Spaces of conscientization as a bridge between inequality and contestation
-
Estibaliz Amorrortu
and
Luz Zas
Abstract
The EquiLing project aims at contributing to sociolinguistic justice by understanding language-mediated social inequalities and facilitating the conditions through which to challenge and transform these situations. In order to do so and following a Freirean approach and a Participatory Action Research methodology, we created conscientization spaces in two university sites in Bilbao and Madrid. In these conscientization spaces, researchers and students (or co-participants, as we term them here) engaged collaboratively in group dynamics to develop critical sociolinguistic awareness and foster transformative actions to challenge the sociolinguistic inequalities within each context. Students, when sharing these experiences, often evoked the external spaces they transit through in their daily lives, in which they faced situations that show lack of recognition, unequal distribution of resources and/or participation. Space appeared as a key element in the articulation of their narratives and experiences due to it usually being configured and constructed through hegemonic (in our case, sociolinguistic) ideologies and practices, which can leave speakers falling outside this normativity in situations of sociolinguistic injustice. In reaction to this, in our conscientization spaces, we (researchers and co-participants) have challenged these dynamics interactionally in joint reflection and practice by cultivating a safer space. In this sense, we have tried to foster counter-hegemonic practices in our spaces, facilitating in some cases a bridge to other spaces. This has shown that space is a central element in the configuration of a sociolinguistic order and that it is dynamic, socially constructed, and in continuous transformation, which also creates possibilities for resistance.
Funding source: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Award Identifier / Grant number: This article presents results from the projects fu
Award Identifier / Grant number: Funding for the project “Sociolinguistic transfo
Funding source: The R+D+I Equiling research project
Award Identifier / Grant number: PID2019-105676RB-C4
Funding source: Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación – National Research Agency
Award Identifier / Grant number: PID2019-105676RB-C41/AEI/10.13039/501100011033
Award Identifier / Grant number: PID2019-105676RB- C44/AEI/10.13039/501100011033
Award Identifier / Grant number: PID2019-105676RB- C42/AEI/10.13039/501100011033
Acknowledgements
Moreover, this article has benefitted from discussion in the following research teams: Gobierno Vasco-IT1212-19 (2022–2025), MIRCo-UAM Research Centre. We furthermore wish to thank the reviewers and editors of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language for their insightful comments and suggestions. Finally, we want to deeply thank all the participants who have taken part in this project as co-researchers.
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Research funding: The R+D+I Equiling research project, Critical linguistic awareness and speaker agency: action research for social equality (PID2019-105676RB-C4) as well as the subprojects Equiling-Mad, Towards a new linguistic citizenship: action-research for the recognition of speakers in the Madrid educational context (PID2019-105676RB-C41/AEI/10.13039/501100011033), Equiling-Gal, Spaces of sociolinguistic transformation in the Galicia educational context: speakers agency, multilingual repertoires and (meta) communicative practices (PID2019-105676RB- C44/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and Equiling-Basque, Sociolinguistic transformation processes in the Basque context: speakers, practices and agency (PID2019-105676RB- C42/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) were funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación – National Research Agency. In addition, research has also benefited from “Euskal hiztun aktibo bilakatzen/Becoming active speakers of Basque” (Hizkuntza Politika Sailburuordetza/Viceministry of Language Policy, Basque Government, (2028-2024)).
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© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Negotiating sociolinguistic justice: turning spaces of inequality into spaces of conscientization
- Talking about sociolinguistic injustice: critical ethnographies towards speaker conscientization
- Spaces of conscientization as a bridge between inequality and contestation
- Voicing experiences of language surveillance to challenge social inequality
- Agency as doing-together: learning from fieldwork experiences
- Varia
- Relevance and effectiveness in translation planning into minoritized languages: an evaluation of translation subsidies in the Galician publishing industry
- Ainu language use and display in the National Ainu Museum
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Negotiating sociolinguistic justice: turning spaces of inequality into spaces of conscientization
- Talking about sociolinguistic injustice: critical ethnographies towards speaker conscientization
- Spaces of conscientization as a bridge between inequality and contestation
- Voicing experiences of language surveillance to challenge social inequality
- Agency as doing-together: learning from fieldwork experiences
- Varia
- Relevance and effectiveness in translation planning into minoritized languages: an evaluation of translation subsidies in the Galician publishing industry
- Ainu language use and display in the National Ainu Museum
