This book brings together the fields of language policy and discourse studies from a multidisciplinary theoretical, methodological and empirical perspective. The chapters in this volume are written by international scholars active in the field of language policy and planning and discourse studies. The diverse research contexts range from education in Paraguay and Luxembourg via businesses in Wales to regional English language policies in Tajikistan. Readers are thereby invited to think critically about the mutual relationship between language policy and discourse in a range of social, political, economic and cultural spheres. Using approaches that draw on discourse-analytic, anthropological, ethnographic and critical sociolinguistic frameworks, the contributors in this collection explore and refine the 'discursive' and the 'critical' aspects of language policy as a multilayered, fluid, ideological, discursive and social process that can operate as a tool of social change as well as reinforcing established power structures and inequalities.

"Discursive Approaches to Language Policies (DALP) is an outstanding and much needed book, for students and scholars alike. This volume succeeds in bringing together several research fields in a comprehensive, accessible and inspiring way: Sociolinguistics, Language Policy Research and Critical Discourse Studies. Such an innovative interdisciplinary approach to language policy, to debates about language ideologies and minority languages, allows for differentiated and careful analysis in selected case studies as well as for new theoretical, explanatory frameworks." (Professor Ruth Wodak, Distinguished Professor and Chair in Discourse Studies, Lancaster University/University of Vienna) "This book announces a decisive turn in language policy studies towards understanding policy as a discursive space in which valuable resources are at stake, indeed where there may be struggles over who decides what resources are valuable at all. This frame turns our attention to the forms of social action and the interests of social actors for whom the field of language is consequential, notably the state and its institutions, but also the private and NGO sectors. The book renders explicit the theoretical, methodological and socio-political consequences of this move, which are broadly applicable to any form of policy analysis." (Professor Monica Heller, CREFO/OISE, University of Toronto) "Barakos and Unger have assembled a collection of work at the cutting edge of language policy. The volume showcases the broad range of theoretical and methodological tools available to construct discursive studies of language policy that are both eclectic and rigorous. The contributions are models for researchers who seek to understand policy as action and process rather than as only textual product." (Francis M. Hult, Associate Professor, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University)

About the Author
Elisabeth Barakos is a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at Aston University, Birmingham, UK. Her research interests focus on language policy discourse and practice, multilingualism and language in the workplace from a critical sociolinguistic perspective.
Johann W. Unger is a Lecturer and Academic Director of Summer Programmes at Lancaster University. He researches mainly in the areas of language policy and digitally mediated politics from a critical discourse studies perspective. His 2013 monograph The Discursive Construction of the Scots Language deals extensively with language policy.

Reviews
"The volume provides strong foundational knowledge for graduate students and researchers working in the field of LPP, and I recommend it to those seeking to develop an interdisciplinary lens that brings together the fields of sociolinguistics, language policy, and (critical) discourse studies." (Pramod K. Sah, Language Policy, Vol. 18, 2019)



Book Information
ISBN 9781137531339
Author Elisabeth Barakos
Format Hardback
Page Count 299
Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan