30.336, Review: Sociolinguistics: Block (2018)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-30-336. Mon Jan 21 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.336, Review: Sociolinguistics: Block (2018)

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Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2019 15:18:47
From: Jennifer Martyn [jennifer.martyn at dcu.ie]
Subject: Political Economy and Sociolinguistics

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/29/29-2059.html

AUTHOR: David  Block
TITLE: Political Economy and Sociolinguistics
SUBTITLE: Neoliberalism, Inequality and Social Class
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
YEAR: 2018

REVIEWER: Jennifer Martyn, Dublin City University

SUMMARY

‘Political Economy and Sociolinguistics: Neoliberalism, Inequality and Social
Class’ by David Block is a call for sociolinguists to adopt a more robust
approach to political economy in their research, and emphasises the importance
of, what Monica Heller (2011) has called, “critical sociolinguistics” (Block
2018: 172). Block, who has focused increasingly on issues of political economy
in the last decade, argues, however, that although many sociolinguistic
researchers have indeed centralised political economy in their work, much of
it does not sufficiently engage with the human impact of some of the central
issues of our times - neoliberalism, social class, and inequality.  

The book is divided into a preface, six chapters, and an epilogue. The first
chapter introduces the application of political economy in sociolinguistic
research, followed by three chapters that unpack the concepts included in the
title, and two further chapters that analyse various texts from the Catalan
and Spanish sociopolitical contexts. 

In the preface, Block acknowledges that sociolinguistics has become a “broad
church” (2018: ix.), also alluding to a divide in research which orients
either towards the “socio” or the “linguistic”. For many, research which is
too “socio” is not sociolinguistic research at all - for others, including
Block, such disciplinary rigidity is “tedious” (2018: x) and even limiting.
For the former, Block’s interpretation of sociolinguistics in this book may be
too broad, as he uses theories and strategies associated with critical
discourse studies (CDS) to construct his argument. 

Chapter 1 presents and synthesizes research relating to political economy in
sociolinguistics. The first section, entitled ‘Political economy in
sociolinguistics’ notes that in 1989 both Judith Irvine and Susan Gal (in
separate articles) anticipated the growing interest in the relationship
between language(s) and political economy, and called for a “synthesis of the
material and the symbolic” (Block 2018: 4). Such an approach is at the heart
of Block’s thesis - that the material realities of citizens and communities
must be foregrounded in sociolinguistic and political economy research. The
remainder of the chapter identifies five key areas of (socio)linguistics in
which political economy is applied: the ‘English divide’ - those who speak
English having access to greater social and economic capital than those who do
not; Language in the workplace; Economics of language - which uses economic
theories to explain linguistic phenomena (e.g. Grin 2016); Language and
tourism; and, Critical Discourse Studies (Critical Discourse Analysis). 

Chapter 2, entitled ‘Political economy: Background and approach’ marks the
first of the book’s three theoretical chapters. It introduces the concept of
political economy, tracing its origins to the eighteenth century and
eventually to Marxist interpretations. Block takes a humanist approach to
political economy, placing the conditions of human existence at the centre.
Following Fourcade, Ollion and Algan (2014), he critiques contemporary
neoclassical economics and those working within the field, who “enjoy more
prestige, resembling physical scientists more than social scientists”, whose
work abstracts from human behaviour, and for whom the goal is, ultimately,
“propaganda” that perpetuates neoliberal capitalism (Block 2018: 40). Block
argues that poststructuralist thought, so dominant in sociolinguistics and the
social sciences today, does not well serve the study of political economy due
to its tendency to, to greater or lesser degrees, assume the ongoing
construction of reality through discourse and practice, which conflates
“representations of social reality (...) with social reality itself” (Bhaskar
1989, in Block 2018: 46). Situating his own theoretical viewpoint within a
critical Marxist global political economy and adopting a critical realist
lens, Block turns his attention to neoliberalism.  

