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Research group Language and societal challenges

Language and Social Challenges is one of the permanent research groups within Swedish and Scandinavian Languages at the Department of Swedish and Multilingualism. It brings together sociolinguistically and discourse analytically oriented researchers who are interested in linguistic issues in relation to social, ecological and economic sustainability.

Illustration sity skyline in various green colours. Buildnings are made of different icons.

Photo: Cienpies Design, MostPhotos.

The research group focuses on how ideologies, fields of knowledge, power relations and experiences are created and recreated linguistically and rhetorically. We are interested in the linguistic meaning-making of organizations, groups and individuals in social contexts. How do they present and position themselves, others and different areas of interest? We examine debates and discussions, historiography and negotiation processes, as well as conditions for learning and development. Our objects of study can be ideologies, norms, argumentation, categorization, metaphors, concepts, discrimination and identity. Our data are texts, conversations and ethnographic observations.

Currently, the group is working on identifying and proposing linguistic research tasks in relation to what is pointed ot as our major societal challenges: a manifesto for language and sustainable development!