Participation and deliberation in language policy: the case of gender-neutral language

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates language policy formation through participatory and deliberative methods and, more concretely, the regulation of gender-neutral language in Barcelona City Council (Spain). Through an argumentative approach to policy, the paper examines a specific language policy idea, process and solution, and the accompanying discursive argumentation used by decision-makers. The paper (a) shows that linguistic preconceptions and power relations may constitute a potential barrier to effective deliberation on language, and (b) argues that if local modes of governance (as opposed to the centralised role assigned to language academies) are going to be used to prescribe language practices in institutional contexts, arrangements should be put in place to provide access to a full range of views about language, generate reflective judgments and promote a public exchange of arguments. The paper concludes with a discussion about the implications of this study for the inclusion of deliberation in language policy-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Deliberation
• language policy and planning
• gender-neutral language
• gender-fair language
• language and gender

Acknowledgements

My sincere gratitude goes to my informants, without whom this article would not have been possible. I would also like to express my thanks to Jennifer Bruen, who read an early version of the article and provided insightful suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 While Barcelona City Council assigns a preferential status to Catalan over Spanish, the documents under analysis are in both languages so I use them both as a reference here. I prioritise Spanish for the contextualisation because my interviewees referred to examples in this language in their argumentation.

2 Some lexico-grammatical dissymmetries are widely depicted as sexist practices (see Bengoechea, 2011, pp. 36–37).

3 An informed consent to participate was obtained. The Dublin City University Research Ethics Committee approved this research (DCUREC/2019/219).

4 To guarantee the anonymity and confidentiality of participants, the description I provide here is deliberately limited. I use the pseudonyms Carme, Marina and Eva to refer to the participants.

5 All extracts in this section have been translated by the author.

6 Note that I do not include the case of language practices in private contexts (e.g. among council staff members) in my following argument, for which a line of demarcation should be set. Since the regulation excludes them, this point is beyond the aims of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dublin City University.

Notes on contributors

Iker Erdocia

Iker Erdocia is Assistant Professor in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University. His research sits at the interface of language, policy and politics and aims to promote debate on language matters between academic and non-academic stakeholders.