[Edling] Call for abstracts: Special Issue of Educational Linguistics (De Gruyter Brill): “Language Governance in the Global South: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue on Power, Technology, and Justice”

Thu Aug 28 08:38:00 UTC 2025

Call for Abstract
Special Issue of Educational Linguistics
(De Gruyter Brill eISSN: 2748-9329
ISSN: 2748-9310)
on
“Language Governance in the Global South:
An Interdisciplinary Dialogue on Power, Technology, and Justice”

Introduction
Against the dual backdrop of sociocultural transformation and collective ascent in Global South nations, language governance has emerged as a pivotal issue intersecting educational equity, cultural preservation, and social development, while simultaneously constituting a critical field of interdisciplinary inquiry (Sultana, 2024). With the intensification of globalization and the expansion of neoliberal policies, Global South countries confront multifaceted challenges in formulating and implementing language policies (Pennycook & Makoni, 2020; Vepa, & Pérez-Milans, 2025): on one hand, enduring linguistic hierarchies inherited from colonial legacies persistently shape contemporary language planning; on the other, the rapid advancement of digital technologies is fundamentally reconfiguring the ecological landscape of language practice. Currently, the international academic community has developed three major research paradigms around this issue: first, critical language policy studies, which reveals the symbiotic relationship between language planning and power structures in postcolonial contexts (Phillipson, 1992); second, multimodal language studies, which focuses on the disruptive impact of digital technologies on the survival of indigenous languages (Llanes-Ortiz, 2023); third, the political economy analysis of language justice (Heller & McElhinny, 2017), which explores the profound impacts of migration waves, educational marketization, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the distribution of language resources. These research perspectives converge on a core proposition: in an era marked by the growing prevalence of “translanguaging practices”, how can the Global South navigate the dialectical tension between the demands of language modernization and the imperative to safeguard cultural sovereignty? This reconciliation is pivotal to achieving the sustainable development of linguistic ecosystems and the effective protection of cultural diversity amid the tide of globalization (Sah, 2022).
To advance interdisciplinary dialogue, this special issue on “Language Governance in the Global South” for Educational Linguistics examines the dynamic interplay between language policies, power structures, and social practices, with particular attention to distributive justice in linguistic resources and the reproduction of Indigenous knowledge systems within postcolonial contexts.

Themes
We expect the contributions to this issue to address, but not limited to, the following topics related to Language Governance in the Global South:
?   Language Policy and Planning in Global South countries
?   Indigenous Language Revitalization and Preservation in the Global South countries
?   The Impact of Digital Media on Language Practices in the Global South countries
?   Language Rights and Linguistic Justice in the Global South countries
?   The Impact of Migration on Language Policies and Practices in the Global South countries
?   Language Policy and Sustainable Development in the Global South countries
?   Teaching Chinese as an international language in the Global South countries
?   World Languages Education Planning in Global South Contexts

Proposed Timeline
Submissions to the special issue should include a) a title (15 words max); b) an abstract (300 words max); c) each author’s information, including the name, contact information, affiliation, and a 100-word bio. Please send your abstract and any inquires to the Managing Editor, Dr. Qi Shen (qishen at tongji.edu.cn<mailto:qishen at tongji.edu.cn>) and the Guest Editor, Jiao Li (jiaoli.729 at gmail.com).

Abstracts Due: September 15, 2025
Short-listed Abstracts Announced: October 1, 2025
Full Manuscripts Due: November 30th, 2025
Final Revisions Due: March 1, 2026
Published Online: June 2026

References
Heller, M., & McElhinny, B. (2017). Language, capitalism, colonialism: Toward a critical history. University of Toronto Press.
Llanes-Ortiz, G. (2023). Digital initiatives for indigenous languages. UNESCO Publishing.
Pennycook, Alastair & Sinfree Makoni. 2020. Innovations and challenges in applied linguistics from the global South. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429489396
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford university press.
Sah, P. K. (2022). English medium instruction in South Asia’s multilingual schools: Unpacking the dynamics of ideological orientations, policy/practices, and democratic questions. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25(2), 742-755. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1718591
Sultana, S. (2024). Applied linguistics from the Global South: Way forward to linguistic equality and social justice. Applied Linguistics Review, 15(4), 1369-1375. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2022-0071.
Vepa, S. A., & Pérez-Milans, M. (2025). Philanthrocapitalism and the languaging of empowered women in the Global South. Multilingua, 44(2), 181-204. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2024-0137

Professor Li Wei, PhD, FBA, MAE, FAcSS, FRSA

Director and Dean, UCL Institute of Education (IOE)

Professor of Applied Linguistics, University College London (UCL)

#1 for Education in QS world university rankings by subject every year since 2014.

Executive Officer: Samantha Arnold | t: +44 (0)207 612 6004 | Internal 06004 | e: s.arnold at ucl.ac.uk<mailto:s.arnold at ucl.ac.uk> | w: www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe>

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