Agency in language planning and policy

ABSTRACT

The role of agency in language planning and policy (LPP) is a recent focus of scholarship. Interest in agency has seen new issues and contexts being given prominence in LPP research. In this introduction, we present an overview of theoretical definitions of agency and the ways it has emerged as a concept in LPP scholarship. We consider how developments in methods and approaches to LPP research have led to a greater focus on social actors and their agency in LPP decision-making. We also consider how agency can be conceptualised within the field of language planning, how it may be exercised and who may exercise agency.

KEYWORDS:

• Language policy and planning
• human agency
• LPP actors
• ecological view
• structure

Disclosure statement

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

Notes on contributors

Anthony J. Liddicoat is Professor in the Department for Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick and Adjunct Professor in the Justice and Society at the University of South Australia. His research interests include issues relating to the teaching and learning of intercultural capabilities in language education and language policy and planning. He is currently co-convenor of the AILA Research Network Intercultural mediation in language and culture teaching and learning/La médiation interculturelle en didactique des langues et des cultures and Executive Editor of Current Issues in Language Planning.

Kerry Taylor-Leech is a senior lecturer in second language teaching and curriculum literacies at Griffith University and a member of the Griffith Institute for Educational Research. Her research interests span language policy and planning, and the relationship between language and migration, development, identity, language use and multilingual literacies. She is a co-editor of Current Issues in Language Planning.