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1Introduction
Researching languages and social cohesion
Language is crucial for human communication, collaboration, the relationships we build and the way we understand our place in the world. In a world increasingly influenced by globalisation, including migration of people and the Internet, linguistic diversity is, or is becoming, a reality in many peopleâs lives. In situations where different languages and language groups meet, social cohesion is sometimes seen as a challenge. In contrast, language educators tend to emphasise the value of language competences as a source of social cohesion. We thus embarked on a journey to examine the link between languages and social cohesion in situations where various languages and language varieties come into contact with one another, which resulted in this book.
The fact that languages can lead to both conflict and peaceful communication (Vetter, 2015) served as a starting point for this book. While language conflict is an established strand in the field of sociology of language, the specific link between languages and social cohesion has not been researched widely. In order to establish what we know about this link between languages and social cohesion, we embarked on a systematic literature review. Our overarching aim was therefore to investigate in which ways research literature has associated languages with social cohesion, both as an enabler and as a barrier. As will be seen in this book, languages can be used to unite, divide or mediate within and between language groups in complex, dynamic and subtle ways.
The way we learn, use and organise languages in specific social contexts and societies is typically examined from various perspectives and disciplines, above all within the field of wider applied linguistics, but also in social psychology and sociology. We have therefore taken a transdisciplinary approach to conducting our literature review, as this âbrings information from separate disciplines together so that it can be useful knowledge that allows us to act wiselyâ (Montuori, 2013, p. 47). This approach allowed us to view the link between languages and social cohesion in their complexity rather than from a single perspective. By looking at languages and social cohesion largely at group level, our work complements the wider literature on language identity, language and intercultural competence (e.g. Norton & Toohey, 2011; Pavlenko & Norton, 2007; Byram, Nichols & Stevens, 2001), as well as literature on linguistic capital and similar concepts that tend to look at language use and social participation at an individual level (Gerhards, 2014; May, 2014; de Swaan, 2001; Bourdieu, 1991). Furthermore, it complements research on language policy and planning (Ricento, 2014; May & Hornberger, 2008; Wright, 2004), language mediation (Corbett, 2020; GonzĂĄlez-Davies, 2020; Council of Europe, 2018) and particularly research on language conflict (Darquennes, 2015; Vetter, 2015).
Context of this book
We are writing this book at a particular time in history, and it is against this background that we developed our interest in the relationships between languages and social cohesion. We look on with increasing concern as the world faces ever greater challenges. We are acutely aware of the increasingly globalised relationships between phenomena of our times and concur that they are âdeeply connected, and our understanding, appreciation, and responses should be shaped accordinglyâ (Brown, 2018, p. 1).
We are concerned that divided societies may be vulnerable and ill-equipped to deal with the enormous global challenges we face in the coming decades. That said, socially cohesive societies are seen as more resilient and able to cope with challenges than divided societies (UNDP, 2020, p. 12), and indeed social cohesion is associated with problem-solving through social networks connecting different groups (Schiefer & van der Noll, 2017; Putnam, 2000). We assume it is for this reason that the United Nations continues to focus on social cohesion and inclusion, as an important aspect of its Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015) where âNo One Left Behindâ is the core theme, albeit with no mention of languages. A more recent UN document, entitled Strengthening social cohesion: Conceptual framing and programming implications, also reinforces the importance of social cohesion (UNDP, 2020). This document does touch on languages â as one factor among many â in respect to participation, human-rights agendas and non-discrimination.
As we will show in this book, languages are interconnected with social cohesion in many nuanced and complex ways, and we feel social cohesion projects, policy and research that do not take the language factor into consideration may be overlooking a substantive influence on the operation of societies. In the following, we further describe our motivation to write this book, define key concepts we use and outline the scope, aims and intended readership of this book.
Key definitions
Research into languages as a societal phenomenon suggests that we need a closer examination of the role languages play as an enabling or disrupting force in societies (Riera-Gil, 2019; Ricento, 2014; Wodak, 2007) and as a resource in itself (Ruiz, 2010). Literature from different fields postulates that often neither the uniting nor the divisive potential of languages are sufficiently considered in social policy conceptualisations or political theory (Osler & Lybaek, 2014; Ricento, 2014). Furthermore, social cohesion is sometimes an assumed consequence of language education policies, such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2001) or certain language teaching methods (see, for example, Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010 in their book CLIL or Content and Language Integrated Learning), without reference to the nature of that connection.
