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3 - Policy Change in a Language Regime

Institutionalism, Incrementalism, and Agency

from Part I - Routes of Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2024

By
Martin Normand
Edited by
Ericka Albaugh ,
Linda Cardinal  and
Rémi Léger
Ericka Albaugh
Affiliation:
Bowdoin College, Maine
Linda Cardinal
Affiliation:
Université de l'Ontario français
Rémi Léger
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
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Summary

Path dependency relies upon historicity and context to understand how institutions sustain themselves through time and are compelled to change at critical junctures. Some consider this approach as being deterministic, focused on external shocks to institutions and better at explaining stability rather than change. Others consider that there is also agency in institutional change, that actors may seize upon opportunities within institutions to find novel solutions to new challenges, or that a succession of incremental changes may fundamentally alter institutions without any external shock. We understand language regimes as being path dependent, while accepting that various actors may work within the regime to bring forth incremental changes in language policies. These changes may occur through various policy processes rather than through major disruptions. The impetus for this process may come from within the institutions, where state actors may try to adjust policies to a new context, or from language groups who express dissatisfaction towards the regime and mobilize to demand change. The chapter first discusses the possibility that language regime can change; second, it draws upon the institutional literature to describe how a language regime may change; third, it uses the case of French in Ontario to illustrate this process.

Keywords

Institutional changeincrementalismlanguage policypath dependencyOntarioFrench
Type
Chapter
Information
States of Language Policy
Theorizing Continuity and Change
 , pp. 49 - 65
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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