Applied Linguistics and Politics

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In the current climate of extreme nationalism and fear-mongering, a new politics for a socially just world is needed more than ever. Featuring internationally-renowned scholars, Applied Linguistics and Politics explores how innovative theories, methodologies and pedagogies in applied linguistics can address the political challenges and issues arising in the 21st century. Adopting a Gramscian theoretical framework, the five parts of this volume focus on the various ways in which the political is discursively and materially realized in its dialogic co-constructions within the media, the economy, culture and identity, affect, and education. Examining the power instantiations of sociolinguistic and semiotic practices in society from a variety of critical perspectives, this book questions how applied linguists can respond to, and challenge, current discourses of issues such as militarism, nationalism, Islamophobia, sexism, racism and the free market, and suggests future directions for research. Making use of a range of methodologies from discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, semiotics and political science, Applied Linguistics and Politics demonstrates how linguistics can intervene in the political and help mobilize and organize for an economically and socially just society.

Reviews

This excellent volume brings together an impressive assembly of scholars from around the world to explore a range of contexts relevant to the study of language and politics, from media, to economics, to education. Each contribution stands as a dramatic reminder of the relevance of Applied Linguistics to the precarious political moment we find ourselves in. * Rodney H. Jones, Professor of Sociolinguistics, University of Reading, UK *
At a time when many of us are bewildered and dismayed by the political terrain we find ourselves navigating, Chun has assembled an international gathering of extraordinary, insightful scholars, including the now-late Jan Blommaert, who offer analyses of languaging and discourse practices across a shockingly broad array of (often under-researched) communities and realms and shed much-needed clarity on the crucial question of how the work of applied linguists can change the political conditions of lives. * Suhanthie Motha, Associate Professor, English Department, University of Washington, USA *

Author Bio

Christian W. Chun is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts Boston, USA.