At the outset of our project, we defined languages and social cohesion as separate concepts to gain some clarity of the concepts. While this was our starting point, the literature review presented in the following chapters lays open the complex, nuanced and unpredictable ways languages and social cohesion are intertwined.
Social cohesion: In research and policy documents, the term social cohesion is often used synonymously with social integration, community cohesion, social inclusion or social capital. Social cohesion is a concern of social psychologists and sociologists alike, and has been described as ambiguous, complex and multidimensional (Kearns & Forrest, 2000). Taking the lead from some recent literature reviews on social cohesion (Schiefer & van der Noll, 2017; Chan, To & Chan, 2006) and relevant articles looking at languages and social cohesion (Jenson, 2019; Stolle, 2013; Kearns & Forrest, 2000), we agreed on a number of dimensions, such as âsocial networks and associated resourcesâ, âa sense of belonging to groupsâ and âshared norms and valuesâ. These dimensions are included in established definitions of social cohesion, as proposed by key sociologists (see, for example, Field, 2003; Lin, 2001; Putnam, 2000; Coleman, 1988; Bourdieu, 1986; Granovetter, 1983, 1973), and will be explained further in Chapter 2.
Languages: Language is also hard to define, as it is viewed differently by different scholars. Some view it as a stable and formalised linguistic structure or a system that can be studied, while others view it as a means of identification and/or social practice (Norton & McKinney, 2011). Furthermore, languages have been conceptualised as political constructs and as sites of struggle (Sarroub & Quadros, 2014) which interlink with sociopolitical decisions and discourses (Canagarajah, 2013). Languages and varieties are also associated with identification (Norton & McKinney, 2011), as people use languages and language varieties to index belonging to certain linguistic groups (Blommaert, 2010). In popular and academic discourses, languages are often labelled, for instance as first or second, as modern or heritage, or as official or migrant languages, thus implying an order by acquisition, quality or status associated with languages, which potentially stereotypes languages and their users (see, for example, Cruickshank, 2014, who made this point). Using these categories is, however, difficult to avoid in projects like ours. While being aware of the risks, we use such labels in this book, since they can make visible possible assumptions that people have about languages, and about groups who are using these languages. This anticipates a golden thread leading through this book, namely that languages are not only of instrumental, communicative and practical value, but also hold a symbolic and subjective value in societies, which is neither stable nor neutral (Ricento, 2014).
Scope and aims
In this book, we structure, critically analyse and discuss a body of 285 peer-reviewed articles, published between 1992 and 2017, in the light of wider literature, with the aim to establish any links between languages and social cohesion. This work enabled us to offer accessible and user-friendly tools designed to inspire discussion about the interconnecting dimensions of languages and social cohesion in a given context. Our work thus resulted in thematically sorted list of references, a transdisciplinary language and social cohesion framework, and a set of respective questions, as summarised in Chapter 5. This framework of relevant perspectives is underpinned by our analysis in Chapter 4 and offers an understanding of the languageâsocial cohesion interlinkages. These tools can be used as an exploratory guide by readers involved in social contexts where languages and social cohesion might emerge as a topic of concern. It is important to note that this book cannot offer recipes or generalisable explanations of cause and effect; instead we will describe how relevant concepts interconnect in many different social contexts, indicating possibilities of cause and effect between languages and social cohesion.
Authors and potential biases
This book has been written by authors currently residing in the UK and Australia. However, its relevance is global. Indeed, the research included in our review stems from 50 countries or regions, including Europe, Asia, Australia and Oceania, Africa, and North and South America, featuring research with language groups of very diverse origins. Our study included research from multilingual nations and from the developing world (e.g. India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Botswana, South Africa, Ghana, Mexico, Bolivia), but we assume that unequal access to English-language publishing and systemic academic bias means that highly multilingual countries such as India, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Vanuatu may not be adequately represented in our study.
While we aim to take an objective stance in this book to describe different world views, our own linguistic repertoires, as well as social, professional and migratory experiences, alongside our engagement with research, have informed ours. Thus, we have developed a strong leaning towards transculturalism, as described by Stolle (2013), insofar as we welcome and accept linguistic diversity as a reality, but we understand that not everyone shares this view. Indeed, tensions can arise between different views of how languages should be organised in a society â such subjective views and ideas will resurface in the following chapters, as these are important factors that influence how languages and social cohesion interlink. On the basis of these observations, we set ourselves two objectives. The first was to develop an evidence-informed and transdisciplinary understanding of the relationships between languages and social cohesion, guided by the following research question: In what way are languages associated with social cohesion in academic articles? The second objective was to structure and illustra...
