Conference Paper

Slide 1 - Overview

The edited collection of Language Policy & Political Economy: English in a Global Context (2015) by Thomas Ricento Ph. D. explicates why he advocates for a world-systems approach to language policy that considers political, social, historical and cultural contexts.

I’ve based my thesis on the research from the authors of this book and my knowledge of cryptocurrencies.

Slide 2 - Abstract

The word “cryptocurrency” refers to records of value on a publicly accessible ledger that only the holder of an encrypted key may alter. The ledger is immutable and therefore requires no third party such as a bank or an attorney to verify that the record is authentic--the cryptocurrency or blockchain upon which it is based is trustless. The word cryptocurrency increasingly appears in public media concerning economic policy. However, it has yet to appear in language analyses and language policy papers. This paper speaks to the exigence of financial solutions though cryptocurrencies for individuals, generations, and nations in whole and ties cryptocurrency to communitarian language policy solutions. Furthermore, cryptocurrency, will assist language policy scholars' arguments in favor of mother-tongue languages and their attempts at cultural preservation. With many references to the edited collection of Language Policy and Political Economy: English in a Global Context (2015) by Thomas Ricento, this article provides non-technical academics with enough credible information about cryptocurrencies to adequately conceptualize the impact of cryptocurrencies on language and language policy.

Slide 3 - The Author’s Reason For Writing Language Policy & Political Economy

Ricento states why he wrote his book in his introduction saying that experiences taught him “that students lacking literacy in their first language [mother-tongue] should acquire [mother-tongue] literacy to aid in their learning of english” (ix).

He goes on: “It is experiences like these [where English was taught to the detriment of students’ literacy instead of mother-tongue languages] that, in the end, have motivated [his]interest to understand why beliefs about language--what it is, how it is acquired, how it is valued (or not) in particular contexts--develop and persist, despite empirical and experiential evidence that beliefs often inform practices and policies that can undermine the goals of democratic inclusion and social equity across diverse ethnolinguistic groups" (x).

Slide 4 - My Thesis

Ricento overlooks the impact of cryptocurrencies on political economy when he refutes Phillipson who calls for “economic democratization’” and “‘redistribution of the world’s material resources.’” The author says that “[t]his is a call for a fundamental reformation of the current world economic order (and not for finding an alternative to the role played by English in global economic activity), which, [he] believe[s], is highly relevant to the status of local languages” (29). But, cryptocurrencies through their decentralizing functions and their status as global currencies which disintermediate banking and provide for transnational micropayments represent a fundamental reformation of the current world economic order. Therefore, language policy scholars’ arguments for finding alternatives to the role played by English in global economic activity will benefit from including cryptocurrencies into their discussions since they lessen the need for communitarian policies to provide for local economies. Cryptocurrencies work with communitarianism to protect local languages and cultures by improving local economies.

Slide 5 - Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are not a fad.

Bitcoin is now listed on CNBC as the world’s first global currency.

The total market cap of all coins as of April 27th is $432 billion.

The growth rate of all cryptocurrencies are approximately equal to 1% per day over the last five years.

Slide 6 - Cryptocurrency can be useful in the following ways:

Cryptocurrency allows for exchanges of value to take place in mother-tongue languages.

Cryptocurrency provides banking to the unbanked without the infrastructure requirements of banks.

Cryptocurrency provides for global exchanges of value in micropayments.

Cryptocurrency enables new blockchain-based forms of economic zones called Startup Societies.

Cryptocurrency gives people with only a little money and a cellphone the ability to participate in the global economy.

Cryptocurrency is something that language policy scholars need to look at more closely.