Abstract
Drawing on the example of Multilingual Manchester, we show how a university research unit can support work toward a more inclusive society by raising awareness of language diversity and thereby helping to facilitate access to services, raise confidence among disadvantaged groups, sensitise young people to the challenges of diversity, and remove barriers. The setting (Manchester, UK) is one in which globalisation and increased mobility have created a diverse civic community; where austerity measures in the wake of the financial crisis a decade ago continue to put pressure on public services affecting the most vulnerable population sectors; and where higher education is embracing a neo-liberal agenda with growing emphasis on the economisation of research, commodification of teaching, and a need to demonstrate a ‘return on investment’ to clients and sponsors. Unexpectedly, perhaps, this environment creates favourable conditions for a model of participatory research that involves co-production with students and local stakeholders and seeks to shape public discourses around language diversity as a way of promoting values and strategies of inclusion.
Highlights
The years 2016–2017 brought about a new intensity of political campaigns that challenge notions of globalisation and purport to address inequality
The study of urban multilingualism tended to focus initially on descriptive inventories of language communities that share urban space (e.g., García & Fishman, 1997), on community language policy (e.g., Clyne & Kipp, 2006), and on methods of mapping language vitality (e.g., Barni & Extra, 2008), but it has since shifted its attention to practices and ideologies that call for novel conceptualisations of multilingual repertoires (Blommaert, 2010; Canagarajah, 2017; García & Wei, 2014; Heller, 2011; Pennycook & Otsuji, 2015), new participatory methods of investigation (Cadier & Mar-Molinero, 2012; Stevenson, 2017), and new challenges for policy especially around issues of inclusion and social justice (Piller, 2016; cf. Matras, 2017)
While a comprehensive survey of university engagement around urban multilingualism is beyond the scope of this paper, we refer to Malinowski (2016) for an example of how undergraduate teaching in Applied Linguistics can be made ‘locally meaningful’ by using the urban environment and its linguistic landscape as a setting for research-led learning, introducing an aspect of community awareness into the curriculum
Summary
The study of urban multilingualism tended to focus initially on descriptive inventories of language communities that share urban space (e.g., García & Fishman, 1997), on community language policy (e.g., Clyne & Kipp, 2006), and on methods of mapping language vitality (e.g., Barni & Extra, 2008), but it has since shifted its attention to practices and ideologies that call for novel conceptualisations of multilingual repertoires (Blommaert, 2010; Canagarajah, 2017; García & Wei, 2014; Heller, 2011; Pennycook & Otsuji, 2015), new participatory methods of investigation (Cadier & Mar-Molinero, 2012; Stevenson, 2017), and new challenges for policy especially around issues of inclusion and social justice (Piller, 2016; cf Matras, 2017) Such questions often prompt practical considerations as to how research can help empower actors to embrace as legitimate everyday practices pertaining to their multilingual identities in an environment that continues to be dominated by monolingualist, nation-state oriented narratives and policy measures (cf., Arnaut, Blommaert, Rampton, & Spotti, 2016; Blackledge & Creese, 2010). These citations prompt us to recount the considerations and strategies that led to the initiative and to engage in a critical reflection on the way in which challenging circumstances can bring about creative solutions, as well as on the pressures and risks that are part of the package
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