Towards shared language work and belonging in a Finnish academic workplace

This study explores links between language practices and belonging in the multilingual academic workplace. Using qualitative questionnaire data, we investigate how staff members of a Finnish university department describe their experiences of language practices at staff meetings. Through an interpretive process of data analysis, we developed two themes: linguistic tensions and language ideologies and feelings of inclusion and exclusion. Our findings point to the importance of understanding belonging as a dynamic and relational process, involving the negotiation of tensions emerging from linguistic diversity. In the discussion, we bring forward the concept of shared language work as a possible way forward.