Language Investment and Employability The Uneven Distribution of Resources in The Public Employment Service Coray Full Chapter

Language investment and employability
: the uneven distribution of resources

in the public employment service Coray
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/language-investment-and-employability-the-uneven-d
istribution-of-resources-in-the-public-employment-service-coray/
LANGUAGE
INVESTMENT AND
EMPLOYABILITY
The Uneven Distribution
of Resources in the
Public Employment Service
Mi-Cha Flubacher
Alexandre Duchêne
Renata Coray
Language Investment and Employability
Mi-Cha Flubacher · Alexandre Duchêne
Renata Coray
Language Investment
and Employability
The Uneven Distribution of Resources
in the Public Employment Service
Mi-Cha Flubacher Alexandre Duchêne
University of Vienna University of Fribourg
Vienna, Austria Fribourg, Switzerland
and Renata Coray

University of Fribourg
University of Fribourg Fribourg, Switzerland
Fribourg, Switzerland
ISBN 978-3-319-60872-3 ISBN 978-3-319-60873-0 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60873-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017944591
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse
of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by
similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt
from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein
or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: © saulgranda/Getty
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Foreword
Work or the lack of it defines people’s lives. So, it is surprising how

relatively few sociolinguistic studies address how ordinary people gain
access to the labour market. This book is thus a welcome reminder that
big ideas such as globalisation, mobility, equality, and flexibility are
played out in the small and routine encounters that affect job seekers’
life chances. Like all good ethnographies, the meticulously observed
setting of the Swiss employment service provides a telling case of the
relationship between language and employability—a fraught and com-
plex relationship which globalised and multilingual societies around the
world have to confront. And this ethnography is sharpened and deep-
ened by the authors’ political economic stance on the wider conditions,
discursively and materially, which frame and shape the everyday bureau-
cratic encounters.
This book speaks to us from several perspectives. It tells of the small
tragedies of individual job seekers who find their investment in acquir-
ing social and linguistic capital may not open the gate to the employ-
ment they seek. In this way, the employment service interviews are part
of a wider set of mechanisms of testing and excluding which usually
culminate in the job interview and, for migrants in particular, include
v
vi Foreword
gate-keeping processes around specific work programmes and intern-

ships. We are imaginatively involved in these set-backs, are given an
‘ethnography with feeling’ as individuals struggle to define the situation
they are in.
From another perspective, we view the tensions inherent in the
gatekeeping role. Street-level bureaucrats, here the employment advis-
ers, face janus-like out to their clients but also inwards to their task of
managing access to scarce resources—namely training and support in
gaining employment. The case studies which form the central compo-
nent of the book are exemplary accounts of how the employment inter-
views categorise, control, and monitor and how talk is the only resource
clearly on offer to job seekers.
The tensions and paradoxes of the advisory interviews provide a
much wider perspective which extends far beyond their geographical
and institutional boundaries. This is the central and important mes-
sage of the book: that the value given to language is inherently unstable.
Official rhetoric in texts and talk gives language investment significant
value. It is presented as a good in itself. But this value is undermined by
the demands of new capitalism and bureaucratisation of the labour mar-
ket. Language becomes a flexible tool, always to hand, which contrib-
utes to the management of scarce job resources because it can be used
to motivate, rationalise failure, be dismissed as unimportant, and so on.
The authors also show that language has a potent valency—it can be
linked to any social condition, material fact or value in order to justify
the shaping of individual job seekers’ lives.
Small things can have large consequences. And this book demon-
strates particularly well how the talk of banal encounters feeds into and
reflects the over-arching powers that stem from a late capitalist, glo-
balised society. It is through language that ‘language’ can take many
forms—it is a baggy concept and like any bag can be filled with all
manner of values. In situations of need and inequality, these values so
often come with negative consequences. The great irony is that insti-
tutions are not aware of how language and ‘language’ help to produce
these outcomes. It is this awareness which is so clearly set out in this
book and through its critical lens disturbs some of the more celebratory
discourses around language and diversity. The nuanced take on language
Foreword vii
here will surely encourage readers to roll up their sleeves and identify
other settings and practices where talk and work remain unresearched
by sociolinguists.
Celia Roberts
King’s College London
England, UK
Acknowledgement
This publication is based on a project realised in the work programme

2012–2014 of the Research Centre on Multilingualism (financed by
the Federal Office of Culture). Alexandre Duchêne benefited from an
ARC Distinguished Fellow from the Graduate Center, City University
of New York that created an excellent condition for the finalisation of
the manuscript. The authors would like to express their gratitude first
and foremost to the participants in the research project. We are also
grateful to our extended project collaborators; most importantly to
Pierre-Yves Mauron, who collected, transcribed, and analysed part of
the data presented here and to the research team at the University of
Lausanne (Pascal Singy, Seraphina Zurbriggen, and Isaac Pante), but
also to Rebecca Schär, Ladina Stocker, and Julia Valle, who transcribed
the interviews and interactions. Many thanks go to the team at Pivot
Palgrave, who supported this publication from the beginning. Last, but
not least, we are indebted to Celia Roberts for her incredibly helpful
and insightful comments on an earlier version of this book and for grac-
ing this publication with a preface in its own right.
ix
Contents
1 Language Investment and Employability: An Introduction 1
2 The Politics of Investment and Employability

in the Public Employment Service 33
3 The Logic of Return on Language Investment

in the Allocation of Resources for Employability 55
4 The Uneven Recognition of Language Investment for

