Researching language management in Central Europe

Abstract

This contribution contextualizes the research conducted using the language management approach in Central Europe, demonstrating the influence of local disciplinary traditions as well as real language, communicative and sociocultural problems. It considers J. V. Neustupný’s original inspiration in the approaches to language cultivation developed over the years by the Prague School, the contemporary Czech institutional basis for the continuation of cultivation-based research, and the emergence of research topics sparked by the political and socioeconomic changes after 1989. One of these topics is the management of linguistic diversity, which reveals manifestations of power in issues such as foreign language teaching policy, language choice in the workplace and the position of minority languages.