reactions

[Ruth Wodak]

Dear Robert!
Thank you for your reaction. It is indeed getting worse here, the FPO has
made it to second place which means several things:
a) there will be new elections because both other big parties do not want
to go together with the FPO
b) The old new coalition will come again which may mean that Heider gets
majority next time
c)  The OVP goes with Haider, and Haider might be  tbe chancellor!

All this is very depressing and frightening. Of course, haider is not a
Nazi but populist, thus many reports in foreign countries are wrong and
simplistic; but the backlash will be enormous.

The impact of globalisation on nationalism and xenophobia is very big.
Haider has won by creating fears of unemployment and by promising to
protect the workers of the new developments of neo-liberalist economy. The
FPO is now called the "workers party". (47% of workers votes). The
globalisation rhetorics which we have studied extensively in the EU
discoureses seem to be very threatning (see Muntigl, Weiss, Wodak in
print). Also, two disertations are studying discourses on employment
polices in the media and in expert committtees inside and outside Austria
(heubock, kettler) in the Department of Linguistics in Vienna. I think that
CDA absolutely has to study these developments and we would be very happy
to hear of other projects which have empricial data already; as Norman
suggested, we should all link up. In January we are also hopefully starting
(if we get funds) with a project on attitudes to the East expansion of the
Eu inside Austria. Again, due to opinion polls, the fears are enormous,
thus foreigners and the people in the neighbouring countries are percieved
as threatning jobs, and scapegoats are created.

Attached are my adresses for the next three months

-----Original Message-----
From:   Robert Phillipson [SMTP:robert at BABEL.RUC.DK]
Sent:   Tuesday, October 12, 1999 2:56 PM
To:     CRITICS-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL
Subject:        reactions

A quick response to recent postings:
- Ruth's : very useful, and with many symptoms of the same
neo-fascism and cowardly social democracy in "liberal" Denmark
- Norman's : I hope it spreads.

I find it intriguing that Norman's refers to "language" in
neo-liberalism. As I see it from continental Europe, post-colonial and
post-communist states, "language" often means English - in competitio
n with other languages. The relationship between an expanding use of
English and globalisation is a topic that has been of concern to Tove and
me for some time:
1) Tove is currently reading proofs (but has been delayed by illness:
in bed for two weeks, in hospital for the past week and a half with
seriously worrying symptoms and no diagnosis as yet of what
the problem is) for her vast new book "Linguistic genocide in
education - or worldwide diversity and human rights", Erlbaum,
hich among other things deals with globalisation and its implications for
linguistic diversity;
2) also covered to some extent is rights to language, on which there
is a wide range of papers in a Festschrift I am editing for Tove's
60th birthday next year (50 contributors, also with Erlbaum) an
d several in a book literally being published this week in Budapest,
with the Central European University Press, "Language: a right
and a resource: approaching linguistic human rights", edited by
Miklos Kontra, Tove, myself and Tibor Varadi;
3) English triumphalists like David Crystal claim to be in favour of
linguistic diversity and bilingualism but write with little understanding
of the topic. See my review article of his "English as a
 global language" in the latest number of "Applied Linguistics";
4) some of the dimensions and research needs in exploring the
relationship between Englishisation and globalisation are pursued
in an article Tove and I have in the latest number of the AILA Review
(which people receive as members of national affiliates);
5) I gave a paper at a conference in Lincoln last month on "English
in the new world order", and am trying to flesh out work in this
field, in which discourses of various kinds, not least scholarly a
nd political ones, figure prominently.

So what I am saying, in as few words as possible, is that I see good
reasons for linking up the CDA project Norman is launching with
interlocking concerns to do with linguistic hierarchies, their
structural characteristics and legitimation. I wish I had more time to
pursue things more energetically.

Robert Phillipson
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Wodadress.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 25088 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/critics-l/attachments/19991012/ece2f7ff/attachment.doc>