In various Western societies around the world, the past decades have witnessed a shift from language policies in which a single, national language has been promoted to policies in which other, usually minority (Indigenous and migrant), languages have been increasingly taken into account. This volume has two main aims. It compares and contrasts language policies – recent and past – and their practical outcomes in various settings, including, but not, restricted to the following countries: Australia, the Baltic States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Northern Ireland, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. It also explores the increasingly dominant role of English in many speech communities, and how English as a global force interacts with national, transnational or local interests in a variety of contexts.

The volume sheds new light on compelling and challenging situations in a range of speech communities that vary in size and power in a global context. In particular, it addresses the extent to which language policy discourses tend towards language uniformity or diversity. ‘Language policy’ is examined in its various manifestations –public or private, or even commercially driven. The contributions scrutinise how policies are not only implemented but also resisted, contested and even manipulated. In other words, the volume brings together research on language policies across a range of communities within everyday reality as evidenced in how language policy works in practice – in the educational sector, the corporate world and in day-to-day interactions between people in various settings. The contributions draw on different but complimentary methodologies, using quantitative and qualitative approaches.

The volume consists of 16 chapters divided into three parts, each representing a specific focus on language policy. In Part 1 – Language Policy at the Official Level – the emphasis is on the most recent developments in official language policy through legislation in a number of countries.