The Sociolinguistics of Deglobalisation: Where to Now?

In this presentation, we'll summarise and expand on arguments we made in a 2024 article, 'Towards a Sociolinguistics of Deglobalization' (published in Language in Society). That article aimed to examine how a dominant strand of sociolinguistics, the sociolinguistics of globalisation, is failing to keep up with rapidly emerging trends in global politics, especially since the financial crisis of 2008.

Drawing on theories of post-neoliberalism, and empirically on recent developments in China, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Ethiopia, we argued that we need to examine how language is currently being transformed by processes of deglobalisation, which we defined as an 'epochal shift in the world system characterised by the increasing significance of state sovereignty, and the decreasing significance of the forces of the global market that have dominated the world system since the early 1990s.'

Each of us has continued to rethink the argument we put forward in that article. Jess has begun investigating how the traditional objects of sociolinguistic work, such as language variation and identity work, can be explored in the era of deglobalisation. Meanwhile, Gerald has looked at interdisciplinary debates that try to empirically substantiate whether deglobalisation is actually taking place, and has begun thinking about what it might look like to engage in such an exercise from within sociolinguistics.

Date

Friday 5 September 2025

Time

1 to 2 pm

Location

Online via Zoom

Speakers

Dr Gerald Roche
University of La Trobe

Dr Jess Kruk
University of Western Australia