The book’s third chapter, ‘Neoliberalism: Historical and conceptual
considerations’ provides an excellent introduction to the concept and its
evolution, necessary given the sweeping application of the term today. Noting
that it is a “variegated phenomenon” which is too often treated as uniform,
neoliberalism instead plays itself out “in different ways in different
contexts, as local historical, political, social, cultural and geographical
characteristics come together to constitute local varieties of capitalism”
(2018: 51). Block goes on to explain how Keynesian policies of the
mid-twentieth century were subject to two phases of eradication: ‘roll back’ -
the deregulation, devolution, and democratization of power structures,
cut-backs, and privatization of public services designed to dismantle the
welfare state. The second stage, ‘roll out’, has meant that the fallout from
the ‘roll back’ has had to be in some way repaired - in many cases by quangos
and other NGOs, increasing the levels of bureaucracy and number of
stakeholders involved in the deployment of public services. The chapter goes
on to provide an historical overview of neoliberalism and the rise of
neoliberal thought, with von Mises, Popper and Hayek instrumental in
advocating for varying degrees of market-rule. Again, Block turns his
attention to contemporary economists whose work does not critique neoliberal
capitalism, but rather works within it, rendering them, alongside their
political contemporaries - a neoliberal thought collective (NTC). 

The author briefly mentions the effects of neoliberal regimes on education
systems and the competition for resources, e.g. places in schools and
universities, funding, etc., and goes on later in the book to discuss European
research funding. At this point, however, the effects of neoliberalism in
education are not discussed in detail (see, for instance, Flubacher and Del
Percio (2017), a volume on language, education and neoliberalism; and Busch
(2017) on the neoliberalization of higher education). 

Chapter 4, ‘Stratification, inequality and social class’ investigates the
effects of neoliberal policies on individuals and communities. Turning first
to stratification, he discusses rising inequality across the world and within
nation-states - inter and intranational inequality - over the past decades.
Turning to the concept of inequality, Block presents the historical
conceptualisations of the term by prominent philosophers and other scholars,
before presenting Therborn’s (2006) model: vital inequality, existential
inequality and resource inequality, and Grusky and Ku’s (2008) typology of
eight key “assets” which identify advantaged and disadvantaged groups, or, in
other words, social classes (2018: 81-83). Block himself presents social class
as a “constellation of interrelated dimensions” (2018: 92-3), factoring in
material life conditions, economic resources, sociocultural resources,
behaviour, sociopolitical life conditions, and spatial conditions. The
categorisation and quantification of social class in recent years has led to
the inclusion of a new “class”, the precariat, a group of people whose
situation transcends traditional classes. However, Block is unwilling to
categorise the precariat as a class, given that it is more of a “condition
that is characteristic of an increasing number of work regimes in the world
today” (2018: 101). 

The fifth chapter, ‘The neoliberal citizen: Conceptualizations and contexts’
is the first analysis chapter of the book and aims to demonstrate the
discursive construction of neoliberal subject positions and representations.
Here, Block conceptualises subject positions in terms of citizenship. The
neoliberal citizen is defined in terms of “citizenship as status” - a
rights-based status; “citizenship as feeling” - individuals’ affiliation to
the imagined and “real” nation-state and its policies; and “citizenship as
practice” - the degree to which individuals participate in constructing the
nation-state and its policies, e.g. memberships of trade unions or voting in
elections (2018: 104). Following a more in-depth discussion of what it means
to be a neoliberal citizen, the chapter traces the rise of the entrepreneur
and self-branding, the latter of which must be employed at least some degree
to engage with the jobs market. 

Using Aaker’s (1997) dimensions of brand personality - sincerity, excitement,
competence, sophistication, and ruggedness, Block analyses the way in which
the French as a foreign language textbook ‘Édito - Niveau B2’ (B2 level of the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) represents the
neoliberal citizen, as well as shapes the neoliberal citizenship of its
readers, whose language skills and intercultural competence have become just
one more string to add the “brand-me” bow. Of particular note for this book’s
readership is the subsequent analysis of the European Commission’s ‘Horizon
2020’, whose funding calls are replete with neoliberal expressions (e.g.
“innovation”), soliciting “research with clear practical outcomes” (2018:
125). As readers of this book will be aware, such calls favour certain kinds
of scholarship over others. Finally, this chapter discusses the case of a
Spanish broker and iron-man athlete, Josef Arjam, applying Aaker’s five
dimensions of brand personality to his speeches and talks, which mark him out
as a “neoliberal citizen in the flesh” (2018: 130), and a model citizen to
which we are supposed to aspire. 

