Global flows in local language planning : Articulating parallel language use in Swedish univerity policies

The language policies of three Swedish universities are examined as instances of language planning in local contexts. Although Sweden has the national Language Act of 2009 as well as a general Higher Education Ordinance (SFS 1993:100; SFS 2014:1096), language planning for higher education is left to the purview of individual institutions. Since language planning in local contexts often involves the intersection of locally situated communication needs and wider circulating ideologies, the present study considers how national language planning goals are taken up and reinterpreted by higher education institutions. In particular, the focus is on universities whose policies are framed using the Nordic language planning concept of ‘parallel language use,’ which has emerged over the last twenty years as a way to theorize a sociopolitical balance between English and Scandinavian languages. The concept indexes a range of issues related to the relative position of Swedish and English, including linguistic tensions surrounding international aspirations and national responsibilities for universities and the mitigation of purported domain loss by Swedish to English. Drawing upon a discourse analysis of policy approach, we analyze the policies of these three universities as examples of local language planning, focusing on how they engage with ideas related to parallel language use while also expanding upon the concept to include the linguistic needs of local students and staff.