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Language and the Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges to Language Policy and Planning

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Language and Sustainable Development

Part of the book series: Language Policy ((LAPO,volume 32))

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Abstract

Language is not mentioned in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), nor was it seriously considered as an important dimension of social and economic development in the UN planning process that preceded them. Nonetheless, a close examination of some key ideas put forth in that process challenges us to rethink some long-standing assumptions in mainstream language policy and planning (LPP). The analysis focuses on the concepts of (in)equality, agency, and capability as central to the sustainable development agenda. In each case, the UN’s neglect of language is shown to be connected to its reliance on state-centric and rationalist social imaginaries that have also been central to the field of LPP, but that undermine the viability of the SDGs as a sustainable development paradigm. A case is made for moving LPP away from its original concern with “the language problems of developing nations” towards a new focus on “language solutions for a sustainable world.”

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All 18 Think Pieces are available at: https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/publication/un-task-team-thematic-think-pieces/. Think Pieces 7, 9, 10, 16, 17 and 18, which are specifically referred to in the text, are cited in full in the list of references.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

    Mark Fettes

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  1. Mark Fettes
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Languages, Cultures and Applied Linguistics, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK

    Lisa J. McEntee-Atalianis

  2. President Emeritus, University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT, USA

    Humphrey Tonkin

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Fettes, M. (2023). Language and the Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges to Language Policy and Planning. In: McEntee-Atalianis, L.J., Tonkin, H. (eds) Language and Sustainable Development. Language Policy, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24918-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24918-1_2

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