Publish or Perish, publier ou périr? How Research Publication Language Choice is Shaped among Linguistics Early Career Researchers in France
Résumé
For researchers working in contexts in which there are multiple, competing scientific languages, and especially for those looking to find a way into academia, publishing can be a key issue in the politics of researching multilingually. This chapter aims to critically explore the language choices made by early career researchers (ECRs) in the field of linguistics in one such context: France. By applying a critical sociolinguistic framework to data from ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, I show how ECRs develop a strategic approach to publication, aimed primarily at improving their employment prospects. For many ECRs, this involves publishing work in English, French, or, often, a combination of both, depending on the subdiscipline. The way in which ECRs rationalise their language choices highlights the role played by language ideologies in that they position both English and French as particularly valuable resources within the linguistic marketplace of French academia. These ideological dynamics are shown to be linked to institutional gatekeeping: they contribute to the reproduction of a certain linguistic order, safeguarding the positions of established academics and shaping the linguistic practices of ECRs. Such ideologies thus, potentially, sit at the heart of questions relating to the (re)production of institutional exclusion and inequality in academia.