Article published in:
Language & Citizenship
Edited by Tommaso M. Milani
[Journal of Language and Politics 14:3] 2015
► pp. 319–334

Language and citizenship

Broadening the agenda

| University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
The main argument advanced in this article that frames this special issue is that citizenship is not just a highly polysemic word employed by the media and other political institutions; it is also a set of norms and (linguistic) behaviours that individuals are socialised into, as well as a series of practices that social actors perform through an array of semiotic means including multilingualism, multivoicedness, the body, and affect. In light of this, it is proposed that the linguistic/discursive study of citizenship should be expanded beyond a rather narrow emphasis on political proposals about language testing to include the diverse, more or less mundane, ways in which citizenship is enacted via an array of multivocal, material, and affective semiotic resources.
Keywords: acts, affect, citizenship, habitus, multivocality, status
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Citizenship: Status, Habitus, Acts
    • 2.1Status, linguistic capital, and the reproduction of social inequality
    • 2.2Habitus, heteroglossia, and the ambivalent life of authoritative discourse
    • 2.3Acts of linguistic and bodily citizenship
    • 2.4Instead of reaching consensus
  • 3.Where To From Here?
  • References
Published online: 21 August 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.14.3.01mil
References
Ahmed, Sara
2004 “Affective Economies.” Social Text 22 (2): 117–139. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bakhtin, Mikhail
1981 The Dialogic Imagination. Four Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bauböck, Rainer
2012 “Constellations and Transitions: Combining Macro and Micro Perspectives on Migration and Citizenship.” In Migrations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. by Michi Messer, Renée Schröder, and Ruth Wodak, 3–14. Vienna: Springer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Besnier, Niko
2009 Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bhabha, Homi
1994 The Location of Culture. London: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Billig, Michael
1995 Banal Nationalism. Thousand Oaks: Sage. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Blackledge, Adrian
2005 Discourse and Power in a Multilingual World. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2008 “Liberalism, Discrimination and the Law: Language Testing for Citizenship in Britain.” In Neo-Colonial Mentalities in Contemporary Europe? Language and Discourse in the Construction of Identities, ed. by Guido Rings, and Anne Ife, 50–66. New Castle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Blackledge, Adrian, and Aneta Pavlenko
(eds) Special issue of Multilingua 21 2–3
Blommaert, Jan
2007 “Sociolinguistic Scales.” Intercultural Pragmatics 4 (1): 1–19. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Blommaert, Jan, and Jef Verschueren
1998 Debating Diversity: Analysing the Discourse of Tolerance. London: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre
1980 The Logic of Practice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
1991 Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
1994 “Rethinking the State: Genesis and Structure of the Bureaucratic Field.” Sociological Theory 12 (1): 1–18. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Butler, Judith
1990 Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1997 Excitable Speech: The Politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, Melanie, and James Simpson
2008 ESOL: A Critical Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cresswell, Tim, and Craig Martin
2012 “On Turbulence: Entanglements of Disorder and Order on a Devon Beach.” Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 103 (5): 516–529. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Devlin, Richard, and Dianne Pothier
2006 “Introduction: Toward a Critical Theory of Dis-Citizenship.” In Critical Disability Theory: Essays in Philosophy, Politics, Policy, and Law, ed. by Richard Devlin, and Dianne Pothier, 1–22. Vancouver: UBC Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Extra, Guus, Massimiliano Spotti, and Piet van Avermaet
(eds) 2009 Language Testing, Migration and Citizenship: Cross-national Perspectives on Integration Regimes. London: Continuum. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Extra, Guus, and Massimiliano Spotti
2009 “Testing Regimes for Newcomers to the Netherlands.” In Language Testing, Migration and Citizenship: Cross-national Perspectives on Integration Regimes, ed. by Guus Extra, Massimiliano Spotti, and Piet van Avermaet, 125–147. London: Continuum. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fairclough, Norman
1995 Media Discourse. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Fortier, Anne-Marie
2013 “What’s the Big Deal? Naturalization and the Politics of Desire.” Citizenship Studies 17 (6–7): 697–711. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, Michel
1991 “Governmentality.” In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality with Two Lectures by and an Interview with Michel Foucault, ed. by Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, 87–104. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen
