Multilingualism, Inclusion and Democracy

Abstract

Language and linguistic diversity have become increasingly prominent topics in recent normative political theory. A great deal of scholarship has focussed on topics such as the scope of language rights and their justification (see, e.g. Kymlicka & Patten 2003), the case for officially recognising and supporting different languages (see, e.g., Patten 2014), and whether speakers of different languages have duties of linguistic justice toward one another (see, e.g., Van Parijs 2011). Meanwhile, the implications of multilingualism for democracy have featured in these debates only in a very general sense, mostly by way of political theorists offering different views about the possibility and challenges of multilingual democratic deliberation (see, e.g., Cabrera 2022; Collin 2013; Peled & Bonotti 2016, 2019; Schmidt Sr 2014). This panel will advance the field by exploring some additional challenges of inclusive democracy in multilingual settings. It will explore issues such as the relevance of language choice and ability for perceptions of credibility in democratic politics (Morales-Gálvez et al), the importance of majority language skills for political participation (Shorten), people’s duties to counter the experience of ‘linguistic isolation’ (Song), and whether official language policies can ever be truly ‘neutral’ (Carey). In doing so, the panel will contribute to wider debates about linguistic justice by introducing theoretical perspectives relatively neglected in the existing literature, such as the capabilities approach and theories of structural injustice, and through conceptual innovation, for instance by helping to better appreciate the complex subtleties of linguistic preferences and linguistic discrimination.

Title	Details
What do you mean? Language and Political Trust in Multilingual Settings	View Paper Details
Capabilities, Paternalism, and "Linguistic Neutrality"	View Paper Details
For Linguistic Inclusion	View Paper Details
Linguistic Disadvantage: The case of control over one’s environment	View Paper Details
Minority language broadcasting: an institution between bridge-builder and imagined community?	View Paper Details