Language and Social Change in Central Europe

Discourses on Policy, Identity and the German Language

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

399 kr

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This book explores the dynamics of language and social change in central Europe in the context of the end of the Cold War and eastern expansion of the European Union. One outcome of the profound social transformations in central Europe since the Second World War has been the reshaping of the relationship between particular languages and linguistic varieties, especially between 'national' languages and regional or ethnic minority languages. Previous studies have investigated these transformed relationships from the macro perspective of language policies, while others have taken more fine-grained approaches to individual experiences with language. Combining these two perspectives for the first time - and focusing on the German language, which has a uniquely complex and problematic history in the region - the authors offer an understanding of the complex constellation of language politics in central Europe.Stevenson and Carl's analysis draws on a range of theoretical, conceptual and analytical approaches - language ideologies, language policy, positioning theory, discourse analysis, narrative analysis and life histories - and a wide range of data sources, from European and national language policies to individual language biographies. The authors demonstrate how the relationship between German and other languages has played a crucial role in the politics of language and processes of identity formation in the recent history of central Europe.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-11-30
Mått156 x 234 x undefined mm
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor288
FörlagEdinburgh University Press
ISBN9781399572941

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Språkvetenskap och lingvistik inom Språk och ordböcker

Patrick Stevenson is Professor of German and Linguistic Studies at the University of Southampton. His current research interests include the politics of language, multilingualism, language and migration, and language biographies. He has published widely in the field of German sociolinguistics and his recent book publications include: Language and German Disunity: A sociolinguistic history of East and West 1945-2000 (OUP, 2002); (ed., with Clare Mar-Molinero) Language Ideologies, Policies and Practices: Language and the future of Europe (Palgrave, 2006); (ed., with Jenny Carl) Language, Discourse and Identity in Central Europe: The German language in a multilingual space (Palgrave, 2009); and (ed., with Gabrielle Hogan-Brun and Clare Mar-Molinero) Testing Regimes: Critical perspectives on language, migration and citizenship in Europe (Benjamins, 2009).. Jenny Carl completed her doctorate on representations of European identities in parliamentary discourses in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland at the University of Osnabrück, Germany. She is currently working as a Research Fellow at the University of Southampton and in the EU research network LINEE (Languages in a Network of European Excellence). She is co-editor (with Patrick Stevenson) of Language, Discourse and Identity in Central Europe: The German language in a multilingual space (Palgrave, 2009).