Bourdieu and the economics of language in Catalonia Authors Kathryn A. Woolard Keywords: Bourdieu, social reproduction, linguistic capital, economics of language, educational language policy, Catalonia Abstract This article first reviews Pierre Bourdieu’s influential theory of the economics of linguistic exchanges and of the role of linguistic and symbolic capital in social reproduction. It raises questions that remain unaddressed about the theory’s universality, its emphasis on schooling as the nexus for converting different forms of capital into symbolic capital, and its failure to consider the separate effects of economic and political/institutional power on linguistic capital when linguistic markets are not fully integrated. The second part of the article brings empirical evidence from Catalonia to bear on those questions. An overview of findings of economic and ethnographic/ experimental research on language in autonomous Catalonia suggests that, pace Bourdieu, changes in language policy and individual linguistic practices appear to diminish in some concrete ways the pre-existing economic and social distinctions between ethnolinguistic groups. Downloads Download data is not yet available. Downloads PDF Published 2023-07-07 Issue No. 33 (2023): Llengua i economia Section Secció monogràfica. Llengua i economia License Intellectual property Intellectual property in articles belongs to the respective authors. By submitting their articles to TSC to request their publication, authors agree to the following: Authors assign all rights of reproduction, public communication and distribution of articles submitted for publication in TSC to the SCS (a subsidiary of the IEC). Authors are accountable to the SCS for the authorship and originality of their articles. It is the responsibility of authors to obtain permissions to reproduce graphic material sourced from elsewhere and included in their articles. The SCS may not be held liable for any possible violation of intellectual property rights by authors. Material published in TSC is subject - unless otherwise indicated in the text or in graphic material - to a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Spain (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 ES) licence, the full text of which can be found at this link. Accordingly, the general public may reproduce, distribute and communicate the article provided the author and publisher are acknowledged and as long as no commercial or derivative use is made of the article. TSC cannot be held responsible for ideas and opinions as expressed by the authors of articles published in the journal.