Employability 83
5 Concluding Considerations About Language Investment

and Employability from a Political Economic Perspective 105
Index 113
xi
Abbreviations
AVIG Federal Unemployment Insurance Act (short for German:

Arbeitslosenversicherungsgesetz; in full: Bundesgesetz über die obli
gatorische Arbeitslosenversicherung und Insolvenzentschädigung)
AVIV Federal Unemployment Insurance Ordonnance (short for German:
Arbeitslosenversicherungsverordnung; in full: Verordnung
über die obligatorische Arbeitslosenversicherung und die
Insolvenzentschädigung)
CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
CFC Federal Certificate of Vocational Training and Education (short for
French: Certificat fédéral de capacité)
FC Federal Constitution
LACI Federal Unemployment Insurance Act (short for French: Loi sur
l’assurance-chômage; in full: Loi fédérale sur l’assurance-chômage
obligatoire et l’indemnité en cas d’insolvabilité)
LMM Labour Market Measures
OACI Federal Unemployment Insurance Ordonnance (short for French:
Ordonnance sur l’assurance-chômage; in full: Ordonnance sur
l’assurance-chômage obligatoire et l’indemnité en cas d’insolvabilité)
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
REO Regional Employment Office
SECO State Secretariat for Economic Affairs
xiii
xiv Abbreviations
SLA Second Language Acquisition

SR/RS Systematic collection of laws of Switzerland (German: Systematische
Rechtssammlung des Schweizer Bundesrechts; French: Recueil systé-
matique du droit fédéral suisse)
Transcription Conventions
(······) not understandable speech

[···] simultaneous speech
= unfinished utterance
(-), (--), (---) short, medium, long pause
(2) duration of pause longer than 1 second
CAP emphasis
/ rising intonation
\ falling intonation
[...] omitted passage
((xxx)) action by speaker
xv
1
Language Investment and Employability:
An Introduction
Abstract The introduction outlines the theoretical and empirical back-

ground of a critical sociolinguistic ethnography on the role of language
competences in the process of the public employment service. The two
key concepts ‘language investment’ and ‘employability’ are discussed
and their implied correlation is challenged by pointing to the com-
plex social, political, and economic processes through which languages
become valued, recognised, or ignored when looking for a job. The
introduction further entails the description of the methodological and
analytical framework of this ethnographic research project on the site
of the Regional Employment Offices in the Swiss Canton of Fribourg.
Finally, it presents the publication’s aim to unpack the discursive con-
struction of language competences as an element of employability and
relating it to the uneven distribution of resources.
Keywords Employability · Language investment · Critical

sociolinguistics · Ethnography · Unemployment
Learning a new language in order to increase one’s chances on the

labour market has become a commonplace strategy, as it appears when
© The Author(s) 2018 1
M. Flubacher et al., Language Investment and Employability,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60873-0_1
2 Flubacher, Duchêne & Coray
glancing through journal articles on this topic and with such headlines
emerging as the following: ‘Want to Boost Your Salary? Try Learning
German ’,1 ‘Money, dream jobs, a better brain: why everyone should learn a
second language’,2 or ‘Learn a Language, Get a Raise’.3 The message seems
clear: What one has to do in order to find the perfect job and/or earn
(more) money is to learn another language. In other words, learning a
language is seen as a potentially rewarding return on investment. This
opinion is widespread. European citizens, for example, seem to be con-
vinced that knowing foreign languages has a positive impact on their
chances of finding a better job, both in their own country and abroad
(European Commission 2012, as referred to in Araújo et al. 2015,
p. 12). This conviction concurs with the ‘Barcelona Objective 2002’
(European Council 2002), according to which pupils should learn at
least two foreign languages at school. While this objective propelled
multilingual policies into the limelight of education, it was motivated
particularly by the idea that a multilingual population would be of eco-
nomic benefit for the European Union, most importantly in the form
of a productive workforce on a global market (see also Studer et al.
2007). Language learning and language competences are thus reconfig-
ured in terms of ‘investment’, that is, individual, institutional, or soci-
etal investments in terms of financial resources, time, and energy for the
development of language competences that (ideally) can be turned into
economic profit (Duchêne 2016).
Against the backdrop of this discourse, we argue that the conver-
sion of investment into profit is far from coming about automatically
for everyone or for every language. We wonder, for example, what hap-
pens to migrants and their multilingual competences, especially when
evaluated against competences in the locally dominant language? As
it happens, any linguistic competence is valued every so often against
competences in the local language, marking speakers as competent or
deficient, irrespective of their overall linguistic repertoire. Moreover,
while it is difficult to assess concisely the importance of language com-
petences for individual professional success stories, it seems informative
to contextualise the question of conversion potential of language com-
petences in the framework of unemployment—especially in comparison
with other factors such as personal networks, professional qualifications,
1 Language Investment and Employability
3
and soft skills. After all, unemployment is one of these exemplary

