Agency in the Peripheries of Language Revitalisation: Examining European Practices on the Ground - Paperback

by Mary S. Linn (Editor), Alejandro Dayán-Fernández (Editor)

This book addresses the question of agency in the revitalisation of minoritised languages in Europe. The chapters investigate how grassroots actors shape revitalisation, and how individuals and groups negotiate historical factors, motivations, and institutionalised initiatives and policies in a variety of efforts.

Author Biography

Mary S. Linn is Curator of Language and Cultural Vitality at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Washington, DC, USA. Her primary research is in effective grassroots strategies in language reclamation and cultural sustainability, especially in small language communities. She directs the Language Vitality Initiative, which focuses on training, networking, innovation and advocacy, and she is on the curatorial committee of the annual Smithsonian Mother Tongue Film Festival.

Alejandro Day?n-Fern?ndez is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Glasgow. Grounded in critical sociolinguistics, his PhD research explored the role of language in diaspora community building processes based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among Galicians in the UK. By combining his interdisciplinary background in political science, translation studies and sociolinguistics, his current research focuses on the use of language in processes of collective action among grassroots social movements and the instrumentalisation of minoritised languages for political gains by different ideological forces.