Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The global expansion of the English language has achieved unprecedented levels. Yet the many ways in which this phenomenon is potentially both reflective and constitutive of global cultural and political-economic relations of power have not been examined by scholars working within the political science sub-discipline of international relations (IR) scholars. This paper is a preliminary attempt at a cross-disciplinary analysis focused on this phenomenon. It is rooted in a somewhat eclectic set of theoretical and methodological traditions: Gramscian, neo-marxist and constructivist IR, and critical sociolinguistics. Its aim is relatively modest. First, I seek to draw attention to the relations between language, politics and economics. Second, I aim to show how looking at the global rise of English helps IR scholars to better understand and explain the (re)production of social relations of power within a global capitalist system. Third, I attempt to make a contribution to a general Gramscian inspired research program within IR. I propose to do so by examining how dominant social groups have historically sought to articulate their own universalizing “hegemonic aspiration” via language. Fourth, I hope to show that additional efforts at cross-disciplinary inquiry into the global hegemony of English are worthwhile. Such inquiry has the potential to reveal much of significance about the complex dialectical interplay between global material and ideational forces. I conclude by suggesting several potentially fruitful directions for further Gramscian inspired IR research focused on the position of English within the global linguistic configuration of power.