37.1367, Calls: Social Inclusion - "Special Issue: Family Language Policy and Processes of Marginalization" (Jrnl)
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LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1367. Wed Apr 08 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.
Subject: 37.1367, Calls: Social Inclusion - "Special Issue: Family Language Policy and Processes of Marginalization" (Jrnl)
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Date: 08-Apr-2026
From: Giorgia Andreolli [giorgia.andreolli at eurac.edu]
Subject: Social Inclusion - "Special Issue: Family Language Policy and Processes of Marginalization" (Jrnl)
Journal: Social Inclusion
Issue: Family Language Policy and Processes of Marginalization
Call Deadline: 15-Sep-2026
Call for Papers:
“Family Language Policy and processes of marginalization”
Special Issue of Social Inclusion
(https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/issue/futureissues#i584)
Guest Editors:
Giorgia Andreolli (Eurac Research, giorgia.andreolli at eurac.edu, ORCID:
0000-0001-9511-0496)
Busani Maseko (Rhodes University, busani.maseko at ru.ac.za, ORCID:
0000-0002-9550-7968)
Nadja Thoma (University of Innsbruck, nadja.thoma at uibk.ac.at, ORCID:
0000-0001-9084-9638)
Expected Timeline:
Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2026
Submission of Full Papers: 15-30 January 2027
Publication of the Issue: June/December 2027
Description:
Family Language Policy (FLP) has become an influential research area
within different disciplines such as sociolinguistics (King et al.,
2008; Obojska & Purkarthofer, 2018), language policy research (Chen &
Ni, 2024; Chimbutane & Gonçalves, 2023; Curdt-Christiansen, 2018),
childhood studies (Cox et al., 2021; Smith‐Christmas, 2022), education
(Thoma, 2025) and psychology (Fatima & Nadeem, 2025; Pagé & Noels,
2024). While pioneering FLP research was concerned with language
ideologies and language acquisition processes typically within
traditional nuclear families, more recent studies have expanded their
focus to include how language ideologies, practices, and management
unfold within both traditional and non-traditional family
configurations (Xeketwana et al., 2025), including extended families
(Molate & McKinney, 2024; Soler & Roberts, 2019), foster or adoptive
families (Purkarthofer et al., 2022), and geographically dispersed
families (Bose et al., 2023). Beyond the individual level, research
has further traced FLP processes across families (Kusters et al.,
2021) and explored interconnections with educational institutions
(Ballweg, 2022; Maseko & Mutasa, 2018; Spyrou Ntetsika et al., 2023)
and with the state (Lomeu Gomes et al., 2024). Recent publications
shed light on children’s agency and perspectives in FLP (Maseko, 2022;
Panagiotopoulou et al., 2023; Smith‐Christmas, 2022) and on digital
practices in family communication (Almegren, 2025; Curdt-Christiansen
& Iwaniec, 2023; Palviainen & Räisä, 2023). There is growing
recognition that FLP is deeply implicated in broader processes of
marginalization and social inequality—particularly in contexts of
globalization, (post)colonial language policies, minoritized language
communities, and socioeconomic exclusion (Mirvahedi, 2023; Schnitzer,
2023). Despite this recognition, the intersections between FLP and
structural forms of marginalization (e.g., assimilation pressures,
unequal access to resources, racialization, and socioeconomic
stratification) remain under-theorized and empirically underexplored.
Building on foundational work that conceptualizes FLP as a nexus of
language beliefs, practices, and management within the family domain
(Spolsky, 2012), this Special Issue seeks to foreground the ways in
which structural conditions shape—and are shaped by—the experiences of
multilingual families. We invite contributions that examine FLP in
relation to marginalization, language and educational policies,
racialization, socioeconomic disadvantage, disability,
heteronormativity, and other axes of differentiation (Gal & Irvine,
2019), as well as studies that document resilience, resistance,
agency, and inclusion strategies enacted by families and other social
actors in diverse settings.
This Special Issue is international in scope, seeking comparative and
contextually grounded research that illuminates how FLP intersects
with macro-level processes of access, participation, and social
justice. We welcome both empirical and conceptual contributions from a
variety of epistemological and methodological approaches including
(but not limited to) critical theoretical work, decolonial
scholarship, and arts-based methods. By embracing diverse linguistic
and cultural contexts, the Issue aims to chart new directions in FLP
research that advance understanding of processes marginalization in
multilingual postcolonial and post-migrant societies.
Instructions for Authors :
Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to
consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their
abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the
abstracts system (https://www.cogitatiopress.com/app/index/abstracts).
When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm
that they are aware that Social Inclusion is an open access journal
with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after
peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with institutional
members do not incur this fee).
Open Access:
Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download
this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with
any of the journal’s institutional members
(https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/pages/view/institutionalmembers)
publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be
charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. Authors who
demonstrate financial need and cannot afford the article processing
charge can apply for a waiver during the abstract submission
procedure. Further information about the journal's open access charges
can be found here
(https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/about/editorialPolicies#publicationFees).
References:
Almegren, R. (2025). Educational language choice and the role of
technology: parental attitudes, decision factors and multilingual
learning practices in the digital age. Saudi Journal of Language
Studies, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1108/SJLS-05-2025-0037
Ballweg, S. (2022). Anticipating expectations. Family language policy
and its orientation to the school system. International Journal of
Multilingualism, 19(2), 251–268.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2022.2033756
Chen, Y., & Ni, L. (2024). Family language policy in Chinese
d/Deaf-parented families with hearing children: the interplay of
multi-dimensional factors. Language Policy, 23(1), 75–103.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-023-09680-5
Chimbutane, F., & Gonçalves, P. (2023). Family language policy and
language shift in postcolonial Mozambique: a critical, multi-layered
approach. Language Policy, 22(3), 267–287.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-023-09658-3
Cox, R. B., deSouza, D. K., Bao, J., Lin, H., Sahbaz, S., Greder, K.
