Speech and the City: Multilingualism, Decoloniality and the Civic University

by Yaron Matras

The Brexit debate has been accompanied by a rise in hostile attitudes to multilingualism. However, cities can provide an important counter-weight to political polarisation by forging civic identities that embrace diversity. In this timely book, Yaron Matras describes the emergence of a city language narrative that embraces and celebrates multilingualism and helps forge a civic identity. He critiques linguaphobic discourses at a national level that regard multilingualism as deficient citizenship. Drawing on his research in Manchester, he examines the 'multilingual utopia', looking at multilingual spaces across sectors in the city that support access, heritage, skills and celebration. The book explores the tensions between decolonial approaches that inspire activism for social justice and equality, and the neoliberal enterprise that appropriates diversity for reputational and profitability purposes, prompting critical reflection on calls for civic university engagement. It is essential reading for anyone concerned about ways to protect cultural pluralism in our society.

188 pages, Hardcover

Published May 30, 2024

About the author

Yaron Matras is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Manchester, and Editor of the journal Romani Studies. His involvement with Romani issues began in the advocacy and civil rights arena. Matras was media relations officer to the Roma National Congress from 1988-1995, and founding editor of RomNews, one of the very first advocacy information services on Romani issues. He has worked closely with the Open Society Institute's Roma programmes, is a founding member of the European Academic Network on Romani Studies, and has led several large-scale research projects on Romani language and culture, including an international research consortium on Romani migrations. He is the author of over a dozen books and numerous chapters and articles on Romani language and culture, and speaks the Romani language fluently.

Reviews

[Martin Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick read about multilingualism in the UK post-Brexit. The respected sociolinguist Yaron Matras recounts his involvement in the Multilingual Manchester (MLM) project that found that over 200 languages were spoken in the city.

Matras shows how Britain's monolingual bias often distorts how we understand language, and shows how everyday multilingualism challenges our country's views. He provides case studies from the MLM project that show how linguists, in collaboration with minority language communities, have taken these challenges to British institutions. The section on Britain's poor use of language analysis in assessing asylum status is particularly enlightening.

Matras considers the success of the MLM project in driving "decoloniality" and establishing the linguistic citizenship of minority language communities in Manchester. But, for Matras, "neoliberalism" in universities and society poses as an existential threat for these gains. I felt this discussion was weaker, owing to the common pitfall that "neoliberalism" is left as a poorly-defined bogle.

Nonetheless, this book leaves plenty of food for thought for linguists conscious of their societal impact!