Hacia una apuesta etnográfica para la glotopolítica

Abstract

This article argues that the historical and critical perspective adopted by glotopolitics would be enriched by the ethnographic approach. Based on the sustained involvement of the researcher over a long period of time in a specific place (or places) and the combination - and contrast - of various sources of information and observation, ethnography makes it possible to situate texts in their contexts of production and to better understand what they “do” at the level of social practices. From a conceptualization of ethnography as a method, methodology and deep theorizing, the above will be exemplified with a dispute over the representation of Quechua between two types of communities of practice involved in the development of language policies in Peru. It will be argued that the “internal perspective” achieved by ethnography allows for a better explanation of the processes involved in the construction of language ideologies. Thus, glotopolitics can be added to the development of critical sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology from the global north, fields that have a long history of approaching language from an ethnographic perspective as a counter hegemonic project.