Bilingualism and the Globalized New Economy: The Commodification of Language and Identity

Abstract

Globalization: a big word that is meant to account for a multiplicity of processes and practices, namely an increase in quantity and rapidity of the circulation of people, identities, imaginations and products across borders. At the heart of globalization are discursive struggles over positioning and repositioning of actors as a result of the changing conditions of production and consumption of goods and identities. One of the driving forces of transnationalism is the tertiarization of the economy, that is, its transformation to a concentration in service and knowledge-based activities. As a result of tertiarization, we are currently witnessing a shift between two ideological systems when it comes to the organization of the relations of power which structure social, linguistic and identity practices. Indeed, the tertiarization of the economy is transforming the economic bases which organize the reproduction of social groups, and the associated management of linguistic and cultural difference.