Setting the Scene

Abstract

The intention of this book is to address the complexity of the nature of the relationship between minority languages and globalization and to draw some conclusions as to what it may mean for future language policy and planning (hereafter LPP) research. The book will address these issues by drawing on the sociolinguistic ecology of Irish. It will draw on approaches and theories from LPP scholarship (cf. Shohamy, 2006; Spolsky, 2004; Wright, 2004) as well as from theoretical advances being made within the sociolinguistics of globalization (cf. Blommaert, 2010; Coupland, 2003, 2010a). The book seeks to map the trajectory of LPP in the context of globalization and to highlight the consequences of this for future theoretical, as well as practical, attempts to encourage minority language revitalization and maintenance. It will challenge some of the assumptions on which LPP is built and will demonstrate how some aspects of these assumptions are called into question in light of global processes of change. LPP can be described as being at a theoretical cul-de-sac and at this juncture in LPP research it may be fruitful to examine how the changing nature of how language is being conceptualized within the sociolinguistics of globalization impacts on LPP.