moments where the potential conversion is highly contested and put to
proof. The proposed correlation of language investment, employability,
and professional success thus warrants a critical and empirical investi-
gation in relation to the complex social, political, and economic pro-
cess through which languages become valued, recognised, or ignored. It
is our aim to provide such an investigation in this book. For this, we
will raise the following empirical question: Under which conditions, in
which contexts, and for whom does language investment actually con-
stitute a key element for employability? Starting from this question, we
will investigate the possibility, limits, and effects of what is considered
‘language investment’, especially with regard to employability. For this
aim, we turn to the specific context of the public employment service
in the bilingual canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. The institutional
framework of the public employment service provides a specific lens
onto the complex of language investment and employability. In draw-
ing on this specific case, we propose to rethink language investment
and employability in political economic terms, that is, in a perspective
that understands individuals as embedded in specific socio-political,
economic, and institutional structures, which have to be integrated in
research (see also Duchêne 2016).
1.1 Language Investment and Employability: A

Critical Sociolinguistic Perspective
Seeing language investment and employability as the two core concepts
for this study, we deem it appropriate to introduce the two concepts
before turning to discuss how they relate to each other in the current
public discourse. Both ‘investment’ and ‘employability’ have gained
traction over the last few years in public and political discourse, hence
becoming keywords in their own right, that is, as significant in two
senses: as ‘binding words in certain activities and their interpretation’
and as ‘indicative words in certain forms of thought’ (Williams 1983,
p. 15). When we approach such terms (as investment or employability)
as keywords, ‘definitions’ as proposed in dictionaries or textbooks are

understood once again as indexical of and contexualised in the cur-
rent political economy, its power structures, and ‘particular formations
of meaning’ (Williams 1983, p. 15). In the following, we will unpack
these two terms separately in trying to understand what general mean-
ing they entail, embedding our approach in the research tradition of
critical sociolinguistics, but also drawing on work in interactional socio-
linguistics, linguistic anthropology, the sociology of work, and other rel-
evant disciplines.
1.1.1 Language Investment
The economic underpinnings of the concept ‘investment’ become evi-

dent when considering its general and most basic meaning to invest
time, money, or some other resource with the expectation of benefits,
that is, of a certain return on investment (see Coen and Eisner 1987
for a detailed description of the term from an economic perspective).
The decision to invest is always made with the idea that it will pay off
in the future and refigures the object of investment as something—or
someone—with a certain potential. This is also central to human capi-
tal theory, according to which cost and benefit of investment is a fixed
component in education policies (for example, Becker 1993 for how
investment is conceptualised in human capital theory). From this per-
spective, language competences become human capital per se, that is,
‘individual knowledge components’, or skills (for example, Urciuoli
2008, for a critique). Actually, it appears as though language can be
considered as two different forms of skills: as belonging to ‘soft skills’,
when communicative competences are at stake (in this case, often
labelled as ‘communicative skills’)—or as belonging to ‘hard skills’,
when a certain level of language competence is demanded for a certain
position.
Yet, in directly (and critically) addressing the work of Becker (for
example, 1993), Bourdieu argues (1986, pp. 243–244) that human cap-
ital theory (and ‘commonsense view’) sees ‘success or failure as an effect
of natural aptitudes’. While also correlating such success (or failure)
5
with monetary investments, ‘they [human capital theorists] are unaware

that ability or talent is itself the product of an investment of time and
cultural capital’ (Bourdieu 1986, p. 244). In that, such a human capital
perspective remains in a sphere of economic calculation and speculation
without taking into account the different forms of capital an individual
might have to their disposition. While Bourdieu is focusing on the con-
text of school and academic success and failure, we propose to adopt
his understanding of capital when discussing the processes of language
investment in the context of the public employment service. According
to Bourdieu (for example, 1986, p. 243), we need to differentiate
between economic capital (that is, ‘immediately and directly convert-
ible into money’) and cultural (for example, one’s educational qualifi-
cations) as well as social capital (for example, one’s mobilisable social
network), both of which can be read as forms of symbolic capital. Thus,
while anything can become evaluated in terms of investment, specifi-
cally highlighting the future expectations that are related to the efforts
and the capital put into anything deemed investment-worthy, invest-
ment can also be tied to non-material profit expectations, rather than
purely or solely to economic profits. For example, benefits do not have
to be primarily monetary, but could also be of social, affective or emo-
tional worth, as Bourdieu (1986) points out.
The connection between language and investment has already been
studied in a variety of contexts, the most commonly associated research
being probably economics of language (or: research on language econ-
omy, see Grin 2006, 2014). Language economists have dedicated the
bulk of their research to study the economic effect of language invest-
ment and language competences, thus also perceiving these invest-
ments and competences as part and parcel of ‘human capital’. Chiswick
(2008), for example, studied the income level of the immigrant popu-
lation in Australia and the United States with respect to their English
language competences. Even if they experienced discrimination with
regard to their salaries, Chiswick concluded that it was economically
profitable for immigrants to learn the locally dominant language (in this
case English). Williams (2011), on the other hand, calculated a positive
impact of multilingual competences on salaries of workers in Western
Europe (see a similar but localised study by Grin 1999 for Switzerland).
In general, these researchers are in agreement on a positive effect of

