· 2012· Review
Language in Late Capitalism
- 698citations
- 2012year
Short summary
This book argues that ideas about language and identity are increasingly framed as economic 'added value' rather than national rights, reflecting characteristics of globalized late capitalism.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Language and identity are increasingly framed in economic terms ('added value') rather than national/political rights.
- This discursive shift is linked to the characteristics of the globalized new economy in late capitalism.
- Nationalist ideologies valuing language as pride are merging with neoliberal ideologies valuing language as profit.
- The book uses ten ethnographic case studies to illustrate these complex interactions.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
This book examines the ways in which our ideas about language and identity which used to be framed in national and political terms as a matter of rights and citizenship are increasingly recast in economic terms as a matter of added value. It argues that this discursive shift is connected to specific characteristics of the globalized new economy in what can be thought of as late capitalism. Through ten ethnographic case studies, it demonstrates the complex ways in which older nationalist ideologies which invest language with value as a source of pride get bound up with newer neoliberal ideologies which invest language with value as a source of profit. The complex interaction between these modes of mobilizing linguistic resources challenges some of our ideas about globalization, hinting that we are in a period of intensification of modernity, in which the limits of the nation-State are stretched, but not (yet) undone. At the same time, this book argues, this intensification also calls into question modernist ways of looking at language and identity, requiring a more serious engagement with capitalism and how it constitutes symbolic (including linguistic) as well as material markets.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source., 2012 · DOI ↗
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Field: Linguistics and Language
Linguistics and LanguageSocial Sciences