This book links Bourdieu's theory of the linguistic market with recent advances in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. The authors develop a new critique of global English, centered on the processes by which speakers attribute value and social meaning to the language.

Selected Contents: Part 1: The problem of global English 1. Introduction: Towards a new critique of global English 2. The challenge: The complexity of global English 3. Theoretical preliminaries: Value, market, and practice Part 2: Past approaches to global English 4. Is there a market for English as a lingua franca? 5. Models and ideologies of world Englishes 6. Performing English in autonomous and unified markets Part 3: The making of global English 7. English as entity: The mystification of language 8. English as commodity: The life of indexical meaning 9. English as capital: The logic of conversion Part 4: Interrupting global English 10. Managing the linguistic market: Possible policy responses 11. Conclusions: Future of the critique of global English

Joseph Park is an assistant professor in the Department of English Language & Literature at the National University of Singapore.