Introduction

TOPE OMONIYI AND MUKUL SAXENA

What is interesting about the emerging body of writing associated with world Englishes is that it makes available a semiotic space for the articulation of the global imaginary and its formation within the phenomenology of the local (Wimal Dissanayake, 2006: 556)

Globalization is perhaps one of the most troubled and complex concepts in the social sciences with each discipline proffering a definition and perspective it considers not only capable of effectively supporting but also reflective of its own theoretical and methodological frameworks. Stiglitz (2007: 295), in noting that 'few subjects have polarized people throughout the world as much as globalization', also remarks that globalization has had different interpretations in different places. In situations where themes of interdisciplinary relevance and application are concerned, such as language, it gets even more complex. More than any other language, the English language and world Englishes have been the subject of extensive scholarship. This is especially so when we consider that the cultural and political dynamics involving the English language in its multiple locations are varied and yet interconnected. Under the umbrella of globalization research, numerous and sometimes variant and even conflicting perspectives on what it is have emerged in economic, cultural, religious, political and other disciplinary analyses (see Hülsemeyer's (2003) edited volume from the perspective of international political economy).

For our purposes in this volume, we consider language not only to be crucial to the processes of globalization but to be its life force. Globalization is a social construct, a dense and universal network of exchange based on a structure of intensified relationships of interdependence (see Giddens, 1990; Robertson, 1992; Wallerstein, 1974 and 1979). Like all other social constructs globalization manifests as a patterned discourse, that is, it has specific communicative practices that characterise it. Globalization is not new but in its current manifestation or phase, it is powered by advancement in information and media technology.

Thus, irrespective of disciplinary specificities which enable us to recognise the different dimensions to globalization in, for example, the works of Amartya Sen (economics), Arjun Appadurai (sociocultural anthropology) and Anthony Giddens (cultural studies) among others, they are all anchored crucially in Information Age development. Participants in the globalization network are marked by difference and inequality and are therefore constantly (re)negotiating roles, relationships and interdependence.

In relation to world Englishes research then, we are concerned with the perspectives that globalization as a social process brings to bear on the forms, statuses and functions of the English language around the world. In exploring these, we are similarly probing the roles that the language plays in the process of globalization. The word 'contending' in the title is used cautiously and with an awareness of its connotation of negativity vis-à-vis globalization. The volume does not start from an assumption that globalization is problematic and therefore has to be contended with, but rather that it forces a re-examination of the traditional ways of explaining the place of English around the world. From the centrality of 'structure', 'relationship of interdependence', 'difference' and 'inequality' in our definition of globalization we are able to draw the connecting lines between 'English-speaking' and 'English-using' nations and peoples in a global network. We bring to the table the various contexts and debates from which we have drawn contributors to this volume but most importantly a critical look at the state of play in the field.

To return to the question of contending with globalization, Kumaravadivelu (2008) devotes an entire chapter to processes of globalization in his book Cultural Globalization and Language Education. The opening to that chapter points us in the direction of a probable answer to our question:

'Hi, this is Sandy. How may I help you?'

When hundreds of thousands of North Americans and western Europeans dial a toll-free number to book airline tickets, check their bank account, solve a computer glitch, or seek investment advice, they may not be aware that they frequently are talking to customer representatives who are some six to eight thousand miles away, in India, working in the dead of night in quiet offices with clocks showing time in places like New York, Los Angeles, Frankfurt, and London. Nor are they likely to know that the helpful person who answers and identifies herself as 'Sandy' is in reality Lakshmi, a twenty-one-year-old who, after undergoing rigorous training to 'neutralize' her Indian accent, has taken on a new workplace persona, including a pretend Western name and a pretend American or British accent.

Both 'Sandy' and the 'pretend' accents that Kumaravadivelu refers to are social constructions (Gergen, 1999) necessitated by the transnational dialogues and relationships created by globalization. In other words, in order to provide services to non-local customers via non-face-to-face interactions, Call Centre workers of necessity are trained into a new set of codes, dialects or languages deemed appropriate for efficient communicative exchange in their role as transnational consultants. Since much of the outsourcing originates from English-speaking Western nations coupled with the fact that a greater percentage of international business is conducted in English, it stands to reason that the codes and dialects are to do with the language. While Kumaravadivelu refers to 'pretend' accents with the connotation that they do not represent reality, we prefer to tag them no differently from any other performances accommodated by the theory of performativity as espoused by Butler (1997) and other critical thinkers. Indeed, the accents represent a kind of constructed reality of the contemporary globalization era, just as do the notion of English (Pennycook, Chapter 10, in this volume) or language itself (Le Page & Tabouret-Keller, 1985). Some of the...