multilingual competences for highly qualified staff in Europe, with
English playing the most important role (Klein 2007).
However, there is also another direction research on language invest-
ment and competences in relation to the economy has taken; most
importantly by scholars ascribing to an approach anchored in critical
ethnographic sociolinguistics. These scholars have an interest in how the
political economic transformations inherent to the globalized new econ-
omy are affecting work processes, market formations, and socio-political
regulations on a general level and, more specifically the role of languages
(competences and practices) in these processes (for example, Duchêne
et al. 2013; Duchêne and Heller 2012). The new economy is gener-
ally understood as the current phase of capitalism which is the result
of a transition from agricultural and industrial production to a service
industry that centres on knowledge and technology. It has been argued
that in this process, ‘language’ has been turned into a veritable resource
(Boutet 2008, 2012; Zarifian 1990, 1996; Veltz and Zarifian 1993),
since a variety of related ‘services’ are based on communication (writ-
ten and oral), further necessitating specialised trainings or translations
into other languages, for example, the increased importance of glo-
balised business communication and client services (most importantly,
call centres) as well as human resource processes. Such transformations
naturally not only affect institutions and businesses, but, most impor-
tantly the language producers per se, that is, the workforce succinctly
called ‘wordforce’ by Heller (2010) or, in French, ‘parole d’oeuvre’ by
Duchêne (2009a, b), in a twist from the industrial ‘main d’oeuvre’
(‘workforce’ in English).
In this context, investment emerges as one central element in rela-
tion with economic appropriation of language competences and prac-
tices. Critical scholars are analysing the investment of the state into
the language education of its students, that is, the future workforce
(or indeed: word force; see also Block and Cameron 2002; Costigan
and Grey 2015; Flubacher and Del Percio 2017), the investment of
businesses and corporations in the further training of their employ-
ees—or rather, actually, in employing individuals that already bring
with them and thus impersonate the required ‘bundle of skills’
7
(Urciuoli 2008), and finally, the investment of individuals into their

language competences for improving their professional opportunities
in the current knowledge society (Park 2009). Yet, it has been shown
in several studies that it is usually not the multilingual ‘word force’
(Duchêne 2009a, b; Heller 2010, 2011), but, on the contrary, the
businesses that end up reaping the return on investment (Duchêne
2011; Piller and Lising 2014).
As mentioned above, Bourdieu’s (1977, 1982) theory of capital has
appeared of particular value for such analyses, according to which lan-
guage can be considered as part of the symbolic capital. The linguistic
capital, however, has its own specific value on a particular ‘linguistic
market’, depending on the situation, participants, and social hierar-
chy. When departing from the idea that the labour market is, in fact,
an integrated market in a specific political economic entity, it becomes
clear that different languages are attributed different value, composing
a dynamic hierarchy of languages and their speakers. Once again, it
becomes clear that not all investment in language education is deemed
of similar worth, even if the celebratory discourses on ‘language skills’
as a key element to re-gain access and recognition in the workplace
directly lead to a generally positive framing of ‘language’ as a good
investment. Bourdieu reminds us to remain vigilant to celebrations
of linguistic valorisation and capitalisation (see also Roberts 2013), as
they mostly link only certain languages with symbolic capital. In situat-
ing such celebratory discourses in specific linguistic markets, it remains
essential to assess the necessary investment and potential profit of each
participant (Bourdieu 1979). This shifting of value has also been suc-
cinctly analysed by Martín Rojo (2010, 2013) in her studies of edu-
cational programmes in multilingual schools in Madrid, Spain. In her
analysis of linguistic practices at the front- and backstage of multilin-
gual classrooms, she highlights processes of capitalisation and decapi-
talisation. In this, Martín Rojo (2013, p. 127) adds another dimension
to the analysis of successful investment, that is, that of enabling capi-
talisation moves (speakers trying ‘to gain capital, position themselves,
to improve their situation and to learn’)—or precisely that of hinder-
ing and preventing such capitalisation moves, which, in turn, results
in the decapitalisation of social agents. In short, the analytical focus
on capitalisation as well as decapitalisation processes goes to show that

