La langue comme ressource productive et les rapports de pouvoir entre communautés linguistiques

Abstract

This article is the result of the meeting of two disciplines : sociolinguistics and economics, drawn upon in the perspective of minority studies. The authors investigate the ways in which the New Economy redefines the relationship between two linguistic communities, who have a shared history and shared contemporary objectives, through the enhanced value attributed to linguistic resources, and also the ways in which speakers redefine social categorizations in the light of changing socioeconomic conditions. The analyses are based on an ethnographic study carried out in a call center in Moncton, New Brunswick, and its general objectives were to get a better understanding of the hierarchical and functional distributions of the various languages in circulation in a specific work environment. This in turn is part of a larger context where different linguistic ideologies compete with each other.