Participatory Linguistics

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Participatory Linguistics

Convenors:

 

The scope of this ReN covers research involving participatory approaches to linguistics. Participation, defined here broadly as the involvement and engagement of all interested parties, has recently gained momentum in several societal domains, including not only political decision making, cultural and mass media spaces, whether online or offline, but also academic research (Bodó et al. 2022). In applied linguistics, there is a well-established tradition of involving the ’researched’ into the research process itself. Key aspects of participatory research, as elaborated in the social sciences, however, have rarely been discussed in the study of language. As its starting point, the ReN draws on recent developments in the involvement and engagement of non-academic language experts into linguistic research, such as citizen sociolinguistics (Rymes 2020, Svendsen 2018), collaborative sociocultural linguistics (Bucholtz et al. 2016), Linguistic Citizenship (Stroud 2015), community-based language research (Bischoff and Jany 2018, Olko 2018) and activist applied linguistics (Cowal and Leung 2021).

The ReN aims to bring together applied linguists who implement participatory research methodologies and principles to their research. The ReN includes established and emerging researchers from five countries. It also aims to engage with a growing number of students working on participatory approaches and course in their university qualifications.  The network provides a platform for information, support and scholarship for both scholars and students with an interest in the application of participatory approaches to linguistics.