Globalisation, attitudes towards English and party-political affiliation

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the possibility that attitudes toward the use of English in Denmark vary according to party-political affiliation, and that this in turn can help us understand the meanings and values that are associated with English in Denmark today. Traditionally, attitudes towards English have been thought of in terms of a unidimensional axis in which English as opportunity is seen in opposition to English as threat. Our analysis, which is based on a representative questionnaire survey (n ≈ 850), shows that these two conceptualisations do not in fact form a unidimensional scale, but a two-dimensional space. We analyse the respondents’ declared political affiliation in relation to their positioning in this space, and find that attitudes towards English should be thought of in terms of two axes, ‘national protectionism’ as one and ‘support for market economy’ as the other.