Agency in the Peripheries of Language Revitalisation

Examining European Practices on the Ground
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-1-80041-626-0
Verlag: Multilingual Matters

Buch, Englisch, 177 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 467 g

A unique focus on the issue of agency in minority language revitalisation in Europe.

This book addresses the question of agency in the revitalisation of minoritised languages in Europe, with each chapter presenting an ethnographic account of how language policy operates in a specific linguistic context. The chapters investigate how grassroots actors shape revitalisation, and how individuals and groups negotiate historical factors, motivations, and institutionalised initiatives and policies in a variety of efforts.

Between them the chapters address both contexts where social actors have gained and exerted agency in their revitalisation efforts, and contexts where issues of authority, authenticity and lack of engagement plague efforts; these chapters provide insights into how social actors work within and against social conventions and strictures.

This book is available Open Access under a CC BY ND License.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Linn, Mary S.

Dayán-Fernández, Alejandro

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Soziolinguistik
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Minderheiten, Interkulturelle & Multikulturelle Fragen
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Mehrsprachigkeit

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contributors

Preface and Acknowledgements

Mary S. Linn and Alejandro Dáyan-Fernández: Introduction: Sustaining Minoritised Languages in Europe: An Agentive Perspective on Social Actors and Language Revitalisation

Part 1: Building Agency

Chapter 1. Cassie Smith-Christmas and Orlaith Ruiséal: Tús Maith: Empowering Children’s Agentive Role in Language Revitalisation

Chapter 2. Bernadette O’Rourke and Alejandro Dayán-Fernández: Sowing the Seeds at Semente: Urban Breathing Spaces and New Speaker Agency

Chapter 3. Nicole Dolowy-Rybinska and Cordula Ratajczak: The Dynamics of a Triangle of Agency: Sorbian Language Policy

Tadhg Ó hIfearnáin: Commentary: Language Conflict and the Contextual Nature of Agency

Part 2: Rethinking Possibilities in Agency

Chapter 4. Manuela Pellegrino: I Was There: Agency, Authority and Morality Among the Griko Linguistic Minority of Southern Italy (Apulia)

Chapter 5. Lena Terhart, Femmy Admiraal and Nils Langer: Which North Frisian Should Be Maintained? Exploring Language Attitudes and Agency of Speakers and Non-Speakers

Chapter 6. Sara C. Brennan: Reconsidering Agency in 21st-Century Language Revitalisation: Insight from the Occitan Context

Lenore A. Grenoble: Commentary: Rethinking Agency

James Costa: Conclusion: Final Thoughts on Agency and Affects

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Dayán-Fernández, Alejandro
Alejandro Dayán-Fernández is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Glasgow. Grounded in Critical Sociolinguistics, his PhD research explored the role of language in diaspora community building processes based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among Galicians in the UK. By combining his interdisciplinary background in Political Science, Translation Studies and Sociolinguistics, his current research focuses on the use of language in processes of collective action among grassroots social movements and the instrumentalisation of minoritised languages for political gains by different ideological forces.

Linn, Mary S.
Mary S. Linn is Curator of Language and Cultural Vitality at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Washington DC, USA. Her primary research is in effective grassroots strategies in language reclamation and cultural sustainability, especially in small language communities. She directs the Language Vitality Initiative, which focuses on training, networking, innovation, and advocacy, and she is on the curatorial committee of the annual Smithsonian Mother Tongue Film Festival.

Mary S. Linn is Curator of Language and Cultural Vitality at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Washington, DC, USA. Her primary research is in effective grassroots strategies in language reclamation and cultural sustainability, especially in small language communities. She directs the Language Vitality Initiative, which focuses on training, networking, innovation and advocacy, and she is on the curatorial committee of the annual Smithsonian Mother Tongue Film Festival.

Alejandro Dayán-Fernández is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Glasgow. Grounded in critical sociolinguistics, his PhD research explored the role of language in diaspora community building processes based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among Galicians in the UK. By combining his interdisciplinary background in political science, translation studies and sociolinguistics, his current research focuses on the use of language in processes of collective action among grassroots social movements and the instrumentalisation of minoritised languages for political gains by different ideological forces.