1984 The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Boston: Beacon Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hogan-Brun, Gabriella, Clare Mar-Molinero, and Patrick Stevenson
(eds) 2009 Discourses on Language and Integration: Critical Perspectives on Language Testing Regimes in Europe. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Horner, Kristine
2009 “Language, Citizenship and Europeanization: Unpacking the Discourse of Integration.” In Discourses on Language and Integration: Critical Perspectives on Language Testing Regimes in Europe, ed. by Gabriella Hogan-Brun, Clare Mar-Molinero, and Patrick Stevenson, 109–128. Amsterdam: Johns Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Isin, Engin F
2008 “Theorizing Acts of Citizenship.” In Acts of Citizenship, ed. by Engin F. Isin, and Greg M. Nielsen, 15–43. London: Zed Books. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kauppinen, Kati
2013 “ ‘Full Power despite Stress’: A Discourse Analytical Examination of the Interconnectedness of Postfeminism and Neoliberalism in the Domain of Work in an International Women’s Magazine.” Discourse & Communication 7 (2): 133–151. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kress, Gunther
2010 Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. London: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen
1998 “Front Pages: (The Critical) Analysis of Newspaper Layout.” In Approaches to Media Discourse, ed. by Allan Bell, and Peter Garrett, 186–219. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Krzyżanowski, Michał, and Ruth Wodak
2011 “Political Strategies and Language Policies: The European Union Lisbon Strategy and Its Implications for the EU’s Language and Multilingualism Policy.” Language Policy 10 (2): 115–136. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kymlicka, Will
2011 “Multicultural Citizenship within Multinational States.” Ethnicities 11 (3): 281–302. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Machin, David
2007 Introduction to Multimodal Analysis. London: Hodder Arnold.Google Scholar
Messer Michi, Renée, and Ruth Wodak
(eds) 2012 Migrations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Vienna: Springer. Crossref_1Google Scholar
Milani, Tommaso M
2007 “A Language Ideology in Print: The Case of Sweden.” In Language in the Media: Representations, Identities, Ideologied, ed. by Sally Johnson, and Astrid Ensslin, 111–129. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
2008 “Language Testing and Citizenship: A Language Ideological Debate in Sweden.” Language in Society 37 (1): 27–59. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2009 “At the Intersection between Power and Knowledge: An Analysis of a Swedish Policy Document on Language Testing for Citizenship.” Journal of Language and Politics 8 (2): 287–304. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2014 “Queering Masculinities.” In The Handbook of Language, Gender and Sexuality. 2nd edition, ed. by Susan Ehrlich, Miriam Meyerhoff, and Janet Holmes, 260–278. Malden: Wiley Blackwell. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Milani, Tommaso M., and Sally Johnson
2010 “Critical Intersections: Language Ideologies and Media Discourse.” In Language Ideologies and Media Discourse: Texts, Practices, Politics, ed. by Sally Johnson, and Tommaso M. Milani, 3–14. London: Continuum. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Milani, Tommaso M., and Mooniq Shaikjee
2013 “A New South African Man? Beer, Masculinity and Social Change.” In Gender and Language in Sub-Saharan Africa: Tradition, Struggle, and Change, ed. by Lilian L. Atanga, Sibonile E. Ellece, Lia Litosseliti, and Jane Sunderland, 131–148. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mouzelis, Nikos
1995 Sociological Theory: What Went Wrong? Diagnoses and Remedies. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta, and Adrian Blackledge
(eds) Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts Clevedon Multilingual Matters Crossref
Piller, Ingrid
2012 “Multilingualism and Social Exclusion.” In Handbook of Multilingualism, ed. by Marilyn Martin-Jones, Adrian Blackledge, and Angela Creese. 281–296. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ramanathan, Vaideshi
(ed) 2013a Language Policies and (Dis)Citizenship. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(ed) 2013b Special Forum: Language Policies and (Dis)Citizenship: Who Belongs? Who Is a Guest? Who Is Deported? Journal of Language, Identity and Education 12 (3): 162–196. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, Jennifer F. and Elaine Chun
(eds) 2013 Figuring Youth Citizenship: Communicative Practices Mediating the Cultural Politics of Citizenship and Age. Special issue of Language & Communication 33 (4): 473–572. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Shohamy, Elana
2001 The Power of Tests: A Critical Perspective on the Uses of Language Tests. London: Longman. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Shohamy, Elana, and Tim McNamara
(eds) 2009 “Language Assessment for Immigration, Citizenship and Asylum.” Special issue of Language Assessment Quarterly 6 (1): 1–111. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Stroud, Christopher
