Languages, legitimacy processes and the political economy: The commodification of the language border in the tourism industry

It is the aim of my PhD thesis to understand the different economic appropriations of language and multilingualism in the tertiary sector, and its impact on the valuation of workers. The focus lies on the processes which turn language into an argument of distinction in the tourism industry, as well as on the ensuing consequences for the definition of the legitimate and authentic worker in the tourism sector in the bilingual town Murten-Morat, situated on the intranational French-German language border in Switzerland.

Local languages/varieties can be an important instrument for tourism place branding as an element of distinction from other destinations, as an authenticity marker of localness, and as a tourism experience (e.g. Hall-Lew/Lew 2014, Heller/Duchêne 2012, Pietikäinen/Kelly-Holmes 2011, Urciuoli/LaDousa 2013). At the same time, potential language barriers may have a negative impact on the visitors’ choice of the prospective destination (Cohen/Cooper 1986). Both sides of the coin can be found in the tourism industry in Murten-Morat. In promotional discourses, the language border is at times concealed, yet at other times foregrounded as a distinctive tourist attraction or highlighted through the (presupposed) bilingualism of the local population that shall attract both German- and French-speakers by enabling Swiss, German and French tourists to discover another culture without experiencing a language barrier. Through the variable instrumentalization of the particular linguistic situation and its enactment on-site, the local languages/varieties, as well as their speakers, achieve a specific symbolic and material value. Against this background, questions of authenticity and legitimacy (Bourdieu 1977) emerge. With regard to employability, the question arises of who fits the profile of the local, authentic, but linguistic flexible, legitimate worker in order to adequately (re)present the town at the language border – if possible in several languages for the (inter)national target audience.

Due to its particular linguistic characteristics and their commodification, Murten-Morat comes to serve as an emblematic terrain to generate knowledge about the political economy of language under the conditions of the ‘New Economy’ (Duchêne/Heller 2012). Given the complexity of actors and discourses in the tourism industry, I am drawing on a multi-sited and multi-perspective ethnographic approach (Marcus 1998). The data contains institutional documents of locally operating tourism institutions, promotional and informational material (e.g., brochures, websites), interviews with tourism workers of different tourism institutions and providers of touristic activities, as well as participant observations of touristic activities and interactions with tourists. The discourse analytical examination of the legitimacy-construction with regard to local languages and their speakers from the multi-perspective of the different actors and institutions shall provide an insight in underlying economic interests and language ideologies. By employing a critical and interactional sociolinguistic approach, I aim to reveal the embeddedness of observable multilingual practices within power relations and market logics (Duchêne/Piller 2011).