social agents do not exist in a vacuum and, closely related to societal
ideas of legitimacy, cannot have a guaranteed return on investment and
thus cannot plan and execute capitalisation moves without the approval
and support of others.
Also drawing on Bourdieu (1977) and Bourdieu and Passeron
(1977), a further reading of investment has emerged in theories of sec-
ond language acquisition (SLA), exactly with the idea to shift the focus
onto individual language learners in foregrounding their personal sto-
ries in order to reach a broader understanding of language learning pro-
cesses. Namely, Norton ([Norton Pierce] 1995, 2013) has argued that
language learning needs to be re-situated in the larger social frameworks
that surround the learner, which, according to her, had been missing
in earlier SLA studies primarily of cognitivist orientation. Following a
post-structural reading of social identity, Norton proposed flexible and
contextualised approaches to (learner) identities in invoking the con-
cept of investment, which she considered could fill the gap that opened
when trying to address ‘the social’ with existing SLA theories. Norton
(1995, p. 17) insists ‘that if learners invest in a second language, they
do so with the understanding that they will acquire a wider range of
symbolic and material resources, which will in turn increase the value
of their cultural capital’. In other words: ‘Learners will expect or hope
to have a good return on that investment—a return that will give them
access to hitherto unattainable resources’ (Norton 1995, p. 17).
The application of the Bourdieusian concept of resource and capi-
tal to (second) language learning is highly relevant when taking into
account the considerable amount of resources going into learning
processes, on the one hand, and the discourses of social mobility con-
nected to language learning, on the other. Yet it is equally important
to note how ‘investment’ in Norton’s terms becomes closely and exclu-
sively tied with identity construction. In this perspective, this concept
most importantly positions that ‘an investment in the target language is
also an investment in a learner’s own social identity, an identity which
is constantly changing across time and space’ (Norton 1995, p. 18).
Consequently, researchers drawing on Norton have focused on forms of
investment related to language learning that impacted on self-fashioning
9
and self-positioning in various learner contexts, hence first and foremost

discussing forms of social investment (for example, Clark 2008; Kim
2014; Pittaway 2004; or for an overview Darvin and Norton 2015).
While we agree with Norton that ‘the social world’ is to be accounted
for in research on language learning processes and results, we propose
to think of ‘investment’ in yet broader terms (see also Duchêne 2016).
Conditions and constraints related to language learning are not only
related to ‘the social world’ of individual language learners, but more
to broader political economic regimes that impact upon the linguistic
make-up of a community (monolingualism vs. official bi-/multilingualism,
diglossia, minority language situation, etc.), language ideologies (for
example, the monoglot ‘standard’ [Silverstein 1996] or the ‘monolin-
gual habitus’ [Gogolin 1994]), which in the end result in specific con-
ceptualisations of the legitimacy of speakers. It remains important, on
the one hand, to ask empirically why and if people are investing in lan-
guage learning and, thus, in their own language repertoire(s). On the
other, it becomes equally relevant to situate these individual learners in
specific contexts in order to understand why someone (a) is allowed to,
(b) supported in, and (c) successful at learning a second or foreign lan-
guage—and, simultaneously, to address the material consequences of
such decisions and processes.
Thus, even if personal stories and individual trajectories are rele-
vant when addressing questions of language learning, it is vital to take
into account the current political economic condition, most com-
monly labelled as ‘late capitalism’ (Mandel 1975) or ‘flexible capital-
ism’ (Lessenich 2008). It has become a central concept, a keyword sensu
Williams (1983), for how the state manages its resources and finances.
Putting emphasis on activating its subject in a logic of rights and duties,
governments, for example, in Western Europe and North America
have shied away from the post-war welfare system and instead adopted
a ‘workfare’ system (Lessenich 2008; Motakef 2015; Spilker 2010). In
other words: the financing of programmes, problem solutions, or spe-
cific groups of people is only undertaken on the basis of the expectation
of return on investment. This is connected to the increasing implemen-
tation of an audit culture from the private sector to the public domain,
which has led to a need to account for and legitimise public spending,
resulting in a social politics of investment (‘investive Sozialpolitik’:

Lessenich 2008, p. 97). In this form of socio-political investment,
according to Lessenich (2008), only a certain part of the population is
supported financially in order to develop their human capital and to
become productive members of society. The uptake of ‘investment’ as
a key concept for the analysis is thus a specific reflection of the politi-
cal economic transformations, which result in corresponding policies
for the labour market by national governments and its implementing
institutions. It is this political economic condition of flexible capital-
ism that also reverberates in the emergence and dominance of other
keywords. One of particular importance as an index of the conceptuali-
sation of the ‘ideal subject’ with regard to investment is the following:
employability.
1.1.2 Employability
Employability is not only a keyword, but actually a field of research in

