A study of the formation and enactment of collective agency in large-scale language surveys

Abstract

Previous studies have not fully investigated the formation and enactment of collective agency behind large-scale language surveys, especially in the Mainland China context. This study, by combining [Duchêne, A., & Humbert, P. N. (2018). Surveying languages: The art of governing speakers with numbers. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2018(252), 1–20])’s ‘language census and survey as site of sociolinguistic inquiry” with [Liddicoat, A. J., & Taylor-Leech, K. (2021). Agency in language planning and policy. Current Issues in Language Planning, 22(1–2), 1–18]’s theorisation of agency tries to understand the language survey’s inner workings within the particularities of its historical and political conditions. Multi-sources of data were collected for The Survey of Language Situation in China 1998, and thematic analysis of the data reveals that (1) experts with prominent positions were at the centrality of collective agency formed in conducting The Survey; (2) the enactment of collective agency involved complicated multidirectional processes where both consolidation and devolution of power were involved; (3) the Conscience shared by Chinese linguists and the vague knowledge of the actual language situation in China at the time worked as impetus for the formation and enactment of collective agency. Through the investigation, this study was able to demonstrate the composition of ‘government’ behind large-scale language surveys and the dynamics of collective agency in large-scale language surveys.

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