2010/09/23 by Monica Heller · 10 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Discourse Analysis in Language Studies #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies #Multilingual Education and Policy
paper · doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.012809.104951
openalex publication_date 2010/09/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Although language can always be analyzed as a commodity, its salience as a resource with exchange value has increased with the growing importance of language in the globalized new economy under the political economic conditions of late capitalism. This review summarizes how and in which ways those conditions have a commodifying effect on language and focuses on contemporary tensions between ideologies and practices of language in the shift from modernity to late modernity. It describes some of these tensions in key sites: tourism, marketing, language teaching, translation, communications (especially call centers), and performance art.