its own right. Already in 1955, Canadian psychologist Feintuch pub-
lished a study on the effects of vocational counselling on the employ-
ability of ‘difficult-to-place’ persons, focusing on the participants’
attitudes, hence foregrounding individual trait. Since then, the mean-
ing of employability has transformed and expanded at the same time.
Generally speaking, it comprises the various elements that determine
the probability of an individual to find employment. On the one hand,
there are personal factors that are attributed to employability, such as
the above-mentioned attitudes, and also appearance, ‘savoir être’ (which
translates to ‘know how to be’), behaviour; on the other, educational
and sociodemographic factors are also considered as relevant: education,
qualification, and language competences, but also age, gender, race, and
religion. In this reading, employability is a ‘product’, ready to be ‘sold’
on the labour market. On a processual level, the term subsumes the
ability of an individual to find, keep, and, possibly, change employment
according to their competences without considerable external help (Kres
2003, p. 36). The meaning of employability, and, hence the related
research, practices, and programmes has expanded in a twofold manner.
11
Firstly, while employability used to simply denote the ability and will-
ingness to work (Froehlich et al. 2014, p. 509), it latter added the per-
spective and expectations of employers. Secondly, originally associated
with school leavers and the unemployed only, that is with people try-
ing to find a job, it has gradually come to include employed workers, as
the labour market has undergone a series of crises, impacting upon the
formerly secured employment conditions (Forrier et al. 2015; Motakef
2015), thus highlighting the fact that no one is safe from risks of unem-
ployment. Unsurprisingly, Forrier et al. (2015, p. 56) argue in their
overview article that the field of research on ‘employability’ has become
just as diverse and contradictory, to the point of being ‘fuzzy’. Steering
away from such disciplinary debates and disputes, it seems most note-
worthy to think of employability, first, as someone’s chances to find a
job (in line with Forrier et al. 2015), and, second, as the elements and
factors that affect said chances.
However, it is our understanding that a discussion of employabil-
ity should not solely differentiate and accentuate the various elements
and factors (for example, as mentioned above: qualifications, age, net-
works, origin) and their effects, as is the aim of vocational psychology,
human resource studies, etc. Rather, we argue to take into account the
formations of meaning and knowledge production of employability as
a keyword (see above). To begin with, ‘employability’ is closely related
to ‘investment’ in that the decision of whether or not to invest in an
(employed or unemployed) job seeker—or for job seekers to invest in
themselves—heavily hinges on the estimation of their probability to
find a job and to capitalise on investment. This leads us to two inherent
issues that are interconnected with ‘employability’: First of all, the term
is very vague semantically in that it comprises various elements, but also
transports different ideological currents that are indexical of develop-
ments in and around the labour market. This is why the concept and
content of employability noticeably changes depending on, for exam-
ple, whether the perspective of the job seeker is foregrounded or the one
of the employers. Secondly, it remains unclear which elements de facto
determine someone’s employability and how to modify or optimise these
elements. Although the term has become commonplace in discourse
of politics, science, and practice, it remains ideologically vague, which

requires a nuanced and critical approach.
The flexible semantic meaning of employability is critically discussed,
for example, in German-speaking literature (for example, Blancke et al.
2000; Gazier 2001; Kraus 2007), in which a differentiated approach to
the various elements that contribute to the employability of an individ-
ual is proposed. As will become evident in the present study, that is, in
the application of this term in and through the Swiss labour market, the
term implies these varying degrees of how well a job seeker is ‘placeable’
and the factors that come into play in defining someone’s employabil-
ity. Yet, it almost appears as if the semantic elasticity and ambiguity of
the term is productive exactly for its implementation to different con-
texts and policies, able to cover and adapt to a variety of ideological and
political economic conditions and their transformations. The German
linguist Pörksen (2004) called such discursively malleable terms ‘plas-
tic words’ (‘Plastikwörter’), which he understood as connotative
stereotypes: seemingly readily and clearly understood, but in fact replen-
ishable with optional content to adapt its meaning formation accord-
ingly. Employability can actually mean two things in that it optionally
denotes a ‘product’ (for example, a ‘bundle of skills’, as Urciuoli 2008
would call it) or a process (e.g., lifelong learning). Similarly, politi-
cal scientists Blancke et al. (2000) expose the inherent ideologi-
cal undercurrent and functionality of the fuzziness of such a term,
which is blatant explicitly in the German-speaking countries with the
(sometimes literal) adaptation of this vague English term (in German:
Employabilität ). In denoting the ability of people to market their com-
petences for employment and for changing fields of profession if neces-
sary, they argue that ‘employability’ in effect contains and promotes the
idea of flexibility: A truly employable person, as a consequence, is not
dependent on a specific job, but can move around relatively free on the
labour market (Blancke et al. 2000, p. 8).
In a similar vein, educational scientist Kraus (2007, p. 4) refers to the
implicit imperative inherent to ‘employability’ to adapt one’s profile and
skills to the requirements of the labour market. The need on the side of
the job seekers to be flexible is thus accompanied by the constant need
to develop their competences in order to remain competitive. In fact,
13
lifelong (or continuing) learning for a while now has ceased to be ‘nice
to have’, but rather has become a precondition for remaining employ-
able in a world with constant technological changes and a dynamic
labour market. One could thus conclude, as work psychologists Raeder
and Grote (2003, p. 9) do that the increased focus on individual
employability (including new flexibility and continuing education) has
replaced former ideals of job security. The two authors thus criticise that
the onus is consequently transferred onto the job seekers when evaluat-
ing their employability without paying enough attention to the flexibili-
sation of the labour market.
Putting the onus entirely on job seekers and job candidates even goes
further, as several scholars in sociolinguistics and/or linguistic anthro-
pology concerned with questions of access and mechanisms of exclu-
sion have shown. Allan (2013, 2016), for one, has provided detailed
analyses about the soft skill training of (qualified) migrant job seekers
in Canada, which provide the jarring conclusion that the possibilities
of migrants to increase their employability were actually minimal (see
also Bachmann 2016 for a similar sociological critique of integration
programmes in Switzerland). While soft skills were foregrounded by
the coaches in the integration programme, language competences and
‘ethno-cultural’ factors still played a major role, perpetuating the dis-
crimination against migrants in the labour market. Discriminatory hir-
ing and promotion practices against migrants were described already by
interactional sociolinguist Gumperz (1982), who painstakingly analysed
job interviews in England and detected implicit power asymmetries
that worked to the detriment of migrant candidates. In continuation
of Gumperz’ work, Roberts (2000, p. 102; see also 1985, 2011, 2013)
describes an actual ‘gatekeeping’ process according to which candidates
were tested, evaluated, and selected. In the case of migrants, the evalu-
ation of their employability was closely linked to their competence in
the institutionally practiced language (see Kirilova 2013, for a related
sociolinguistic analysis of job interviews within a governmental ini-
tiative to help migrants in Denmark). Even if proficient in English,
migrants were not always competent or used to the specific discursive
strategies expected in a job interview, hence they were not accustomed
to the rules of the ‘interview game’ (Roberts 1985). This was especially
the case in interviews for managerial positions, for which people were
preferred with the same educational and cultural background (Roberts
et al. 2008). When it came to ‘lower’ positions, Roberts (2013, p. 85)
moreover diagnosed a ‘linguistic penalty’, as the communicative practice
of a job interview actually required higher linguistic competences than
the job itself. In both instances, communicative and linguistic compe-
tences were overly accentuated as determining factors in the employabil-
ity of the migrants, while backgrounding their professional competences
(see also Coray et al. 2015 or Franziskus 2015 for an analysis of the
overriding requirement of competences in the dominant official lan-
guage in the federal administration of multilingual Switzerland and in
Luxembourg respectively). Then again, Flubacher and Duchêne (2012)
observed the discursive construction of a multilingual workforce in the
bilingual city of Biel/Bienne, which was marketed within Switzerland
as ‘naturally’ multilingual. This construction resulted in a double bind
for the workforce, in predominantly coupling their employability with
language competences while forsaking additional payment due to their
‘natural’ multilingualism. These reflections show how employability
cannot be thought as an individually compiled portfolio that opens or
closes doors to employment; rather, the access is regulated by complex
mechanisms of selection, hence gatekeeping processes.
We can conclude that research has highlighted the fact that specific
conceptualisations of employability impact on the development of
labour market policies and, thus, on the allocation of resources. This
means that the political understanding of employability—and its imple-
mentation—has direct consequences on what competences are deemed
necessary for job seekers, and which thus become promoted through
direct measures (or not) by the unemployment insurance that is admin-
istered by the public employment service (see Chap. 2 for information
on the Swiss system of unemployment insurance and its unemployment
benefits). In other words, the current public discourse on language com-
petences as pivotal for professional success results in an association of
language competences as a central aspect of employability. The interplay
between investment and employability thus becomes highlighted in the
context of unemployment and its corresponding policies.
15
From a sociolinguistic perspective, we will analyse how the discursive

