In The Commodification of Language, John Petrovic & Bedrettin Yazan have assembled a conceptual and empirical collection of pieces from seventeen contributors. The book is structured in two parts. The first four chapters critically explore the conceptualization of language and language-related phenomena in late capitalism. The rest of the volume consists of empirical studies that demonstrate how the concepts contribute to deepening our understanding of linguistic phenomena in today's world.
The first chapter, written by William Simpson & John P. O'Regan, approaches the phenomenon by employing the notion of fetishism. The following two chapters by Petrovic & Yazan and by Kenneth McGill take the position that language is not a commodity and warn against the discrepant use of the terms commodity or commodification. In chapter 4, François Grin further discusses the importance of correcting the misconceptions of economical concepts in social linguistic research to achieve conceptual rigor in conducting interdisciplinary research.
In response to the claim ‘the notion of fetishism as consisting in illusions which exist not in theory, but in practice’ (7), made by Simpson & O'Regan in the first chapter, the subsequent seven chapters present empirical studies that explore the concept of the commodification of language in contextualized ways. In these chapters, local language practices from various parts of the world are shared: freelance interpreters in Toronto (chapter 5, Julie H. Tay & Sebastian Muth), an elite international school in suburban Spain (chapter 6, Andrea Sunyol), heritage tourism in Himalayan Tamang (chapter 7, Bal Krishna Sharma), an NGO-run vocational training classroom in a North Indian city (chapter 8, Katy Highet & Alfonso Del Percio), Greek migrants living in Luxemburg's family language policy (chapter 9, Nikos Gogonas), governmental and local naming practices of places in Kuala Lumpur (chapter 10, Peter K. W. Tan), and French immersion programs in Alberta and Ontario (chapter 11, Sylvie Roy & Julie S. Byrd Clark).
Although all of the studies analyze the issue of the power of the English language in present society, the scope of the discussion is not limited to one language. Rather, the contributors focus on how the power among languages is intricately linked and gets activated within a particular local context. For example, in chapter 7, Krishna Sharma looks at a community language policy in a Himalayan Tamage village, how the indigenous language, semiotic signs, and cultural artifacts became commodified in the context of heritage tourism, and how the English language ‘functions as a resource to reterritorialize and transform the ethnic village into a translocal space of touristic consumption’ (121).
One of the interesting aspects of the collection is that the contributors not only cover a broad range of topics but also employ various methods across the empirical chapters. For example, in chapter 10, Tan analyzes street names and building names in Kuala Lumpur to understand both top-down and bottom-up naming practices that reflect people's recognition of linguistic capital. Each contribution can be read as an independent piece. Yet, readers are encouraged to undertake the whole collection to gain a holistic understanding of the concept of the commodification of language, including its critiques, and to explore various approaches to research.
