Agents and agency

The theory of language management that I am presenting insists on identifying agents, and is particularly opposed to what I perhaps a little unfairly dismiss as conspiratorial views of language policy. I have therefore attempted for each domain to explain which participants inside and outside constitute the “managers.” I have, however, been somewhat lax in that I have not so far characterized precisely the nature of management. There are obviously several stages in the process: there are the efforts to influence the policy-makers, there is the initiation and formulation of policy, there is the implementation of the policy, and there may be the evaluation and subsequent revision of policy and its implementation. In simple language management (Neustupný and Nekvapil 2003), all of these steps are taken by the individual speaker, but in organized language management, how is it divided?

In the family, like the individual, the processes are likely to be combined. Few families have a family council at which a language policy is hammered out. The family member who tries to manage the language practices and beliefs of other members of the family is likely to be the implementer as well as the judge of the effectiveness of implementation. Parents who try to maintain heritage language see the effect of their efforts, and modify them.