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Abstract
Tracing the ways in which multilingualism has been understood and valued by scholars and beyond, Alexandre Duchêne shows how the work of sociolinguistics dramatically shifted the image of multilingual speakers and societies as a problem for nation-states to something to be celebrated, even as an indicator and contributor to social justice for minority language speakers. He then goes on to argue that this validation and recognition of multiple languages can divert attention away from broader inequalities, especially socioeconomic ones, that multilingualism is unable to address.

AbstractIn this article, we propose a historical, political, and critical framework that situates language surveys and censuses as an object of sociolinguistic inquiry. First, we provide a brief history of the production of language statistics that aims to understand why authoritative bodies "need" language statistics, and what political agendas they help fulfil. Second, we highlight the epistemological and methodological challenges that emerge from the creation of language statistics. Third, we focus on the socio-political consequences of language statistics in society, including a focus on the actors and institutions that use or contest numbers in various contexts, and how language statistics impact the (un)equal distribution of resources. We argue that censuses and surveys are always embedded in political projects and constitute a complex combination of scientific and socio-political arguments that shape the way language and speakers are conceived of. As such, we emphasize the importance of recognizing censuses and surveys as a site for sociolinguistic inquiry, while anchoring our understanding of this instrument's inner workings within the particularities of the historical and political conditions in which they emerge.

Migration and the mobility of citizens around the globe pose important challenges to the linguistic and cultural homogeneity that nation-states rely on for defining their physical boundaries and identity, as well as the rights and obligations of their citizens. A new social order resulting from neoliberal economic practices, globalisation and outsourcing also challenges traditional ways the nation-state has organized its control over the people who have typically travelled to a new country looking for work or better life chances. This collection provides an account of the ways language addresses core questions concerning power and the place of migrants in various institutional and workplace settings. It brings together contributions from a range of geographical settings to understand better how linguistic inequality is (re)produced in this new economic order.

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to analyze the conducting of a state survey on language and to highlight the ideological tensions that are embedded in the search for an appropriate formulation of a question, as well as in the conduct of the survey interviews. Relying on historiographic data, as well as on interactional data, and focusing on the opening question of the survey that deals with the main language(s) of the respondent, defined as the language(s) they know the best, we first explore the origin and the history of this question in the Swiss census. Second, we examine how, by whom, and with what rationales the main language question has been formulated and selected within in the most recent survey. Finally, we analyze how this question is enacted in the interactions between interviewers and respondents. By engaging in a genealogical examination of language questions in Swiss censuses, we provide insight into the ideological formation in which these questions are embedded, revealing conflicting and ambiguous interests, thus implying complications and uncertainties with regard to interpretations of available census data.

Drawing on fieldwork conducted between 2002 and 2012 in Switzerland, Catalunya and different zones of francophone Canada in sites related to heritage and cultural tourism, we argue that tourism, especially i n multilingual peripheries, is a key site for a sociolinguistic exploration of the political economy of globalization. We link shifts in the role of language in tourism to shifts in phases of capitalism, focusing on the shift from industrial to late capitalism, and in particular on the effects of the commodification of authenticity. We examine the tensions this shift generates in ideologies and practices of language, concerned especially with defining the nature of the tourism product, the public and the management of the tourism process. This results in an as yet unresolved destabilization of hitherto hegemonic discourses linking languages to cultures, identities, nations and States.