Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Descriptions of some of the most recent books

Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove (2008). Linguistic Genocide in Education – or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights. Pp. 820. ISBN 978-81-250-3268-7. Delhi: Orient Blackswan. http://www.orientblackswan.com/display.asp?categoryID=26&isbn=978-81-250-3461-2&detail=3

[originally published by Lawrence Erlbaum, 2000, now Taylor & Francis, http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?sku=&isbn=9780805834680&parent_id=&pc=/shopping_cart/search/search.asp?search=Skutnabb-Kangas].

35 Tables, 3 Figures, 44 Definition Boxes, 89 Info Boxes, 134 Inserts, 18 Address Boxes, and 23 Reader Tasks; bibliography with 1574 items; separate Esperanto bibliography; Person index, Country index, Languages index and Subject index. URLs updated in the 2008 version.

This file contains the Back cover text, the full list of contents, and a description of the book from the Preface. For reviews of the book, go to Books, reviews, Reviews of more recent books (1999-) (http://www.tove-skutnabb-kangas.org/en/new-reviews-list.htm)

Back cover text: In this powerful multidisciplinary book, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas shows how most indigenous and minority education contributes to linguistic genocide according to United Nations definitions. Her starting point is that it is normal and desirable for people, groups, countries, and schools to be multilingual and multicultural. She brings together theoretical concerns and research areas which no other contemporary book synthesizes: linguistic human rights; minority and multilingual education; language ecology and threatened languages; the relationship between biodiversity and linguistic and cultural diversity; the impact of linguistic imperialism and unequal power relations on ethnicity, linguistic, and cultural competence, and identities. Theory is combined with a wealth of factual encyclopedic information and with many examples and vignettes. The examples come from all parts of the world and try to avoid Eurocentrism. Oriented toward theory and practice, facts and evaluations, reflection and action, the book prompts readers to find information about the world and their local contexts, to reflect, and to act. It is essential reading for scholars, students, and practitioners in the fields of language and society, language policy and language planning, the sociology of education, critical pedagogy, comparative education, educational linguistics, minority studies, cultural studies, human rights, ethnolinguistics, anthropology, and ecological issues.

From back cover:

"This work, by one of the leading scholars of linguistic human rights, presents a provocative, engaging, grand synthesis. It makes a major contribution by bringing together a number of contemporary theoretical and research orientations as evidenced by its focus on linguistic human rights, linguistic ecology, and the impact of linguistic imperialism. In addition, it provides basic insights on anti-racist education.... This is a book that deserves reading by students and scholars committed to furthering educational equity and human rights. Both specialists and those new to the field will find it challenging and informative. It is the type of book that forces educators and students to reflect on their own assumptions and values."

Terrence Wiley, California State University-Long Beach

"A pathbreaking text, written with absolute clarity of purpose and commitment.... The book as a whole takes the debates about minority languages much further than ever before.... It is a fascinating and immediate social history of languages, political forces, struggles, and education.... .[Although] this is a lengthy work, and one which may appear to be daunting at the outset.... what one discovers is an engaging and varied style which teases the reader further and further into a domain which has never before been captured from so many and new angles.... It is a privilege and a pleasure to read a work of such international significance."

Kathleen Heugh, Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa, University of Cape Town

"An absolutely stirring 'J'accuse', appealing to the conscience of the Western world to cease the ethnolinguistic genocide which it has inflicted on humanity at large. Via a superb and compelling assembly of data, logic, argument, and analysis, Skutnabb-Kangas shows how justice, decency, health, social stability, and normal biodiversity all suffer, even in the West itself, when linguacidal state and global policies are implemented. Nothing less than an international campaign for linguistic human rights is called for and called for with compelling force and convincing clarity."

Joshua Fishman, University Research Professor of Social Sciences, Yeshiva University, and Visiting Professor of Linguistics, Stanford University

"A substantial, important, and creative contribution.... Skutnabb-Kangas is a very gifted and respected scholar, and her past work has been seminal in the field. This book not only brings together a number of the themes and topics on which she has worked in the past, but moves forward in a substantial manner the debate about language policy in education broadly conceived.... It represents Skutnabb-Kangas at her very best, and will challenge other researchers, teachers, and policy makers to more honestly and thoughtfully address language-related issues in education."

Timothy Reagan, University of Connecticut