity a top priority. All of this takes place within the context of dramatic changes in immigration policies and labor organization. An increasing number of agents, such US multinational companies and transnational political elites (i.e. European Commission), are contributing to new language policies aimed at language hegemonies within specific markets or specific social contexts. The widespread use of English in specific markets (science, business, technologies) can be understood as a part of this new hegemony, which serves the particular interests of dominant groups on global scale. The presence of new actors and their language policies require that we revisit Bourdieu’s assumptions regarding the presence of a State-based unified marketplace for language. At the same time, this new context also directs us consider Bourdieu`s approach to the ways that people who are ‘legitimate language’ agents can exercise their social competence, their social power, and can impose their authority. Depending on the market and the relations of power, the same discourse may produce different effects (profit/price) depending on the degree of legitimacy that the speaker has on the market. From the perspective of linguistic diversity, in a context of extended diglossia, language learning and language choice becomes crucial to have success in a context of competence for resources. In this session we seek papers that explore the relationships among language diversity and workplace practices in both public and private organizations.