Conclusion: The Creation and Contestation of Difference

The study of ideologies of communication implies more than a change of terminology from language ideology. The latter – a central field of study in socio-pragmatics and sociolinguistics in the first decade of this century – was mainly concerned with the consequences of modernity and had a clear emancipative orientation. It revealed ideologically mediated inequalities and gave voice and visibility to marginalised or erased voices. Today, the results and views of this foundational wave of research have entered the commonly accepted body of knowledge. It has become common sense that language and society are more diverse than dominant ideologies would claim.