Theories on Language, Value, Economics and Policy

Abstract

This chapter aims to provide the study with a solid theoretical framework. The first section will introduce the concept of human capital theory, which is the most prominent framework in research on the link between economics and education. In the second section, the notion of language as capital will be introduced and explained from an economic angle. The third stream of literature relevant to this study originates from the sociological conceptualisations of linguistic capital, forwarded most prominently by Pierre Bourdieu.