TY - JOUR
T1 - Language policy and linguistic landscaping in a contemporary blue-collar workplace in the Dutch–German borderland
AU - Hovens, Daan
N1 - Funding Information:
Writing this article would never have been possible without the cooperation from, and generous sharing of information and experiences by diverse actors in and around the metal foundry, including (former) directors and managers, employees, labour recruiters, as well as people living nearby the foundry. I would like to thank all of them wholeheartedly. Furthermore, I would like to thank Huiyun Cheng for the inspiring discussions on metaphors, landscapes, centres, and peripheries, which have clearly left some traces in my text. Finally, I would like to thank Leonie Cornips, Hans Schmeets, Jan ten Thije, Susanne Tienken, as well as John Harbord and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on earlier drafts. Particularly, I would like to thank one of the anonymous reviewers for suggesting to focus more on the “old guard”. All remaining shortcomings are my own.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - This article argues that an expanded view of linguistic landscapes provides a useful metaphor for exploring language policies. Following this view, “language policy” is defined as “linguistic landscaping” (i.e., placing language policy mechanisms which, together with already placed mechanisms, construct a metaphorical landscape). The application of this landscaping metaphor has several advantages, as it provides a way to imagine language policy as a continuously ongoing construction process, and as it provides a way to imagine the historical layers of a landscape, the overlap and connections between different landscapes, and the complex hierarchical positions within a landscape. The article is based on linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork in a metal foundry in the Dutch province of Limburg, within walking distance from the Dutch–German border. Specifically, it discusses why a group of senior production workers from Limburg were dissatisfied with the linguistically diverse landscape that had emerged in the foundry over time, even though the foundry’s management tried to place Dutch-speaking workers in the company’s sociolinguistic norm centre. Confirming the usefulness of the landscaping metaphor, the article shows that a full consideration of diverse historical and contemporary acts of both linguistic and semiotic landscaping helps explain why these workers experienced that their position in the foundry had become peripheralised over time. In conclusion, the article calls for more attention to the complex human experience, rather than just the detection, of sociolinguistic inequalities.
AB - This article argues that an expanded view of linguistic landscapes provides a useful metaphor for exploring language policies. Following this view, “language policy” is defined as “linguistic landscaping” (i.e., placing language policy mechanisms which, together with already placed mechanisms, construct a metaphorical landscape). The application of this landscaping metaphor has several advantages, as it provides a way to imagine language policy as a continuously ongoing construction process, and as it provides a way to imagine the historical layers of a landscape, the overlap and connections between different landscapes, and the complex hierarchical positions within a landscape. The article is based on linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork in a metal foundry in the Dutch province of Limburg, within walking distance from the Dutch–German border. Specifically, it discusses why a group of senior production workers from Limburg were dissatisfied with the linguistically diverse landscape that had emerged in the foundry over time, even though the foundry’s management tried to place Dutch-speaking workers in the company’s sociolinguistic norm centre. Confirming the usefulness of the landscaping metaphor, the article shows that a full consideration of diverse historical and contemporary acts of both linguistic and semiotic landscaping helps explain why these workers experienced that their position in the foundry had become peripheralised over time. In conclusion, the article calls for more attention to the complex human experience, rather than just the detection, of sociolinguistic inequalities.
KW - Blue-collar workplace
KW - Centre-periphery
KW - Cross-border region
KW - Language policy
KW - Linguistic landscape
KW - Power
KW - blue-collar workplace
KW - centre-periphery
KW - cross-border region
KW - language policy
KW - linguistic landscape
KW - power
KW - DISCOURSES
U2 - 10.1007/s10993-020-09572-y
DO - 10.1007/s10993-020-09572-y
M3 - Article
SN - 1568-4555
VL - 20
SP - 645
EP - 666
JO - Language Policy
JF - Language Policy
IS - 4
ER -