Governance, complexity, and multi-level language policy and planning

Though there is general awareness that language policy is a multi-level activity, there has been little systematic analysis of how interactions between actors and institutions at different territorial scales can influence language policy development. By engaging with two public policy approaches, multi-level governance and new institutionalism, this chapter develops a multi-level institutional framework to systematically analyse the factors influencing the development of particular language policies. It then illustrates the framework’s explanatory potential by examining how institutional configurations at multiple territorial levels have shaped recent policy interventions relating to European regional or minority languages. The chapter concludes by reflecting to the framework’s potential in relation to other types of language policies, for example foreign language learning or the linguistic integration of immigrants.