Rethinking Language Policy: How to deal with agency

Agency as the capacity to act is now a central topic in the field of research that is generally known as ‘language policy and planning’ (LPP). After a review of the development of the field from the viewpoint of agency, the paper presents and discusses debated issues and different approaches. 

Three contrastive theoretical attempts are presented. Bernard Spolsky’s attempt was to terminologically complete the trend to expand the realm of language policy to encompass all language activities, while saving the term management for interventions by various actors. Through restoring the classic stance to regard intervention into practice as optional, his approach may be criticized to misrecognize the pervasiveness of agency.  

Public Policy Approach and Language Management Theory exemplify alternative approaches that seek to foreground agency on the macro and micro level respectively. The different priorities and accents of these two approaches can be utilized to cooperate in a complementary way. 

Methodologically, the ethnographic approach has provided a broad range of methods that can be combined to analyze agency. Process models and actor typologies can be used for analytical orientation. When applying these conceptional tools, it is important to reflect the diversity of processes and actors.