A language management approach to language problems: Integrating micro and macro perspectives

Language problems have been the subject of research from a wide variety of perspectives, ranging from individual interactional issues, including communication breakdown and issues relating to attitudes towards languages or varieties of language and their speakers, to issues relating to language policy and planning (LPP) at the national or supra-national level. Some typical problems include language standardization and codification, language rights, discrimination (linguicism), language death, immigrants’ integration, media and political discourse, corporate language policy, education policy, classroom communication and the linguistic landscape.
               Considering the wide range of language issues, in recent years there has been increased interest in examining the treatment of language problems at different levels of society. However, there is still much discussion on how to relate these different levels.
                Among the various approaches proposed to tackle this issue, language management theory (LMT) seems to be the only developed theory that provides a unified framework to address behaviour towards language problems on different levels explicitly and comprehensively.
                Using LMT as a unifying theoretical concept, the chapters in this volume examine the links between micro and macro dimensions in their analyses of a variety of language problems. This body of work will illustrate how no analysis of language problems can be considered complete without also taking into consideration elements of different dimensions. We argue that the LMT framework, in particular, is able to show the connection between these dimensions clearly, especially when combined with a conceptualization of the micro and macro dimensions as a continuum of intertwining elements.
               This volume will appeal to both readers interested in the individual management of problems in micro-level discourse and those interested in language policy and planning..

A language management approach to language problems:
Integrating micro and macro perspectives
Goro Christoph Kimura, Lisa Fairbrother (eds.)
Amsterdam: John Benjamins [to be published in 2019]