Conference on Authority, Power and Language

Call for Papers for a Conference on Authority, Power and Language.

Authority, Power and Language 

18-19 October 2022

University of Limerick (Limerick, Ireland)

Organisers: Sergi Morales-Gálvez and Andrew Shorten (University of Limerick).  

Confirmed speakers: Alan Patten (Princeton University), Anna Stilz (Princeton University), Ayelet Banai (University of Haifa), Helder De Schutter (KU Leuven), Ian O’Flynn (Newcastle University), Rainer Bauböck (European University Institute), and Yael Peled.

To date, theories of linguistic justice have focused on its distributive dimension: how material and symbolic resources should be distributed across language groups in a given society, or – less often – globally. Meanwhile, few theories of linguistic justice have systematically addressed how power over linguistic issues should be distributed. In other words, there remains an important and unanswered question about who is entitled to exercise power over language policies and regulations. The aim of this conference is to advance our understanding of this puzzle by incorporating the concepts of authority and self-government into the discussions of linguistic justice.

Submissions are invited addressing the general conference themes, including but not limited to the following questions:

  • Who is entitled to regulate language policies, planning, status and/or rights and duties?
  • How power over linguistic norms and policies should be distributed?
  • Who, if anyone, holds legitimate authority over language corpus (grammar, vocabulary, etc.)?
  • Which institutional designs and decision-making procedures best support linguistic justice?
  • How should the interests of minority language speakers be represented?
  • Who, if anyone, is entitled to regulate language use in firms or voluntary associations, including universities?

We also welcome submissions that connect these questions to related philosophical discussions about political representation, democratic theory, and federalism; and also to more practical debates such as how to organize the European Union and its multilingual landscape, or how to regulate the global spread of English.

We welcome submissions from participants at all career stages, including PhD students. Those interested presenting should send an abstract of no more than 500 words to Sergi.MoralesGalvez@ul.ie before January 31st, 2022.

Funding: This conference forms part of the ‘Speaking Freely: Linguistic Domination, Republicanism and Federalism’ project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie (Grant Agreement Number: 892537). It may be possible to support the participation of colleagues without institutional support. For further information please contact Sergi.MoralesGalvez@ul.ie

This conference will be also host the second meeting of the Linguistic Justice Society, a recently created academic society willing to put together and promote academic research on issues of language, politics and ethics.

Sergi Morales-Gálvez
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Theory

The Department of Politics and Public Administration / Roinn Polaitíochta agus Riarcháin Poiblí

University of Limerick / Ollscoil Luimnigh 

https://www.sergimorales.cat/en/