ABSTRACT
“Neoliberalism” is used in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics both too little and at moments too extensively. Several recent works (e.g., Block, Gray, and Holborow 2012; Park and Lo 2012) have noted the need for more attention to current political and economic developments in applied linguistics, especially neoliberalism, to make research more politically relevant and effective. Others, however, note that the overly wide use of neoliberalism may assume the spread of market forces in ways that neoliberal theorists can only aspire to (Fairclough 1992). In addition, neoliberalism, globalization, and late capitalism are sometimes used interchangeably. This chapter speaks to these concerns. We begin with an overview of the history of the rise of neoliberal thought, various theories of neoliberalism, and the unevenness of neoliberalism in various contexts. This overview provides some background for our general survey of work done on neoliberalism within sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and applied linguistics, allowing us to ask which questions get taken up in this literature and which do not, and how linguistic research is articulated with other disciplinary accounts of neoliberalism. Studies of migration have often, perhaps even more than other areas of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics, been attentive to economic trends that shape movement (Kerswill 2006). In the final portion of the chapter, we consider what is distinctive about linguistic issues in the context of migration in the current moment, drawing on two detailed case studies of neoliberalism, language, and migration (Canada and the Philippines) to exemplify the application of some of the theoretical insights and debates as a model for future research in these areas.
