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In pursuit of epistemic authority in public intellectual engagement: the case of language and gender

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Published/Copyright: November 13, 2023
Multilingua
From the journal Multilingua Volume 43 Issue 1

Abstract

Public intellectual life is an area of inquiry that has not received a great deal of attention within the field of sociolinguistics. This article investigates the performative dimension of public intellectual engagement in the area of language and gender and, more specifically, how epistemic authority about gender-neutral language is constructed in public intellectual contributions in Catalonia, Spain. Adopting Arendt’s notion of truth claim and the Foucauldian concepts of regimes of truth and epistemic sovereignty, we empirically examine the mechanisms of reception and validation of the public engagements of one highly visible linguistic scholar. Our study shows the ways in which this intellectual figure strives to be recognised as having exclusive scientific authority about language. We argue that pursuing the allegedly impartial standpoint of epistemic authority about gender and language inevitably advances the interests of specific political actors and large media corporations of a conservative strand that fervently oppose gender-neutral language.

Resum

L’àmbit intel·lectual públic és un terreny que fins ara ha estat relativament poc investigat des d’una perspectiva sociolingüística. Aquest article indaga en la dimensió performativa d’aquest àmbit en el context d’un debat sobre llengua i gènere i, més concretament, analitza com es construeix l’autoritat epistèmica sobre el llenguatge neutre en les aportacions intel·lectuals públiques a Catalunya. Adoptem la noció d’afirmació de la veritat d’Arendt i els conceptes foucaultians de règims de veritat i sobirania epistèmica per examinar empíricament els mecanismes de recepció i validació de les intervencions públiques d’una experta lingüista amb molta visibilitat pública. El nostre estudi mostra com aquesta figura intel·lectual s’esforça per ser reconeguda com a autoritat científica exclusiva en relació amb la llengua. Argumentem que buscar un punt de vista presumptament imparcial d’autoritat epistèmica sobre llengua i gènere promou inevitablement els interessos d’actors polítics concrets i de grans corporacions mediàtiques d’una línia conservadora que s’oposen fervorosament al llenguatge neutre.

Keywords: public intellectual engagement; epistemic authority; language and gender; gender-neutral language
Paraules clau: compromís intel·lectual públic; autoritat epistèmica; llengua i gènere; llenguatge neutre
Corresponding author: Iker Erdocia, School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies, Dublin City University, Glasnevin 9, Dublin, Ireland, E-mail:

Funding source: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dublin City University

Award Identifier / Grant number: 2022

  1. Research funding: This work was supported by the publication fund of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dublin City University.

  2. Competing interests: The authors declare none.

  3. Data availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Received: 2023-07-26
Accepted: 2023-10-31
Published Online: 2023-11-13
Published in Print: 2024-01-29

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. Multilingual police interaction: a conversation analysis of crime control in border checks
  4. Shame on me: the individual whitewash of a social stigma underpinned by language ideologies
  5. “Who are you standing with?”: cultural (self-re)translation of a Russian-speaking conference immigrant-interpreter in Israel during the war in Ukraine
  6. In pursuit of epistemic authority in public intellectual engagement: the case of language and gender
  7. Navigating whiteness from the margins: Finnish, Somali, and Arabic speakers’ experiences of racialization, (in)visibility, and (im)mobility in Gothenburg, Sweden
https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2023-0115
Keywords for this article
public intellectual engagement; epistemic authority; language and gender; gender-neutral language

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. Multilingual police interaction: a conversation analysis of crime control in border checks
  4. Shame on me: the individual whitewash of a social stigma underpinned by language ideologies
  5. “Who are you standing with?”: cultural (self-re)translation of a Russian-speaking conference immigrant-interpreter in Israel during the war in Ukraine
  6. In pursuit of epistemic authority in public intellectual engagement: the case of language and gender
  7. Navigating whiteness from the margins: Finnish, Somali, and Arabic speakers’ experiences of racialization, (in)visibility, and (im)mobility in Gothenburg, Sweden
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