Chapter 6, ‘Inequality, class and class warfare: Discourse, ideology and
‘truth’’ uses CDS strategies to analyse discourses of home evictions and
protests in Spain in the wake of the global economic crisis and the austerity
measures introduced in 2013. Block firstly presents an overview of how CDS can
be used to analyse class warfare and “classtalk” - “an ideological position
that ‘ignores structural conditions and causes of poverty’” (Turgeon et al
2014, in Block 2018: 143) and which is realised via six discursive strategies.
The response to “escraches” - civil demonstrations at home evictions - by the
conservative Partido Popular (PP) - presented by Block is a chilling portrait
of anti-protest rhetoric often favoured by neoliberal regimes. In particular,
members of the PP discursively construct protestors as, ironically, “an
undemocratic mob” and followers of Nazi ideology, “in an attempt to shift the
debate away from class warfare perpetuated by the ruling elites on the popular
classes to a dubious debate about democratic principles” (2018: 152).  As the
author notes, such discursive strategies have elsewhere been termed “anything
goes” by Ruth Wodak - “discursive and rhetorical strategies which combine
incompatible phenomena, make false claims that sound innocent” and saying “the
unsayable” (Wodak 2013: 32-33), creating the effect of a “camera obscura”
(Marx and Engels [1846] 1998: 42) or inverted reality. 

EVALUATION 

‘Political Economy and Sociolinguistics: Neoliberalism, Inequality and Social
Class’ is written in Block’s readable style and is suitable for graduate
student level research and above. Through the initial three theoretical
chapters which dissect the principle concepts of the book, Block succeeds in
providing a strong foundation for the analyses that follow. The accessible
case studies and succinct discussions will be of use to educators wishing to
demonstrate to students of all levels the prevalence and depth of the
discursive construction of neoliberalism, inequality, and “classtalk” in
‘western’ societies. It will also be of interest to linguists hoping to
integrate political economy in their research, particularly those seeking a
history and a firm theoretical foundation in the area. The case study analyses
are more discursive than traditionally ‘sociolinguistic’, meaning that
analytical methods will not be of interest to all; however, the case studies
in question - including a language textbook; various texts from the Spanish
and Catalan sociopolitical contexts; and self-branding in the neoliberal age,
will be extremely familiar to those working and living within neoliberal
regimes, and will provide frameworks for scholars hoping to analyse similar
texts from their own institutions and regions. 

This book is particularly necessary at this juncture in time, when market rule
appears absolute, and with the rise of far-right parties and groups across
Europe and North America. Mainstream economists are implicated in this book as
being vehicles, rather than critics, of neoliberal regimes (aside from, for
example, Piketty 2014). In light of this, the book calls for increased
collaboration between linguists interested in political economy and economists
of language, bridging the ontological and epistemological differences in each
field. Such collaborations could lend weight to the exposition of
ever-increasing material inequality and the discursive “camera obscura” with
which citizens are confronted. 

REFERENCES 

Block, David. 2018. Political Economy and Sociolinguistics: Neoliberalism,
inequality and social class. London: Bloomsbury. 

Busch, Lawrence. 2017. Knowledge for sale: The Neoliberal takeover of higher
education. Cambridge: MIT Press. 

Flubacher, Mi-Cha and Alfonso Del Percio. 2017. Language, education and
neoliberalism. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 

Grin, François. 2016. 50 years of economics in language policy: Critical
assessment and priorities. The Economics of language policy ed by M. Gazzola
and B.-A.Wickström, 21-52. Cambridge: MIT Press. 

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. [1846] 1998. The German Ideology. London:
Lawrence and Wisart. 

Piketty, Thomas. 2014. Capital in the twenty-first century. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press. 

Wodak, Ruth. 2013. ‘Anything goes’ - The Haiderization of Europe. Right-wing
populism in Europe ed by R. Wodak, M. Khosrav Nik and B. Mral, 23-38. London:
Bloomsbury.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Jennifer Martyn is Assistant Professor in the School of Applied Languages and
Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University, Ireland. Her research
interests include the sociolinguistics of language education, ideologies of
language learning, and gender and language learning. She is the author of
'Language, Identity and Migration: Voices from Transnational Speakers and
Communities' (2016, Peter Lang), and the forthcoming monograph 'Gender,
Identity, and Ideologies of Foreign Language Learning'.





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