Constructions of bilingualism in Finnish Government programmes and a newspaper discussion site debate

Pöyhönen, Sari; Saarinen, Taina

doi:10.1080/14664208.2014.979650

Cited by 17 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(9 reference statements)

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“…This is in line with the longer historical continuum of construing Swedish in need of support and security (see Pöyhönen & Saarinen, 2015, for a discussion of the 'protection discourse'). Finnish language, on the other hand, is even more rarely mentioned, implying perhaps that it is the norm that does not need specific protection.…”

Section: Finlandmentioning

confidence: 52%

“…In Finland the position of the national languages (i.e. Finnish and Swedish) seems to be more or less the same across the levels, which reflects the strong (hygienic even, see Pöyhönen & Saarinen, 2015) position of societal (rather than individual) bilingualism in Finland. The bilingual Finland's state level documentation explicates Swedish more often than Finnish, discursively constructing the position of Swedish as a minority language more in need of 'protection'.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This echoes the constitutional coinage of the two equal national languages (see Pöyhönen & Saarinen, 2015): 'The monitoring of the programme pays particular attention to activities supporting transition to labour markets, study programmes aimed at non-Finnish students and the teaching of Finnish and Swedish.' An exceptional example is a quote used to illustrate the internationalisation strategy, construing the stress on national languages as 'self-congratulatory': 'We should move away from a self-congratulatory homogenic culture to genuine appreciation and recognition of the importance of internationality, language skills and multiculturalism.'…”

Section: Finlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Multilayered perspectives on language policy in higher education: Finland, Estonia, and Latvia in comparison

Soler

Saarinen

Kibbermann

2016

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

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This article analyses language policies in higher education in Finland, Estonia and Latvia, as well as the European Union. We take a multilayered approach to language policies in order to illuminate the complex and intertwined (and sometimes contradictory) nature of local, national and international language policies in higher education. We are particularly interested in the construction of national or local language(s) and the language(s) of internationalisation in our case countries. Finland, Estonia and Latvia share common features as relatively small non-Anglophone countries in the Baltic region, while simultaneously having somewhat differing political and cultural histories. The results of our discursive analysis indicate that while the three countries have relatively different national language policies, regarding e.g. the position of the national language(s), the institutional policies are more similar in the three cases. For universities, the positioning of English as the de facto language of internationalisation turns the ideology of language choice in higher education into a practical rather than political question. However, at the state level, the promotion of English runs contrary to national policies. The European Union higher education language policy seems to acknowledge the institutional level's practical demands of English as de facto language of internationalisation rather than follow its own formal language policy of official languages.

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Section: Finlandmentioning

confidence: 52%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Finlandmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Multilayered perspectives on language policy in higher education: Finland, Estonia, and Latvia in comparison

Soler

Saarinen

Kibbermann

2016

Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

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“…'Ordinary' Finnish people are constructed as the victims of the 'racism' of the Swedish-speaking minority, of the undeserving immigrant recipients of 'our' resources, and of the various defenders of multiculturalism (cf. Pöyhönen and Saarinen, 2015).…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The meanings of racism: Public discourses about racism in Finnish news media and online discussion forums

Pantti

Nelimarkka

Nikunen

et al. 2019

European Journal of Communication

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Understandings of racism are produced and circulated in contemporary networked media forms, contributing new opportunities to both extend and challenge racializing discourses, images and frameworks. This study investigated how the concept of racism is used in Finnish public debate by employing a computational text analysis technique to derive topics related to racism from a large corpus of news media content and online discussion forum comments. Our findings show that discourses about racism are different in legacy media and online platform regarding both their prominence and framings. While social media produce various discourses of 'reverse racism', news media connects racism to historical and international contexts. We conclude that what racism is understood to be is an intensely political process, but also one shaped by the type of media platform, specificities of Finnish-language and national ideological battles. KeywordsRacism, news media, social media, topic modelling 2 (16)of distinctive yet inter-related discourses about racism in European contexts. We ask: In which discursive contexts does the term racism appear? What kind of socio-cultural and political-historical references are deployed in discourses about racism? How do uses of the notion of racism differ between news media and online discussion forums, and how did they evolve during the chosen historical context? Racism: Political contest and media dynamics

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“…While formal status of both Finnish and Swedish as equal national languages (kansalliskieli) is, indeed, exceptionally strongly legislated in the Finnish Constitution and other legislation, the position of Swedish (and, consequently, formal bilingualism) has been debated heatedly both historically and contemporarily. This has brought to attention different and even conflicting interpretations of the official language policy and its legitimacy over the period of hundred years of Finnish independence since 1917 (Hult & Pietikäinen 2014;Pöyhönen & Saarinen 2015).…”

Section: Historical Development Of Finnish Bilingualismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-sited and historically layered language policy construction: parliamentary debate on the Finnish constitutional bilingualism in 1919

Saarinen

Ihalainen

2018

Lang Policy

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Constructions of bilingualism in Finnish Government programmes and a newspaper discussion site debate

Cited by 17 publications

References 15 publications

Multilayered perspectives on language policy in higher education: Finland, Estonia, and Latvia in comparison

Multilayered perspectives on language policy in higher education: Finland, Estonia, and Latvia in comparison

The meanings of racism: Public discourses about racism in Finnish news media and online discussion forums

Multi-sited and historically layered language policy construction: parliamentary debate on the Finnish constitutional bilingualism in 1919

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