The Politics and Policy of Multilingualism in the European Union

• Published in: The Brown journal of world affairs Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 55 - 66
• Main Authors: Gazzola, Michele, Ronza, Rocco W
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Providence The Brown Journal of World Affairs 01-10-2017
• Subjects: Comparative analysis; Economics; Education; Globalization; Intercultural communication; Language policy; Languages; Linguistics; Minority groups; Minority languages; Mobilization; Multilingualism; Nationalism; Political development; Political scientists; Politics; Population; Scientometrics; Europe; France
• ISSN: 1080-0786; 2472-3347

Between the 1950s and 1980s, political scientists had considerable interest in the areas of multilingualism and linguistic diversity. As part of the comparative analysis of political development, scholars interested in nationalism and the mobilization of territorial identities, such as Karl Deutsch, Jean Laponce, and Stein Rokkan, devoted much attention to the role of languages in the formation of states in Europe and elsewhere. However, this interest has slowly declined over the past two decades, with some notable exceptions. In many countries, linguistic minorities have gradually obtained more rights, and globalization has led to the spread of lingua francas. This has created the illusion that language-based political conflicts are a thing of the past. Here, Gazzola and Ronza discuss different issues related to the politics and the policy of language in the European Union as a backdrop for political effects of the adoption of English as a lingua franca in three realms (institutional, economic, and educational/social).