Language Policies in Finland and Sweden

Interdisciplinary and Multi-sited Comparisons

Edited by Mia Halonen, Pasi Ihalainen, Taina Saarinen

Publication date:

10 November 2014

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

210x148mm
6x8"

ISBN-13: 9781783092703

In this volume, authors from four disciplines join forces to develop an analysis of political discourse on a comparative and multidisciplinary basis. Language policy is often based on the political use of history, where the remembrance of past experiences by communities, individuals and historical bodies play a fundamental role. These authors see politics and policies as multi-sited by nature, taking place, being constructed, contested and reproduced simultaneously and in different times and places. Theoretically the book draws on the concept of language policy, operationalising it through the rhizomatic nature of politics and policies. Although confined empirically to considerations of situations in Finland and Sweden, the volume extends far beyond these locations in its theoretical contributions. The polities of Finland and Sweden are the lens through which a new and much needed understanding of language policy research, and policy research in general, is posited.

Part 1. Theoretical and Methodological Introduction

1. Mia Halonen, Pasi Ihalainen and Taina Saarinen: Diverse Discourses in Time and Space: Historical, Discourse Analytical and Ethnographic Approaches to Multi-sited Language Policy Discourse

Part 2. Language Policies in Parliaments, Legislation and the Media

2. Pasi Ihalainen and Taina Saarinen: Constructing ‘Language’ in Language Policy Discourse: Finnish and Swedish Legislative Processes in the 2000s

3. Sally Boyd and Åsa Palviainen: Building Walls or Bridges? A Language Ideological Debate about Bilingual Schools in Finland

4. Mika Lähteenmäki and Sari Pöyhönen: Language Rights of the Russian-Speaking Minority in Finland: Multi-Sited Historical Arguments and Language Ideologies

5. Jarmo Lainio: The Art of Societal Ambivalence: A Retrospective View on Swedish Language Policies for Finnish in Sweden

Part 3. Individuals as Constructors and Reflectors of Language Policies

6. Sofia Kotilainen: National Language Policy at the Local Level: The Realisation of Language Legislation in Late Nineteenth-Century Finland

7. Mats Wickström: Making the Case For the Mother Tongue: Ethnic Activism and the Emergence of a New Policy Discourse on Non-Swedish Mother Tongue Teaching in Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s

8. Hanna Snellman: Everyday Language Policies: Embodiment of Language-Related Experiences of Finnish Women in Sweden

9. Mia Halonen, Tarja Nikula, Taina Saarinen and Mirja Tarnanen: ‘Listen, There’ll be a Pause after each Question‘: A Swedish Lesson as a Nexus for Multi-Sited Language Education Policies

Part 4. Epilogue

10. Muiris Ó Laoire: Multi-Sited Language Policies: Where have we come from and where to from here in Language Policy?

This excellent book provides a state of the art account of language issues in Sweden and Finland, presented in an interesting theoretical frame. The authors’ view that language policy is multi-sited and in constant dialogic development results in a cohesive volume which reveals both the origins and the current complexities of Northern language policy and practice.