2001 “African Mother Tongue Programs and the Politics of Language: Linguistic Citizenship versus Linguistic Human Rights.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 22 (4): 339–355. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2003 “Postmodernist Perspectives on Local Languages: African Mother Tongue Education in Times of Globalisation.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 6 (1): 17–36. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2009 “Towards a Postliberal Theory of Citizenship.” In International Perspectives on Bilingual Education: Policy, Practice and Controversy, ed. by John E. Petrovic, 191–218. New York: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar
in press. “Turbulent Semiotic Landscapes and the Semiotic of Citizenship.” In Negotiating and Contesting Identities in Linguistic Landscapes ed. by Robert Blackwood, Elizabeth Lanza, and Hirut Woldemariam London Bloomsbury
Stroud, Christopher, and Sibonile Mpendukana
2009 “Towards a Material Ethnography of Linguistic Landscape: Multilingualism, Mobility and Space in a South African Township.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 13 (3): 363–386. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tsing, Anna L
2005 Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Crossref
Unger, Johann
2013 The Discursive Construction of the Scots Language: Education, Politics and Everyday Life. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Unger, Johann, Michał Krzyżanowski, and Ruth Wodak
(eds) 2014 Multilingual Encounters in Europe’s Institutional Spaces. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Van Dijk, Teun
1993 Elite Discourse and Racism. Thousand Oaks: Sage. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Zoonen, Liesbet, Farida Vis, and Sabina Mihelj
2010 “Performing Citizenship on Youtube: Activism, Satire and Online Debate around the Anti-Islam Video Fitna.” Critical Discourse Studies 7 (4): 249–262. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Vice, Sue
1997 Introducing Bakhtin. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Vince, Andrew
2002 Nationalism and Particularity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wingstedt, Maria
1998 Language Ideologies and Minority Language Policies in Sweden: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Ph.D. dissertation. Stockholm: Centre for Research on Bilingualism. Crossref
Wodak, Ruth
2001a “What CDA is about – A Summary of its History, Important Concepts and its Developments.” In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. by Ruth Wodak, and Michael Meyer, 1–13. London: Sage. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2001b “The Discourse-Historical Approach.” In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. by Ruth Wodak, and Michael Meyer, 63–94. London: Sage. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2011 The Discourse of Politics in Action: Politics as Usual. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2013 “Dis-Citizenship and Migration: A Critical Discourse-Analytical Perspective.” Journal of Language, Identity and Education 12 (3): 173–178. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, de Cillia, Rudolf, Reisigl, Martin, and Karin Liebhart
2009 The Discursive Construction of National Identity. 2nd edition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 12 other publications

Barros, Sandro R.
2017. Rejecting Babel: examining multilingualism without citizenship in the U.S. postnational scenario. Current Issues in Language Planning 18:2 ► pp. 117 ff. Crossref logo
Jacobo Suárez, Mónica L., Colette I. Despagne & Guadalupe Chávez
2022. Return migrants from the United States to Mexico. Journal of Language and Politics Crossref logo
King, Brian W.
2021. Engaging peers and future parents, creating future turbulence: activist biocitizenship practices and intersex transgression in the classroom. Sex Education 21:5 ► pp. 519 ff. Crossref logo
Kulpa, Robert
2020. National menace: mediating homo/sexuality and sovereignty in the Polish national/ist discourses. Critical Discourse Studies 17:3 ► pp. 327 ff. Crossref logo
Milani, Tommaso M.
2020. No-go zones in Sweden. Language, Culture and Society 2:1 ► pp. 7 ff. Crossref logo
Paz, Alejandro I.
2019. Communicating Citizenship. Annual Review of Anthropology 48:1 ► pp. 77 ff. Crossref logo
Peled, Yael
2021. The linguistic boundary problem. Citizenship Studies 25:6 ► pp. 825 ff. Crossref logo
Richardson, John E
2020. Making memory makers: Interpellation, norm circles and Holocaust Memorial Day Trust workshops. Memory Studies 13:4 ► pp. 434 ff. Crossref logo
Rodi-Risberg, Marinella & Maj-Britt Höglund
2018. From victims to survivors: The discourse of trauma in self-narratives of sexual violence in Cosmopolitan UK online. Discourse, Context & Media 25 ► pp. 114 ff. Crossref logo
Rowlett, Benedict J. L.
2018. Affect as narrative action in the Global South. Narrative Inquiry 28:2 ► pp. 237 ff. Crossref logo
Wright, David & Gavin Brookes
2019. ‘This is England, speak English!’: a corpus-assisted critical study of language ideologies in the right-leaning British press. Critical Discourse Studies 16:1 ► pp. 56 ff. Crossref logo
Xiong, Bingjuan
2019. Communicating citizenship in China’s digital society. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication 12:2 ► pp. 128 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.