Language policy and linguistic landscaping in a contemporary blue-collar workplace in the Dutch–German borderland

Abstract

This article argues that an expanded view of linguistic landscapes provides a useful metaphor for exploring language policies. Following this view, “language policy” is defined as “linguistic landscaping” (i.e., placing language policy mechanisms which, together with already placed mechanisms, construct a metaphorical landscape). The application of this landscaping metaphor has several advantages, as it provides a way to imagine language policy as a continuously ongoing construction process, and as it provides a way to imagine the historical layers of a landscape, the overlap and connections between different landscapes, and the complex hierarchical positions within a landscape. The article is based on linguistic-ethnographic fieldwork in a metal foundry in the Dutch province of Limburg, within walking distance from the Dutch–German border. Specifically, it discusses why a group of senior production workers from Limburg were dissatisfied with the linguistically diverse landscape that had emerged in the foundry over time, even though the foundry’s management tried to place Dutch-speaking workers in the company’s sociolinguistic norm centre. Confirming the usefulness of the landscaping metaphor, the article shows that a full consideration of diverse historical and contemporary acts of both linguistic and semiotic landscaping helps explain why these workers experienced that their position in the foundry had become peripheralised over time. In conclusion, the article calls for more attention to the complex human experience, rather than just the detection, of sociolinguistic inequalities.

Breakdowns and assemblages: Including machine‐actants in sociolinguistic ethnographies of blue‐collar work environments

“…Speaking language varieties other than Dutch, German and Limburgish was a relatively new phenomenon in the foundry in 2017. Many older production workers from Limburg, who typically spoke Dutch and Limburgish as their first languages, considered this ‘new’ linguistic diversity problematic (Hovens, 2021). The foundry's management considered it problematic as well, and it made various language‐political attempts to construct a work environment in which mostly Dutch would be used, even though this aspiration was far away from the de facto language practices in the production departments (Hovens, 2021).…”

“…Despite that, speakers without the skills constructed as valuable capital (i.e., minoritised speakers) usually have few opportunities to acquire this capital, either inside or outside the workplace. Thus, the constructions of linguistic capital often privilege certain workers over others, even though the privileged workers may not necessarily experience this as such (Hovens, 2021).…”

Power dynamics at work

“…Speaking languages other than Dutch, German, and Limburgish was a relatively new phenomenon in the foundry in 2017. Many older production workers from Limburg, who typically spoke Dutch and Limburgish as their first languages, considered this 'new' linguistic diversity problematic (Hovens 2021). The foundry's management considered it problematic as well, and it made various language-political attempts to construct a work environment in which mostly Dutch would be used, even though this aspiration was far away from the de facto language practices in the production departments (Hovens 2021).…”

“…Despite that, speakers without the skills constructed as valuable capital (often migrant workers) usually have few opportunities to acquire this capital, either inside or outside the workplace. Thus, the constructions of linguistic capital often privilege certain workers over others, although the privileged workers may not necessarily experience this as such (Hovens 2021).…”