What is it about?
The paper supplies an economic argument to explain the still-persisting dominance of English in South Africa's central economy and, by implication, in other comparable sub-Saharan polities.
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Why is it important?
The clear implication of this paper is that the international language policy discourse which drove the formation of South Africa's post-apartheid language policy was impoverished and inadequate because it failed to consider the economic basis of language behaviour.
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This page is a summary of: Why English Dominates the Central Economy: An Economic Perspective on “Elite Closure” and South African Language Policy, February 2015, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199363391.003.0009.
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Resources
Language as a ‘resource’ in South Africa: The economic life of language in a globalising society
Using the South African example, this article makes a case for regarding language-in-society as fundamentally an economic entity, as well as an being important index of social identity and a location for cultural reconstruction and political redress.
Language Policy & Political Economy: English in a Global Context
This 2015 volume, edited by Thomas Ricento, carries a revised and updated version of 'Why English Dominates the Central Economy' and, taken as a whole, the book amplifies the case for language policy debate being grounded in political economy rather than free-floating sociolinguistics.
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