Language and the Knowledge Economy

Josep Soler is Professor of English Linguistics at Stockholm University, Sweden.Kathrin Kaufhold is Associate Professor of English Applied Linguistics at Stockholm University, Sweden.

"This is a timely edited volume, which appears in the midst of the increasing public scrutiny of the role (and indeed, the usefulness) of HE in contemporary society. The contributors write from a range of contexts in Europe, where the notion of knowledge production, a key activity in the so-called knowledge economy (itself a key pillar of the broader neoliberalisation of HE), has become sacrosanct. All the volume’s contributions are situated at the crossroads of three key elements - language (especially English and the Englishization of international HE), knowledge production and academic publishing – and many discuss resistance to dominant trends while offering thought-provoking ways forward. The editors, Josep Soler and Kathrin Kaufhold, have done an excellent job of tying together the eleven chapters comprising this eye-opening book, which anyone working in HE, or with an interest in HE, should definitely read."- David Block, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona"This valuable and thought-provoking collection explores the connections between language, the knowledge economy, and scholarly publishing from a sociolinguistic perspective, addressing the political and economic conditions and institutional regimes which shape knowledge production, and how these challenge and affect multilingual scholars. By adopting a practice framing, the editors and contributors are able to provide cogent analyses of the concrete material factors which shape the often abstractly-conceived processes of knowledge production, circulation, and consumption.The chapters draw out the diversity in knowledge production across Europe, showing particularly how relationships between English and national languages play out differently in different contexts, while also identifying themes which recur across, such as the power of accountability regimes and evaluation of academic publication within a market logic of rankings and competition. Overall, the book provides a powerful critique of the market logic underlying academic publishing, showing its effects both on the nature of the knowledge we produce as academics and on how this knowledge is shared. It will be of great interest to anyone with an interest in academic publishing and more broadly in the language economy of the academic world."- Karin Tusting, Lancaster University, UK

• Contents List of FiguresList of TablesList of Contributors1. Language, scholarly publishing, and the knowledge economy in multilingual Europe: Exploring interconnectionsJosep Soler and Kathrin KaufholdPart I Conditions for academic knowledge production2. Knowledge production and consumption in British academiaSharon McCulloch3. The political economy of linguistic capital: The Dutch case of academic scholarshipRenë Gabriels and Robert WilkinsonPart II Challenges for multilingual scholars4. (Re)drawing the line: Deficit and empowerment in articles on writing research from Central and Eastern EuropeClauda Dorobolschi and Loredana Bercuci5. The language of contemporary philosophyFilippo Contesi6. What moves with us when we move? Possible Future Academic Selves in trajectories of exileBaraa Khuder and Bojana Petrić7. Academics’ legitimacy and self-worth: Exploring connections between English, professional identity, and neoliberal trends in Italian academiaBeatrice ZuaroPart III Institutional regimes in the knowledge economy8. Multilingualism is important for all fields of science: Evidence from Finland and PolandJanne Pölönen and Emanuel Kulczycki9. Problematising academic journals’ evaluation systems: A case-study approach to sociolinguistics databases indexing for medium-sized languagesMaria Sabaté-Dalmau and Natxo Sorolla10. English and academic publishing: Capitalist endeavours, colonial entanglements, and knowledge production Miguel Pérez-Milans, Kathrin Kaufhold, and Josep Soler11. For metascience: A postscriptLinus SalöIndex