interlinking of the two concepts emerges in the consultation process and
influences the distribution of resources in the public employment ser-
vice, the official Swiss state agency in charge of unemployment. In order
to do so, we will work with the following research questions: (1) How
do the employment service consultants determine whether job seekers’
language competences are sufficient on the labour market? (2) Why does
the public employment service invest in the language competences of
certain job seekers rather than of others? (3) Is there room for negotia-
tion for job seekers who dis-/agree with the diagnostics of their employ-
ability as put forward by their consultants and as conceptualised in the
perspective of the public employment service? In the end, then, these
questions lead to the crucial overarching question: What effect does this
have more generally in contributing to linguistic inequality?
1.2 Ethnography, a Research Framework

In sociolinguistic ethnography, it is the aim to observe and analyse situ-
ated language use through which social practices are enacted and nego-
tiated, which is why it can be considered as much a theoretical stance as
a methodology (for example, Blommaert and Jie 2010 or Heller 2009).
In line with the understanding of ethnography as the science of con-
textualisation (for example, Greenhouse, 2010), Blommaert and Jie
(2010 p. 12) propose the following as the main tenet of ethnography:
‘[To] describe the apparently messy and complex activities that make up
social action, not to reduce their complexity but to describe and explain
it’. It is thus explicitly not the aim to try to reach formulaic generalisa-
tions or quantifiable results, as the analytical focus rather lies on under-
standing practices and processes in their variability, contingency, and
complexity. The detailed analysis of case studies and the embedding of
such analyses in relevant theoretical work will nevertheless allow for the
teasing out of certain tendencies and patterns that reoccur under cer-
tain conditions over time (Blommaert and Jie 2010). In other words,
ethnographic realities, as they are lived and narrated by individual
social agents, are always indexical of more general developments and
phenomena, which, in the end, link and interconnect such individual

experiences and relate them to broader political economic conditions
and transformations.
Originally developed in anthropology, ethnography has been taken
up by a variety of research disciplines (sociology, human geography,
etc.). While each discipline has an own array of issues and research
interests, two primordial ones seem to emerge in the framework of soci-
olinguistics and/or linguistic anthropology:
Fundamentally, ethnographies allow us to get at things we would other-

wise never be able to discover. They allow us to see how language prac-
tices are connected to the very real conditions of peoples’ lives, to discover
how and why language matters to people in their own terms, and to
watch processes unfold over time. (Heller 2009, p. 250)
First, then, in a (socio-)linguistic ethnographic approach, there is an

