Workshop - Language, Democracy and Political Trust: An Interdisciplinary Perspective from Political Theory, Political Science and Sociolinguistics

Do languages play a role in how we perceive and interpret political messages? Does language or different language varieties in oral political messages shape people’s trust in one another? Do perceptions and ideologies about language and language varieties shape any aspect of democratic regimes? Do linguistic ideologies affect people’s political trust? Although recent works in sociolinguistics, political science and political theory have studied whether the way we speak affects the way we perceive and evaluate each other and its normative implications, we are still oblivious to the effect of exposure to different languages and linguistic varieties on people’s political trust and to what extent this might be normatively problematic.

Submissions are invited addressing the workshop themes, including but not limited to the following questions:

• Linguistic ideologies and attitudes applied to the political realm. 
• Political parties, representation, languages and trust.
• Social norms, language and trust.
• Conceptions about the role and value of language and their normative implications for democratic theory. 

We welcome submissions coming from sociolinguistics, empirical political science and political theory/philosophy, especially those performing interdisciplinary work. We also welcome submissions from participants at all career stages.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

• Matteo Bonotti (Monash University, Australia)
• Kathryn A. Woolard (University of California San Diego, USA)

SUBMISSION

Those interested in presenting should send an abstract of no more than 500 words to bernat.puertas@ub.edu before June 30, 2024. Early career scholars without institutional support in need of support can let us know when submitting their abstracts. For further information please contact Bernat Puertas (bernat.puertas@ub.edu).  

ORGANISERS AND SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

• Avel·lí Flors-Mas, Universitat de Barcelona
• Núria Franco-Guillén, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
• Sergi Morales-Gálvez, Universitat de València
• Bernat Puertas, Universitat de Barcelona
• Toni Rodon, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

FUNDING

This workshop forms part of the project Language and Political Trust in Multilingual Catalonia (LinguaTrust), funded by the Institut d’Estudis de l’Autogovern, Generalitat de Catalunya (Grant Agreement Number: PRE150/22/000008).