In a new submission to Democracy Papers, Tracy Sulkin looks at the professional consequences of legislators’ bad behavior. Using a unique dataset on professional scandals and instances of incivility committed by members of the US House of Representatives, she shows that scandals and incivility are linked to stalling professional career trajectories of members of Congress. In an era of polarization and gridlock, these results indicate that Congress does retain ability to police and sanction bad behavior among its members.
Sociolinguistic Frontiers
Linguistics and the State: How Funding and Politics Shape a Field
In this contribution to “Sociolinguistic Frontiers,” Christopher Hutton discusses how states have historically taken an interest in, and funded, linguistics research. For a range of political purposes—including colonial rule and military strategy—knowing about and learning the language of “others” has been part of the projection and use of power. The specific purposes and forms of state support for research on language, argues Hutton, does vary depending on whether states have authoritarian or liberal democratic regimes.
From Our Archives
Linguistics Serves the People: Lessons of a Trip to China
As part of the SSRC’s Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People’s Republic of China, a delegation of US linguistics scholars traveled to various Chinese cities in late 1974 to learn about China’s language policy and linguistic research. This report by Charles Ferguson, a member of the delegation and a major figure in the Council’s earlier work on sociolinguistics, summarizes the group’s observations, which center on China’s approach to linguistics and language research. The delegation expressed particular interest in China’s ongoing strategy to standardize its language, linguistic research on language teaching and minority languages, and the growth of English language education.
Latest stories
Sociolinguistic Frontiers
Linguistics and the State: How Funding and Politics Shape a Field
by Christopher Hutton
In this contribution to “Sociolinguistic Frontiers,” Christopher Hutton discusses how states have historically taken an interest in, and funded, linguistics research. For a range of political purposes—including colonial rule and military strategy—knowing about and learning the language of “others” has been part of the projection and use of power. The specific purposes and forms of state support for research on language, argues Hutton, does vary depending on whether states have authoritarian or liberal democratic regimes.
From Our Archives
Linguistics Serves the People: Lessons of a Trip to China
by Items Editors
As part of the SSRC’s Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China, a delegation of US linguistics scholars traveled to various Chinese cities in late 1974 to learn about China’s language policy and linguistic research. This report by Charles Ferguson, a member of the delegation and a major figure in the Council’s earlier work on sociolinguistics, summarizes the group’s observations, which center on China’s approach to linguistics and language research. The delegation expressed particular interest in China’s ongoing strategy to standardize its language, linguistic research on language teaching and minority languages, and the growth of English language education.
Democracy Papers
Scandals and Incivility in Congress: Do Legislators Face Consequences?
by Tracy Sulkin
In a new submission to Democracy Papers, Tracy Sulkin looks at the professional consequences of legislators’ bad behavior. Using a unique dataset on professional scandals and instances of incivility committed by members of the US House of Representatives, she shows that scandals and incivility are linked to stalling professional career trajectories of members of Congress. In an era of polarization and gridlock, these results indicate that Congress does retain ability to police and sanction bad behavior among its members.
Sociolinguistic Frontiers
Language and Gender: Mainstreaming and the Persistence of Patriarchy
by Deborah Cameron
Deborah Cameron traces how issues related to gender (and sexuality), largely ignored in the early development of sociolinguistics, have emerged as a cornerstone of the field. Spurred on by the feminist movement and new generations of engaged scholars addressing how language use both reveals and embeds gender inequalities, scholarship on such questions is now “mainstream” across a range of disciplines. Cameron argues that the primary focus in recent decades on social identity and performance, while path-breaking in many ways, has had the unintended consequence of drawing attention away from core issues of power and patriarchy in terms of gender relations.
From Our Archives
Notes on the Sociological Study of Language
by Items Editors
The SSRC’s Committee on Sociolinguistics (1963–1979) was formed to explore how the nascent interdisciplinary field of sociolinguistics could deepen scholarly understanding of the intersection of language with social, cultural, and political questions. In this 1963 piece, John Useem, a committee member, explains how “developing the sociological study of language” would advance social science. He emphasizes the potential contribution to social knowledge through research on how language is used across cultural contexts and social divides of class, geography, race, and ethnicity. As Deborah Cameron highlights in her essay for our “Sociolinguistic Frontiers” series, gender was largely ignored in the early development of the field.
Sociolinguistic Frontiers
When Political Institutions Use Sociolinguistic Concepts
by David Karlander
To launch our new series on sociolinguistics, David Karlander examines what happens when concepts developed by scholars of language circulate and become embedded in policies and law. In exploring how the distinction between a “language” and a “dialect” became encoded in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML), Karlander examines the consequences when applied to the status and state support of minority languages in Sweden. What counts as a language, he demonstrates, is not simply an “academic” matter. When sociolinguistics enters the public arena, it has the potential to affect the political and social standing of real communities.
Race & Capitalism
Racial Capitalism and the Rule of Law
by Mark Golub
Mark Golub contributes a new essay to the “Race & Capitalism” series through a critical examination of the concept of the “rule of law.” Golub argues that, in the United States, the seemingly neutral and objective status of law masks a deep set of class and racial biases that are underpinned by state violence. He calls attention to two key approaches to understanding and ultimately confronting the injustices of such a legal order—critical legal studies and critical race theory. According to Golub, bringing the strengths of these two intellectual currents together is necessary for a robust critique of a system in which racial domination and capitalist exploitation reinforce each other.
From Our Programs
How Drug Courts Fall Short: A New Report Investigates this Policy Model’s Performance in the Americas
by Cleia Noia
The SSRC’s Drugs, Security and Democracy program has recently released a report titled Drug Courts in the Americas. Here, program manager Cleia Noia provides an overview of the report’s findings and recommendations. In discussing how drug courts became the preferred alternative to incarceration not just in the United States but Latin America and the Caribbean, she highlights their limitations—especially their continued connection to the criminal justice system.