English as a Global Public Good Tools and practices for the empowerment of marginalised groups in divided societies through transnational learning mobility, peacebuilding, and youth work beyond the language(s) and politics of belonging

Abstract

The proposed thesis research will investigate the use and instrumental uses of external, vehicular and non-national/non-native languages, in this case that of English, to facilitate mediation and overcome regional and local conflicts arising from and exacerbated by the political instrumentalisation of language(s) among local communities and in their relations with potential external counterparts in the long process for them to become operative partners and transform conflict into cooperation. The overall context and investigation will be framed into the practices and operational arena of “peacebuilding”, “learning/labour mobility” and “youth work”, which will also be assessed as three concepts considered untranslatable and used as such even in the legal corpus of countries where English has never been adopted as an official language at the institutional level neither is a mother tongue for the majority of the resident population. The time frame set for my analysis is the past 30 years with the spread of English as a global language. During this time, English has shifted from a long-established function – already an embryo of “public good” – embodied in those of the dominant powers and theories associated with the prominent international role played by English-speaking Nation-States (i.e., the UK and the USA) and the advancement of technology in the 20th century, then shifting to the pivot of the policy of multilingualism, adopted and promoted by the supranational entity European Union both in its institutional performance and as a general platform for its citizens. The first part of the thesis will be grounded on the debate on languages emerging as a global public good in the past 30 years and the divergent political opinions on different aspects of global justice, global democracy, requirements and benefits of a common cross-border language (Kaul et al., 1999; p. 16, Taylor, 2015; Van Parijs, 2011) and the linguistic dominance associated with the emergence of the “Anglo-Globalism” and “Euro-English” phenomena. The second part of the thesis will examine the transition in the use of the English language after Brexit and related linguistic policies at the EU level. It will look into this transition’s relevance for non-native speakers in their professional and political duties and the extension of its use in policy development and at the grassroots levels concerning the three concepts proposed for the analysis by considering the legacy of the theoretical framework and practices as piloted in the United Kingdom and transferred to the rest of the continent. In particular, this part will address the European Youth Work Agenda - EYWA (2020 – 2025) and the language used to influence policy development and law-making in the EU member states post-Brexit and also in the key countries neighbouring the European Union, but not yet member of it, where English has never been adopted as an official language. The third part will then be devoted to the case studies of divided societies in the non-EU Western Balkans countries and the potential for a non-native and non-official language to structure effectively and profoundly shape small- and large-scale social cooperation in the three areas of interest and investigation.