[Linganth] Call for papers SS24: The Ethics, Politics, Histories and Futures of Critical Sociolinguistic Intervention

[Katy Highet]

*Call for Papers for Panel at Sociolinguistics Symposium 24 (13-16 July
2022, Ghent) *



*Panel Title*: *The Ethics, Politics, Histories and Futures of Critical
Sociolinguistic Intervention*



*Abstract*:

Critical Sociolinguistics has emerged over the last three decades from an
intersection of various fields to define itself today as a field invested
in mapping the role of language in the (re)production of social inequality.
The notion of ‘mapping’, however, raises questions about the nature of our
critique and the contributions it can make in the active undoing and
reimagining of processes of social inequality. While there is a long
history of public engagement within Critical Sociolinguistics and the
fields which inspired it – most notably in the Ebonics debate in the USA –
there is still a palpable unease today within Critical Sociolinguistics
regarding the nature, purpose and challenges of critique and of researcher
intervention – that is, how we can mobilise the knowledge we produce in
order to effect change (Kraft & Flubacher 2020). This unease is exacerbated
further by the shift towards ‘impact’ as a measurement of research quality
in the neoliberal university, with which many are sceptical of engaging.



This panel seeks to bring together researchers in CS who are interested in
the alternatives to ‘impact’ and who are wrestling with the
(im)possibilities of engagement beyond the academe, the options that are
open to us, and the challenges that we may encounter. While this panel
shares the assumption that CS can  and should – be actively engaged in
social transformation, we argue that, to do this, a deeper discussion of
the ethics, politics and histories of critique and intervention is
required, in order to ask if ‘intervention’ can be reimagined in ways that
resist reproducing the neoliberal, colonial framings that often shape
researcher engagement.



We invite papers that engage with the following questions:

   - What is the purpose and nature of critical research and what is its
   role in social transformation?
   - What are the ethical and political challenges encountered in critical
   research intervention projects?
   - What can critical sociolinguistics learn from fields with different
   histories of research intervention?
   - How can an ethics of critical research intervention co-exist
   alongside, and resist being co-opted by, neoliberalised concepts of
   ‘impact’?
   - What are the limits and possibilities of engagements with activism in
   critical research?
   - To what extent does CS intervention sustain processes of social
   inequality? How can engagement with our research sites and participants be
   reimagined for the purposes of social transformation?
   - What is the role of the critical researcher? To whom are we
   responsible?
   - What happens when intervention ‘goes wrong’?



*References:  *

Kraft, K. and Flubacher, M.-C. (2020) ‘The promise of language: Betwixt
empowerment and the reproduction of inequality’, *International Journal of
the Sociology of Language*, 2020(264), pp. 1–23. doi:
10.1515/ijsl-2020-2091



If you would like to participate in the panel (with a 20 minute paper
presentation), please send an abstract of 300 words along with the title of
your paper, your name, contact details and affiliation, by *Wednesday
15th September 2021 *to Katy Highet (k.highet at ucl.ac.uk) or Peter Browning (
peter.browning16 at ucl.ac.uk)



For any further enquiries please contact the organisers (Katy Highet and
Peter Browning) at the above email addresses.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/linganth/attachments/20210818/e16e0291/attachment.htm>