Higher Education, Language and New Nationalism in Finland

“Taina Saarinen explores the intensifying intersection between language and nationalism as it relates to higher education. As populist movements strengthen, the author critically unpacks the “new nationalism” emerging in Finland and the multilayered roles of language. Read this book—you’ll never think of language the same way again.”
— Jenny J. Lee, Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Practice, University of Arizona, USA 

“This book contributes some much-needed fresh air and original ideas in the study of language matters in higher education. Taking Finland as a case study, Saarinen beautifully depicts the multi-layered and intrinsically connected spheres of language and politics at universities, and provides rich, critical, and insightful analyses of old and new nationalist forms in Finnish higher education through the prism of language. A must-read for anyone interested in language and higher education policy.”
— Josep Soler, Associate Professor, Department of English, Stockholm University, Sweden
 The book discusses recycled discourses of language and nationalism in Finnish higher education, demonstrating the need to look beyond language in the study of language policies of higher education. It analyses the historical and political layeredness of language policies as well as the intertwined nature of national and international developments in understanding new nationalism. Finnish higher education language policies were fuelled by the dynamics and tensions between the national languages Finnish and Swedish until the 2000s, when English begins to catalyse post nationalist discourses of economy and competitiveness. In the 2010s, English begins to be seen as a threat to Finnish. Educational, economic and epistemic nationalism emerge as the main cycles of new nationalist language policies in Finnish higher education. The book will be of interest to language policy and higher educationscholars and practitioners, as well as graduate students language policy and higher education. 

Taina Saarinen is Research Professor of Higher Education at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She has published widely on language policies of higher education and contemporary and historical language policies, recently in journals such as Higher Education, Rethinking History, and Language Policy. She particularly enjoys comparative and historically layered topics.