Language and the Knowledge Economy

This volume offers a holistic understanding of the interconnections of language, specifically English, scholarly publishing, and knowledge production and circulation through a sociolinguistic lens in contemporary academia across different European settings for research purposes.

The volume is organised around three parts: the first part explores individual factors underpinning knowledge production and their role in shaping scholars’ academic careers; the second part critically reflects on the challenges and opportunities for multilingual scholars in the academic landscape, examining the inherent tensions in the interactions between English and other languages; the final part considers the ways in which academic knowledge is institutionalised – at universities, private companies, and on a national scale – and the subsequent impact on knowledge dissemination. Taken together, the chapters provide a coherent and holistic overview of the affordances and limitations that different social actors experience when participating in such cycles, including the different modes of access to resources across geographic contexts and disciplinary traditions. An important contribution of the volume is the multilayered angle that it incorporates into analysing issues of scholarly publishing in today's academia, placing language as a social practice at the heart of the structuring processes that condition the creation, dissemination, and consumption of knowledge in contemporary societies.

This book will be of interest to scholars in English for research and publication purposes, sociolinguistics, language and education, and applied linguistics.

Josep Soler is Professor of English Linguistics at Stockholm University, Sweden.

Kathrin Kaufhold is Associate Professor of English Applied Linguistics at Stockholm University, Sweden.