Higher Education, Language and New Nationalism in Finland

The book discusses recycled discourses of language and nationalism in Finnish higher education, demonstrating the need to look beyond language in the study of language policies of higher education. It analyses the historical and political layeredness of language policies as well as the intertwined nature of national and international developments in understanding new nationalism. Finnish higher education language policies were fuelled by the dynamics and tensions between the national languages Finnish and Swedish until the 2000s, when English begins to catalyse post nationalist discourses of economy and competitiveness. In the 2010s, English begins to be seen as a threat to Finnish. Educational, economic and epistemic nationalism emerge as the main cycles of new nationalist language policies in Finnish higher education. The book will be of interest to language policy and higher education scholars and practitioners, as well as graduate students language policy and higher education.

Examines whether and how new nationalist interests permeate different societal and higher education contexts Explores language as co-constituting nationalism in higher education over time Challenges recycled discourses of Finnish constitutional bilingualism and links Finland to global developments in new nationalism

Autorentext

Taina Saarinen is Research Professor of Higher Education at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She has published widely on language policies of higher education and contemporary and historical language policies, recently in journals such as Higher Education, Rethinking History, and Language Policy. She particularly enjoys comparative and historically layered topics.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Introduction: Conceptualising language policy and higher education in new nationalism.- Chapter 2: Language and long nation building in Finnish higher education.- Chapter 3: The short and intense post-nationalist period in Finnish higher education.- Chapter 4: Language and new nationalism in higher education (in Finland and a bit elsewhere).- Chapter 5: New nationalism and higher education.