Language policy and planning and public policy

Panel abstract

The contributions of this panel approach language policy and planning (LPP) from an innovative and interdisciplinary angle focussing on language policy as a form of public policy. The papers locate language policy and planning first and foremost as a responsibility of governments (at the national, regional, local, and potentially international level) and relevant bodies across all areas of public policy. The approach to LPP discussed in this panel, particularly its theoretical framing and interpretation as well as translation into practice, re-establish conceptual and methodological "bridges" between policy analysis and LPP, which have weakened after the “critical turn” in LPP. The panel offers participants a coherent and coverage of the most important issues, debates, and tools for analysing and informing language policy choices, development, implementation, and evaluation. The panel includes an overview of the newly published Routledge Handbook of Language Policy and Planning and prospects for research in the field of LPP.

Paper 1: The public policy paradigm in language policy and planning

Francois Grin, francois.grin@unige.ch

Research in language policy and planning (LPP) as a field of specialization in its own right stretches back to the 1960s. It has since then gone through several stages and in the late 20th century, it has forked in three main directions. The first starts out from the observation of multilingual interaction (usually at the micro level) and emphasizes actors’ practices in relation with the (often policy-influenced) representations of language. The second, which usually adopts a more macro-level perspective, draws its inspiration from critical sociolinguistics and focuses on language policies as a context in which power inequalities are revealed, reproduced and contested. The third orientation, which was advocated in the early days of LPP but as has recently emerged from other social sciences, approaches LPP as a form of public policy which, like public policies in other areas, ought to meet certain standards of efficiency and fairness. These three approaches, therefore, prioritize different questions, but they often share similar concerns. In this paper, we present the core principles of the third perspective, before offering an assessment of how it defines a new research agenda for language policy and planning.

References

Grin, François, László Marácz, and Nike K. Pokorn (eds.) (2022) Advances in Interdisciplinary Language Policy. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Gazzola, Michele, François Grin, Linda Cardinal, and Kathleen Heugh (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Language Policy and Planning, London: Routledge.

Paper 2: The language policy cycle as a framework for language policy and planning research

Michele Gazzola, m.gazzola@ulster.ac.uk

This paper critically examines the idea according to which everyone (including single individuals) can make language policy, and it clarifies the differences between (individual) language practices and (public) language policy. It argues that government (at different levels, from the local to the national, and even supranational) is the central, albeit of course not exclusive, agent in the language policy process. Language policy is therefore presented as a particular form of public policy that can be examined using the policy cycle model. The model comprises several stages, namely the emergence of a language issue in society, followed by agenda-setting, policy formulation and adoption, implementation, and finally evaluation. The paper presents these five stages of the cycle and the relationships between them and clarifies how the various disciplines involved in LPP can contribute to their study. The chapter also discusses the limits of the framework. It emphasises the political and pragmatic aspects of LPP, and the need to engage with decision makers’ practical concerns. In this sense, it contributes to restoring the theoretical and epistemological links between LPP research and public policy studies that have gradually weakened after the ‘critical turn’ in LPP.

References

Gazzola, Michele, Federico Gobbo, David Cassels Johnson, and Jorge Antonio Leoni de León (2023) Epistemological and Theoretical Foundations in Language Policy and Planning, Pivot. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Gazzola, Michele, François Grin, Linda Cardinal, and Kathleen Heugh (2023) "Language Policy and Planning: From Theory to Practice", in Gazzola, Michele , François Grin, Linda Cardinal, and Kathleen Heugh (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Language Policy and Planning, pp. 1-31. London: Routledge.

Paper 3: Language Policy, Planning, and mobilisation in post-colonial civil societies

Kathleen Heugh, kathleen.heugh@unisa.edu.au

This paper offers an overview of civil society efforts directed towards (multilingual) language policy and planning in societies with minority or minoritised language communities. The success and sustainability of LPP initiatives benefit from both top-down and bottom-up or multistakeholder participation at different stages of the policy cycle. Civil society mobilisation with domestic affiliations, commitment, and expertise to address local and national needs, often in ‘hard-to-reach’ communities, is important to ensure that core issues are identified and brought to the attention of public debate and government agenda. Civil society participation and expertise are also necessary for context-relevant decision-making, adoption and implementation. However, caution is advised when external aid, donor, publishing, academic and other interests become entangled at any stage of the policy cycle. These may pose serious risk to domestic and local interests. Capacity-building of expertise in interpreting the policy cycle, institutional memory retention and comprehension of key issues, evidence and risk are central in accountable civil society informed public policy.

References:

Heugh, K. (2024). Language Policy, Planning, and mobilisation in post-colonial civil societies. In Gazzola, M., Grin, F., Cardinal, L., & Heugh, K (Eds). The Routledge Handbook on Language Policy and Planning, 113-131.

Chiatoh, B. A. (2021). Towards a Policy of Linguistic Freedom in Cameroon. In K. N. Toh (Ed.), Transgressing Frontiers: Shifting Rhetorics in Linguistic and Literary Discourses, 133–152.

Discussant: David C. Johnson, david-c-johnson@uiowa.edu