Media e promotion of plurilingualism in Europe: a transdisciplinary itinerary

Abstract

The article focuses on the promotion and protection of cultural diversity by comparing the language policy of the European Union with common attitudes and discourse practices in the national public sphere. While the EU regards diversity - linguistic and cultural in general - as a foundation of the European identity, established discourse practices in the public debate still express a monolingual ideology, typical of the tradition of the nation state. At the same time the role played by media seems to be underestimated in the debate on language policy. Following a transdisciplinary path, which compares the sociological, sociolinguistic, socio-anthropological and philosophical approach with the advances in cultural studies, it appears that the research of the last years tends to emphasize the procedural and dynamic character of cultural identity by conceptualizing it in terms of capital rather than heritage. A transcultural approach in the study of language diversity promises advantages both from a theoretical and from an applied point of view: on the one hand it allows the description of the complex cultural dynamics arising in the context of globalization, on the other it implies a better handling, also in a discursive sense, of superdiversity (Vertovec 2009), a term which underlines the multilayered character of contemporary cultural identities. Beside the potential and the challenges of superdiversity the role played by media in promoting or, on the contrary, in frustrating the efforts started in other fields - like education, politics or research -, in order to construct a European culture of diversity, could be decisive.