A., Larzelere, R. E., Washburn, I. J., Leon-Cartagena, M., &
Arredondo-Lopez, A. (2021). Shared Language Erosion: Rethinking
Immigrant Family Communication and Impacts on Youth Development.
Children (Basel, Switzerland), 8(4).
https://doi.org/10.3390/children8040256
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2018). Family Language Policy. In J. W.
Tollefson & M. Pérez-Milans (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Language
Policy and Planning (pp. 420–441). Oxford University Press.
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L., & Iwaniec, J. (2023). ‘妈妈, I miss you ’:
Emotional multilingual practices in transnational families.
International Journal of Bilingualism, 27(2), 159–180.
https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069221125342
Fatima, S., & Nadeem, M. U. (2025). Family language policy and
heritage language transmission in Pakistan-the intersection of family
dynamics, ethnic identity and cultural practices on language
proficiency and maintenance. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1560755.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1560755
Gal, S., & Irvine, J. T. (2019). Signs of difference. Language and
Ideology in Social Life. Cambridge University Press.
King, K. A., Fogle, L., & Logan-Terry, A. (2008). Family Language
Policy. Language and Linguistics Compass, 2(5), 907–922.
Kusters, A., De Meulder, M., & Napier, J. (2021). Family language
policy on holiday: four multilingual signing and speaking families
travelling together. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural
Development, 42(8), 698–715.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1890752
Lomeu Gomes, R., Lanza, E., & Athari, Z. (2024). (Nanny) State as
family by proxy. Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices, 4(2),
265–287. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmtp.26482
Maseko, B. (2022). Children's agency in parent-child discourses: A
study of family language policy in a Ndebele heritage language family.
Per Linguam, 38(2). https://doi.org/10.5785/38-2-990
Maseko, B., & Mutasa, D. (2018). The Influence of Kalanga Parents’
Language Ideologies on Children’s Language Practices. Language
Matters, 49(3), 47–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/10228195.2018.1496132
Mirvahedi, S. H. (2023). Family, a racialized space: A
phenomenological approach to examining Afghan refugee families’
language policies in Norway. Language Policy, 22(4), 413–432.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-023-09671-6
Molate, B., & McKinney, C. (2024). Resisting the coloniality of
language through languaging and making of a multilingual ikhaya in
South Africa. Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices, 4(2),
201–222. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmtp.26058
Obojska, M. A., & Purkarthofer, J. (2018). ‘And all of a sudden, it
became my rescue’: language and agency in transnational families in
Norway. International Journal of Multilingualism, 15(3), 249–261.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2018.1477103
Pagé, L. L., & Noels, K. A. (2024). Family language policy retention
across generations: Childhood language policies, multilingualism
experiences, and future language policies in multilingual emerging
Canadian adults. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1394027.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1394027
Palviainen, Å., & Räisä, T. (2023). Digital communication as part of
family language policy: the interplay of multimodality and language
status in a Finnish context. Language Policy, 22(4), 433–455.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-023-09666-3
Panagiotopoulou, J., Uçan, Y., & Samani, D. (2023).
Familiensprachpolitik zwischen Spracherwerb und Spracherhalt:
Ergebnisse zu den Perspektiven von Kindern aus dem
Lehrforschungsprojekt „Family Language Policy in Deutschland
(FaMiLanG)“. Zeitschrift für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht,
28(2), 111–133. https://doi.org/10.48694/zif.3654
Purkarthofer, J., Lanza, E., & Berg, M. F. (2022). Discourses between
the Public and the Private: Transnational Families at the Crossroads.
Applied Linguistics, 43(3), 563–586.
https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amab053
Schnitzer, A. (2023). Negotiations of language(s) and inequalities in
transnational family biographies. European Educational Research
Journal, 22(4), 496-516. https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221147970
Smith‐Christmas, C. (2022). Using a ‘Family Language Policy’ lens to
explore the dynamic and relational nature of child agency. Children &
Society, 36(3), 354–368. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12461
Soler, J., & Roberts, T. (2019). Parents’ and grandparents’ views on
home language regimes: Language ideologies and trajectories of two
multilingual families in Sweden. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies,
16(4), 249–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2018.1564878
Spolsky, B. (2012). Family language policy – the critical domain.
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(1), 3–11.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2011.638072
Spyrou Ntetsika, I., Knappik, M., & Thoma, N. (2023). Living
transnational lives: Languages, education and senses of belonging
across three generations of a Greek-German bilingual family.
Linguistics and Education, 78, 1–11.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2022.101143
Thoma, N. (2025). ‘Good parenting’ and linguistic responsibility:
Challenging linguistic hierarchisations in German-language ECEC in
South Tyrol, Italy. Ethnography and Education, Online first, 1–18.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2025.2513909
Xeketwana, S., Xeketwana, N., & Anthonissen, C. (2025). Family
language policy: Choices in isiXhosa families and implications for
multilingual education. Reading & Writing, 16(1), Article a531.
https://doi.org/10.4102/rw.v16i1.531
Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics
Applied Linguistics
Discipline of Linguistics
Discourse Analysis
Sociolinguistics
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