Global English and Inequality: The Contested Ground of Linguistic Power

As the contributions to this book testify, one of the major areas of research and debate concerning the advent of global English or increased usage of Englishes (unevenly) across the globe is how to analyze and understand the inequalities and power differentials involved in language (Schmidt 2006, pp. 104–107). There are immense complexities surrounding questions of power relations among both differing ways in which English is spoken and used, various forms of English, and relations between English and other languages across a variety of language domains and contexts. But before even considering the array of empirical situations in which such complexities manifest, it is worth focusing on the conceptual basis for what we mean by ‘unequal’ and its obvious correlate, ‘equal’. This is a contested and ambiguous terrain that often lies below the surface of current debates and remains more implicit than explicitly interrogated. Other concepts such as hegemony, oppression, exploitation, and injustice are mobilized in conjunction with inequality. Notions of creativity, spontaneity and expression also stand in for and enrich or confuse many of our ideas and experiences with English and inequality. As a political theorist focused on language issues, I will use this chapter to make more explicit one of the emerging and important fault-lines within analyses of global English(es) and power relationships.