ABSTRACT
What role do language ideologies play in the negotiation of two local groups’ positioning in the Emmaus social movement? These ideologies orient themselves towards, and combine, different visions of Emmaus as a “multi-national of the heart” and as a transnational social network. The values attached to different lingua francas, namely French, Spanish and English, shape the groups’ participation and their negotiation of power relations in the transnational movement, especially vis-à-vis France as the symbolic centre. Based on ethnographic data and documents concerning international events and transnational visits, the analysis shows that French is still the main lingua franca in Emmaus and that both communities in the study relegate language and multilingualism to the background. Emmaus London is vested in ideologies of multilingualism “as a barrier”, whereas the Barcelona community deproblematises having a shared language in transnational encounters. The results challenge the common-sense expectations of multilingualism in social movements, as exemplified by English-only language ideologies in London, and of English as the dominant or sole lingua franca in global networks, given that French remains the main lingua franca within Emmaus.
