Competitive and Cooperative Orientations in Language Policies: a Critical Look at the Situation of Dutch in Brussels

This article analyses the sociolinguistic situation of Dutch and Brussels and identifies the challenges faced by the Dutch-speaking community as a medium-sized language community in an urban context characterised by a high level of linguistic diversity and by the coexistence of three languages that play the role of lingua francas (Dutch, English and French). I also examine how Flemish authorities have tried to meet these challenges so far and point out a tension between two understandings of the political struggle that the Dutch community has to engage in – one that views it as competitive, the other as cooperative – which are themselves different conceptions of the community and the language it is related to. I show that this tension can be analysed in terms of the opposition between “anonymity” and “authenticity”, as formulated by Woolard (2008). I argue that while these two conceptions coexist in the ideology that underlies Dutch language policy in Brussels, the policy has now reached a point where it is more and more difficult to hold them together, and where they may lead to distinct ways of defining and assessing language policies.