[lg policy] Call for papers: Language policies on social network sites

Fri Dec 14 22:16:44 UTC 2012

Forwarded From:  <edling at bunner.geol.lu.se>

Call for papers: Language policies on social network sites

The journal Language Policy announces a call for papers for a thematic
issue on language policies on social network sites.

This issue aims to bring together trends at the forefront of research
on computer mediated communication (CMC) and language policy.
Research on language in the new media has been growing quickly in
recent years, spanning a great range of online environments, including
gaming, chat systems, discussion forums, media sharing sites and
blogs.  Some of this research focuses on social network sites, but
this has tended to concentrate mostly on language practices and
discourses (e.g. code-switching, language play, identity construction)
and not on the language policies that guide them. Meanwhile, the
discipline of language policy in the past decade has developed
research beyond official language policies of national governments to
language policies occurring within less official contexts such as
workplaces and homes, and formal and less formal models of language
policy, also including ‘language policing’ initiated by individuals
(Blommaert et al 2009).  Yet the media domain receives little
attention in language policy research, especially with regards to
recent developments in the new media, particularly social network
sites.  Thus, this thematic issue aims to extend this research and to
bring together studies on CMC and language policies that are relevant
to both areas.

Social network sites are a particularly promising focus of research on
language policy as these platforms provide a new mechanism and context
for organising social groups around the purpose of communication.
They connect people across time and space, in configurations involving
multiple modes of communication, such as wall posts, instant
messaging, online games and personal messages.  They provide new
agents with new roles and powers in regulating the language practices
of others, and offer the possibility of drawing together individuals
sharing interests that include   issues particularly related to
language.  With this in mind, this thematic issue seeks to draw
together research on a range of topics relating to language policies
on social network sites, including:

·         language policies in different parts of social network
systems, e.g. applications, group pages, individual pages;

·         language policy activity at different levels, from the macro
level of the language policies of social network sites as
corporations, to the meso level of language policies of groups, to the
micro level of individuals’ language policing of others, along with
interactions between these levels;

·         language ideologies in relation to language policies on
social network sites and how individuals try to influence language
practices on these sites to serve their own interests;

·         dynamic processes of mutual influence between language
policies on social network sites and the language practices of social
network site users;

·         constraints on the development and implementation of
language policies on social network sites due to the technical
features of the social network interface;

·         the use of social network sites as a means of achieving
language policy goals in off-line contexts, such as the promotion of
minority languages or opposition to national language policies.

The thematic issue seeks to cover social network sites of diverse
national origins, for example those originating from the US (e.g.
Facebook, Twitter), China (e.g. Sina Weibo, Renren) and a number of
countries in Europe (e.g. Hyves, Tuenti), and to include a range of
national and linguistic contexts in which these sites are now used.
For the purpose of this issue, social networks are defined broadly to
include both micro-blogging services (e.g. Twitter, Sina Weibo) and
social network sites more strictly defined (e.g. Facebook, Hyves).

All papers will undergo full peer review. Those interested in
contributing should submit a title and abstract (up to 300 words) to
the guest editor of the thematic issue, Julia de Bres
(julia.debres at uni.lu), by 1 April 2013.  After an initial abstract
selection process, authors will be invited to submit full papers for
double-blind peer review by 1 October 2013.  The issue is envisaged
for publication in late 2014.  For information about the journal and
author guidelines, see:
http://www.springer.com/education+%26+language/linguistics/journal/10993

Blommaert, J., H. Kelly-Holmes, P. Lane, S. Leppänen, M. Moriarty, S.
Pietikäinen and A. Piirainen-Marsh (2009).  Media, multilingualism and
language policing: an introduction.  Language Policy 8(3): 203-207.

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