Tracking identity in minority language policy: a reflexive approach to hybrid concepts in the language sciences

Abstract

This article presents a conceptual history of identity in Swedish minority language policy, exploring how “develop[ing] a cultural identity” became integral to the minority language curriculum. Following the methodology of Wacquant (2022), which combines Bourdieu's sociology with the conceptual history of Koselleck, the study tracks identity through archived documents from the political, media and academic fields of the 1968–74 immigration inquiry in Sweden and subsequent actualisation of the so-called Home Language Reform in 1977. This reform continues to entitle children who are raised speaking a language other than Swedish to state-mandated tuition in this language via mother tongue instruction (MTI). As a space for non-hegemonic language practice, MTI struggles for political and societal legitimacy and existing research has yet to explore how identity is entangled in its (de)legitimation. Following debate in the 1960s about the unsuitability of “adjustment”, the IC aimed to construct a new conceptual framework for migrant discourse. Analysis of bills, publications, minutes and media op-eds show that agents acted as brokers to jointly construct identity as a flexible framework to cover diverse needs within and across their respective fields. Within the media field, pundits argued either for the right of the individual to choose their level of engagement with established groups, or for the autonomy of migrant groups to establish their own schools and communities. Within the political field, inspiration came from the perceived successes of Canadian immigration reform, while key academics took interest in North American social psychology research. The focal point of this cross-field negotiation was a hybrid concept, a necessarily flexible frame of reference whose meaning differed slightly within each field. Given the lack of semantic precision of hybrid concepts, reflexive language science ought to consider and problematise their application in MTI research and in further academic enquiry.