Justifying language policies in mobile societies

Carey, Brian; Shorten, Andrew

doi:10.1075/wlp.9.18car

Justifying language policies in mobile societies

Carey, Brian; Shorten, Andrew

Authors

Dr Brian Carey brian.carey@durham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor in Political Theory

Andrew Shorten

Contributors

François Grin
Editor

László Marácz
Editor

Nike K. Pokorn
Editor

Abstract

A conception of linguistic justice refers to a set of moral principles that can provide guidance about a society’s language policies. By the lights of a recently prominent strand of liberal political theory, such a conception will be legitimate if and only if it meets certain standards of public justification. Amongst other things, this means that it must be arrived at by way of a legitimate procedure and its principles must be ones that no one could reasonably reject. This chapter explores the potential of this ideal for mobile and multilingual societies in Europe by developing three arguments. First, we argue that in order to be legitimate, a conception of linguistic justice must be justifiable to a relevant constituency and that, in EU member states, this includes mobile Europeans as well as the citizens of member states. Second, we argue that, in circumstances of linguistic diversity, the requirements of public justification generate a presumption in favour of multilingual deliberative procedures. Third, we argue that when selecting principles of justice we ought to prioritise the interests of the least advantaged, and that doing so will often mean that only a multilingual language regime is acceptable.

Citation

Carey, B., & Shorten, A. (2022). Justifying language policies in mobile societies. In F. Grin, L. Marácz, & N. K. Pokorn (Eds.), Advances in Interdisciplinary Language Policy (361-380). John Benjamins Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1075/wlp.9.18car

Online Publication Date	Jan 21, 2022
Publication Date	2022
Deposit Date	Apr 24, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Jan 21, 2023
Publisher	John Benjamins Publishing
Pages	361-380
Series Title	Studies in World Language Problems
Series Number	9
Book Title	Advances in Interdisciplinary Language Policy.
Chapter Number	18
ISBN	9789027210159
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1075/wlp.9.18car