BTWS Series

BTWS #1 – Programme (click to view & download)

BTWS #2 – Programme (click to view & download)

The Power of Language. Negotiating Voice and Identities

Debates on language use, political correctness and identity politics seem to gain more and more attention in an increasingly polarized society. The arguments mainly concern discriminatory wording, how to conceptualize gender equality and who is entitled to speak about certain issues. In other words: who is gaining authority of particular representations by having the credible voice? The question of who “owns” language, it seems, lies at the core of discursive social polarization in Europe and the US today. It stands in close relationship to questions of rights and freedom in a democratic society, as both sides in the debates claim the same ideals in their arguments: equal rights and opportunities as well as protection against discrimination on the grounds of gender, ethnicity, sexuality and religion on the one hand and freedom of speech on the other hand.

At the same time, there are continuing discursive struggles for the position of the marginalized. Even asserted privileged groups claim to be the oppressed and many commentators refuse to see discrimination as a complex, interconnected system but instead as isolated acts committed by individual people.

As part of the conference series Contradictory Discourses of Marginality (BTWS Series 2018-2022) the next and last conference in Stockholm 2022 addresses language ideological debates and the discursive construction of identities from an interdisciplinary perspective and welcomes papers on various topics related to the above-described issues. More information and Call for papers will follow soon.

Contact: Charlotta Seiler Brylla, Stockholm University, charlotta.brylla@tyska.su.se