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Community and commodity in French Ontario

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2004

GABRIELE BUDACH
Affiliation:
Institut für Romanische Sprachen und Literaturen, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Grüneburgplatz 1, 60629 Frankfurt am Main, Germany, budach@em.uni-frankfurt.de
SYLVIE ROY
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, EDT 1130, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr. N.W., Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada, syroy@ucalgary.ca
MONICA HELLER
Affiliation:
Centre de Recherche en Éducation Franco-Ontarien, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1Y6, Canada, mheller@oise.utoronto.ca

Abstract

Linguistic minority movements have long adopted dominant discourses linking language and community. Analysis of two sites of discursive production in francophone Canada (literacy centers and a call center workplace in Ontario) shows that current socioeconomic changes challenge those discourses. Language and community are uncoupled and redefined as commodities with exchange value in the globalized market for services and information. “Community” serves mainly to legitimize struggles for privileged access to newly commodified linguistic and cultural resources.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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