Ricento, T. (ed): Language Policy and Political Economy: English in a Global Context

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Edited by Thomas Ricento, Language Policy and Political Economy: English in a Global Context has at least three main aims: (a) to interrogate language policy and discourses that have an often injurious impact on people where English is taught as an additional language; (b) to make the case that political economy represents an advantageous perspective for such an interrogation; and (c) to reflect critically on whether English serves as a bona fide lingua franca and what that means for nationstates, as well as people trying to survive in a global economy. Through the 12 chapters that constitute this collection, the book achieves these aims and represents a critical contribution to the field, especially relevant for scholars, educators, and policymakers. Part 1, ‘‘Political Theory and Political Economy in Language Policy Research on English as a Global Language,’’ makes the case for the power of political economy analysis to clarify how conceptions of the state operate within classical liberal theory to shape language policies. In the opening chapter, ‘‘Political Economy and English as a ‘Global’ Language,’’ Ricento criticizes scholarship that underestimates the importance of neoliberal economics, which profit only a rich, mobile, elite few. Next, in clarifying how political economy differs from other analytical lenses, Jeff Bale in ‘‘Language Policy and Global Political Economy’’ makes the case for a global political economy (GPE) framework and urges the rejection of positions that see English as all oppressive and threatening, or that sentimentalize individual language rights as a cure-all. In ‘‘Global English and the Limits of Liberalism: Confronting Global Capitalism and Challenges to the Nation-State,’’ Peter Ives agrees that language scholars should draw from political theory, but urges that