In this volume, authors from four disciplines join forces to develop an analysis of political discourse on a comparative and multidisciplinary basis. Language policy is often based on the political use of history, where the remembrance of past experiences by communities, individuals and historical bodies play a fundamental role. These authors see politics and policies as multi-sited by nature, taking place, being constructed, contested and reproduced simultaneously and in different times and places. Theoretically the book draws on the concept of language policy, operationalising it through the rhizomatic nature of politics and policies. Although confined empirically to considerations of situations in Finland and Sweden, the volume extends far beyond these locations in its theoretical contributions. The polities of Finland and Sweden are the lens through which a new and much needed understanding of language policy research, and policy research in general, is posited.

The book discusses recycled discourses of language and nationalism in Finnish higher education, demonstrating the need to look beyond language in the study of language policies of higher education. It analyses the historical and political layeredness of language policies as well as the intertwined nature of national and international developments in understanding new nationalism. Finnish higher education language policies were fuelled by the dynamics and tensions between the national languages Finnish and Swedish until the 2000s, when English begins to catalyse post nationalist discourses of economy and competitiveness. In the 2010s, English begins to be seen as a threat to Finnish. Educational, economic and epistemic nationalism emerge as the main cycles of new nationalist language policies in Finnish higher education. The book will be of interest to language policy and higher education scholars and practitioners, as well as graduate students language policy and higher education.

This open access book analyzes language education through a socio-material framework. The authors revisit their position as researchers by decentering themselves and humans in general from the main focus of research activities and giving way to the materialities that are agentive but often overlooked parts of our research contexts and processes. Through this critical posthumanist realism, they are able to engage in research that sees society as an ethical interrelationship between humans and the material world and explore the socio-materialities of language education from the perspectives of material agency, spatial and embodied materiality, and human and non-human assemblages. Each chapter explores language educational contexts through a unique lens of (socio)materiality. Based on how the authors conceptualize (socio)materiality, the book is organized in three sections that seek answers to the following overarching questions: In what ways do material agencies emerge in language educational contexts? How are educational choices and experiences intertwined with materialities of spaces and bodies? What assemblages of human and non-human may occur in language education contexts? Each chapter questions, in its own way, the notion of the human subject as rational, enlightened being and sole possessor of agency, and offers examples of allowing for other-than-human agency to enter the picture. Together, the contributors exemplify how researchers who have been committed to social constructionist thinking for most of their careers learn to make space for new theories, thus inspiring and encouraging readers to remain open for new intellectual and embodied endeavors.

The book discusses recycled discourses of language and nationalism in Finnish higher education, demonstrating the need to look beyond language in the study of language policies of higher education. It analyses the historical and political layeredness of language policies as well as the intertwined nature of national and international developments in understanding new nationalism. Finnish higher education language policies were fuelled by the dynamics and tensions between the national languages Finnish and Swedish until the 2000s, when English begins to catalyse post nationalist discourses of economy and competitiveness. In the 2010s, English begins to be seen as a threat to Finnish. Educational, economic and epistemic nationalism emerge as the main cycles of new nationalist language policies in Finnish higher education. The book will be of interest to language policy and higher education scholars and practitioners, as well as graduate students language policy and higher education.