De lenguas, ideologías y prácticas

Overview & Synopsis

In the book Of Languages, Ideologies, and Practices: Language Policies and Language Management in the Southern Cone, the authors—hailing from various institutions in Brazil and Argentina—analyze the place of the Spanish language in Brazil and that of the Portuguese language within Mercosur, with particular emphasis on Uruguay and Argentina. With the advance of neoliberalism in the region and its subsequent alignment with the countries of the Global North, the authors, throughout the chapters, draw attention to the devaluation of regional integration and exchange among these neighboring countries. One of the chapters asks whether “we will be able to confront the already powerful penetration of English as a language of schooling in the countries of the region.” In this light, it is also worth asking whether, one day, “we will begin to think of Spanish and Portuguese as resources, rather than as foreign, external languages—from the outside, from the other.” With support from the Graduate Program in Linguistics – PROLING/PROEX/CAPES at UFPB, the book thus positions itself within the following debate: will we remain subordinate in North–South relations, or will we be able to “southernize” ourselves (sulear-nos)? With these compelling questions, the work reinforces EDUNILA’s Ñande label—ñande being a Guarani word meaning “we” or “our”: that which belongs to the academic community, or what could be understood as ours—Latin American. At the same time, the book is part of the América Latina Una y Distinta collection, which gathers works that address the continent based on the specificities of a given area of knowledge.