Language and the Knowledge Economy

"This is a timely edited volume, which appears in the midst of the increasing public scrutiny of the role (and indeed, the usefulness) of HE in contemporary society. The contributors write from a range of contexts in Europe, where the notion of knowledge production, a key activity in the so-called knowledge economy (itself a key pillar of the broader neoliberalisation of HE), has become sacrosanct. All the volume’s contributions are situated at the crossroads of three key elements - language (especially English and the Englishization of international HE), knowledge production and academic publishing – and many discuss resistance to dominant trends while offering thought-provoking ways forward. The editors, Josep Soler and Kathrin Kaufhold, have done an excellent job of tying together the eleven chapters comprising this eye-opening book, which anyone working in HE, or with an interest in HE, should definitely read."

- David Block, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

"This valuable and thought-provoking collection explores the connections between language, the knowledge economy, and scholarly publishing from a sociolinguistic perspective, addressing the political and economic conditions and institutional regimes which shape knowledge production, and how these challenge and affect multilingual scholars. By adopting a practice framing, the editors and contributors are able to provide cogent analyses of the concrete material factors which shape the often abstractly-conceived processes of knowledge production, circulation, and consumption.

The chapters draw out the diversity in knowledge production across Europe, showing particularly how relationships between English and national languages play out differently in different contexts, while also identifying themes which recur across, such as the power of accountability regimes and evaluation of academic publication within a market logic of rankings and competition. Overall, the book provides a powerful critique of the market logic underlying academic publishing, showing its effects both on the nature of the knowledge we produce as academics and on how this knowledge is shared. It will be of great interest to anyone with an interest in academic publishing and more broadly in the language economy of the academic world."

- Karin Tusting, Lancaster University, UK