Shaping discourses of multilingualism through a language ideological debate: The case of Swedish in Finland
(2014) In Journal of Language and Politics 13(1). p.1-20- Abstract
- The ideological (re)construction of the position of Swedish in Finland is examined as it took shape during a major year-long debate about the role of Swedish in Finnish education. Data were collected through archival research of the leading national newspapers in the two official languages of Finland: Helsingin Sanomat (Finnish) and Hufvudstadsbladet (Swedish). Circulating and intersecting discourses in newspaper texts are traced in order to examine how these discourses facilitate the negotiation of tensions about the status of Swedish in Finland. Analysis demonstrates how ideological space was opened for destabilizing dominant perspectives about the relative value of languages in Finland. Moreover, it is shown that (re)interpretations of... (More)
- The ideological (re)construction of the position of Swedish in Finland is examined as it took shape during a major year-long debate about the role of Swedish in Finnish education. Data were collected through archival research of the leading national newspapers in the two official languages of Finland: Helsingin Sanomat (Finnish) and Hufvudstadsbladet (Swedish). Circulating and intersecting discourses in newspaper texts are traced in order to examine how these discourses facilitate the negotiation of tensions about the status of Swedish in Finland. Analysis demonstrates how ideological space was opened for destabilizing dominant perspectives about the relative value of languages in Finland. Moreover, it is shown that (re)interpretations of the discourse of ‘Swedish as mandatory’ in education became a fulcrum for leveraging a wider debate about the ‘Finland as bilingual nation’ discourse, which has long been part of the national consciousness. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/3801984
- author
- Hult, Francis LU and Pietikäinen, Sari
- organization
- publishing date
- 2014
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- education policy, Finnish, Finland, language ideological debate, media, societal multilingualism, Swedish
- in
- Journal of Language and Politics
- volume
- 13
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 1 - 20
- publisher
- John Benjamins Publishing Company
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000336121100002
- scopus:84900465027
- ISSN
- 1569-9862
- DOI
- 10.1075/jlp.13.1.01hul
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- ceee51b0-4b33-41c1-889d-71c3e29af458 (old id 3801984)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 07:54:17
- date last changed
- 2022-03-15 07:30:38
@article{ceee51b0-4b33-41c1-889d-71c3e29af458,
abstract = {{The ideological (re)construction of the position of Swedish in Finland is examined as it took shape during a major year-long debate about the role of Swedish in Finnish education. Data were collected through archival research of the leading national newspapers in the two official languages of Finland: Helsingin Sanomat (Finnish) and Hufvudstadsbladet (Swedish). Circulating and intersecting discourses in newspaper texts are traced in order to examine how these discourses facilitate the negotiation of tensions about the status of Swedish in Finland. Analysis demonstrates how ideological space was opened for destabilizing dominant perspectives about the relative value of languages in Finland. Moreover, it is shown that (re)interpretations of the discourse of ‘Swedish as mandatory’ in education became a fulcrum for leveraging a wider debate about the ‘Finland as bilingual nation’ discourse, which has long been part of the national consciousness.}},
author = {{Hult, Francis and Pietikäinen, Sari}},
issn = {{1569-9862}},
keywords = {{education policy; Finnish; Finland; language ideological debate; media; societal multilingualism; Swedish}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{1--20}},
publisher = {{John Benjamins Publishing Company}},
series = {{Journal of Language and Politics}},
title = {{Shaping discourses of multilingualism through a language ideological debate: The case of Swedish in Finland}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jlp.13.1.01hul}},
doi = {{10.1075/jlp.13.1.01hul}},
volume = {{13}},
year = {{2014}},
}