ELL: political implications

Anthony McCann mccannat at SI.EDU
Wed Oct 2 13:58:41 UTC 2002


>Another argument that we can give for saving small
languages is that
diversity is a 'good thing': in nature, society, and
languages.>

In passing, celebrating diversity for diversity's sake is
not helpful to analyses, as I see it, because diversity is
one of those concepts that leaves the subtleties and power
dynamics of the specificity and complexity of people's lives
(or the environment) out of the picture. Diversity is a
rubric that suits descriptive analyses, not explanatory
ones. It talks about the 'that' rather than the 'how' and as
such is a little too positivist for me.

All the best

Anthony McCann
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