05.05.22, 14:30-Global language justice inside the doughnut

In presenza:
edificio D3, piano, terra, aula 6

–Scarica la locandina

Abstract

My lecture uses a doughnut as a model for thinking about the relation between language and inequality in a linguistically diverse world and for explaining why language is the missing link in the global debate on sustainability, equity and poverty. The doughnut is a visual metaphor for sustainable development that shows how human well-being can exist only within limits that are both social and ecological. Policies that discriminate against the languages of the marginalized poor severely compromise the power of global development agendas to improve their lives. The cross-cutting effects of linguistic diversity on all aspects of human welfare mean that global development agendas cannot reach the ‘bottom billion’ until they speak to them in their own languages. Making room for global language justice inside the doughnut requires understanding numerous complex linkages between language, poverty, education, health, gender, and the environment that have been rendered invisible by prevailing models and discourses of development. I will also identify some specific pathways and policies for sustaining linguistic diversity through explicit recognition of language as both a right and means of inclusive sustainable development.

Speaker
Suzanne Romaine
University of Oxford

Coordinator
Mikaela Cordisco
University of Salerno