Sociolinguists and their publics: Epistemological tension and disciplinary contestation over language in Catalonia

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the relationship of sociolinguists with the publics in Catalonia and to disentangle the complex interrelationships among academics within the discipline. By examining material from mainstream media outlets and data from interviews with a selected number of sociolinguist scholars, we show how the public sphere is a site in which competing epistemological and disciplinary visions contest for discursive dominance in language-in-society matters, institutional authorization, and resources. Rather than seeing the engagement of sociolinguists with publics as a disinterested activity of knowledge dissemination and the provision of facts, we argue that the publics are better conceived as a terrain toward which sociolinguists direct institutional, disciplinary, and professional interests. Ultimately, our article contributes to a more encompassing understanding of ourselves as sociolinguists.