understanding of language as a practice (language practice)—and
an understanding of this practice from an emic perspective, that is,
as related and relevant to our research participants. Second, atten-
tion is paid to how these language practices and the related processes
develop, shift, or remain stable over time. In linguistic ethnography,
language—as language practice—is thus conceived as inherently socially
and historically situated. Hence, we can summarise that sociolinguistic
ethnography is ‘a close look at language practices in a specific setting’
(Heller 2006, p. 13).
A further premise of ethnography is that knowledge is socially con-
structed and negotiated, to a large extent through language (Berger
and Luckman 1966; Drew and Heritage 1992). This interpretivist
stance would imply, in relation to the research project, that not only
the role of language in the process of reintegration is shaped by nego-
tiations, but also this very process itself. It is thus one focal point of
the ethnographic approach to the practices of the public employment
service to see which discourses emerge in these negotiations, what
becomes the object of negotiation and under which conditions certain
17
factors become relevant (power relations, degree of education, gender,

etc.) and with which consequences for whom. Ethnography thus sheds
light on and gives contour to the mutual construction and shaping of
discursive spaces, trajectories of social actors, social resources (such as
linguistic capital), social boundaries, and relations of inequality (Heller
2009), while taking into account that such processes only unfold over
time and might at time appear contradictory or take unexpected turns.
Ethnography is also closely related to what Bourdieu (2004) called
‘reflexivity’: researchers and their research cannot be separated from the
‘object’ of study, that is, research always impacts on and co-constructs
its very own ‘context’ (see also Blommaert and Jie 2010, p. 66). Hence,
through an intensive and personal in situ examination of the field, the
socially embedded knowledge production is observed as emerging in the
interaction of different actors and over a certain time span. In order to
understand the social, institutional, and political situatedness of these
interactions and their constraints, the familiarisation with the field, its
political economic conditions, and the legal and institutional frame-
work forming that field, constitutes an important first step in an ethno-
graphic project.
In this specific project, we are concerned with how language com-
petences are discursively constructed and evaluated as an element of
employability in the setting of the public employment service in an
exemplary canton of Switzerland across the time span of the consultation
process inherent in the public employment service. For this, we paid par-
ticular attention to the institutional and legal framework that influence
the consultation process and to the negotiations between consultants
and job seekers. Further, we identified key actors who are in a position
to shape the field and its conditions (for example, policymakers, poli-
ticians), actors who are subjected to the inherent logics of the field (in
this case, unemployed job seekers, but also their consultants or course
teachers), and experts who are positioned outside this specific field
(union representative, labour market actors from other cantons, etc.).
These preparatory steps provided the conditionality to access the field.
1.3 Terrain and Data

The main terrain for this research project consisted of three Regional
Employment Offices (REO) in the bilingual Canton of Fribourg.
Situated in Central Western Switzerland, cradling both Francophone
and German-speaking regions, the population of the Canton of
Fribourg levels around 300,000, with about 12% residing in its capi-
tal, the city of Fribourg, and ca. 22% foreigners canton-wide, which
is Swiss average (May 2016, www.stat-fr.ch).4 The choice of Fribourg
offered the possibility to observe the process of public employment ser-
vice in a sociolinguistically interesting canton, which advertises itself as
an attractive economic space with a bi- and multilingual population.
The official website of the canton offers the following description:
For 68% of the Fribourg population, French is their main language and
for 29% this is German, which makes Fribourg one of the three officially
bilingual cantons of Switzerland. English, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese
are also widely spoken. It is this multilingualism that opens up access for
companies to the large cultural communities in Switzerland, Europe, and
the world. [Our translation from German]5
While the celebration of a multilingual population is common in eco-

nomic discourses in order to attract foreign companies and investors
(see Del Percio 2016; Duchêne and Del Percio 2014), it is also common
that this discourse erases several layers of complexity. First of all, label-
ling the canton in Fribourg as ‘bilingual’ does not automatically infer
that the people actually speak both German and French. The German-
and French-speaking communities are in fact regionally distributed.
While ‘official bilingualism’, as mentioned on the website, indicates a
bilingual service and documentation in administrations throughout the
canton, the reality in the rather monolingual communes is not as sim-
ple, which for example manifests itself in the problem of recruiting suit-
able bilingual personnel for positions within the administration.
The other languages mentioned in the promotion extract above
(English, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese) and their speakers have
19
varying histories and presence in the canton. Italian, the third official
Swiss language, is spoken by about 2% of the cantonal population, lag-
ging behind English (3%), while Spanish is only spoken by about 1.3%.
Interestingly, there is no mention of Albanian, which is, after all, spoken
by an estimated 2.1% of the population. In the end, the flagging of only
some languages says more about the markets that are addressed in the
promotional text than of the language competences present in the eco-
nomic sphere in Fribourg. Portuguese, on the other hand, could not be
erased as easily. Its speakers form the biggest foreign language commu-
nity, amounting to 7% in 2013.6 There are specific sectors and domains
that mainly employ Portuguese workforce, namely the construction
domain and certain food processing companies. Finally, it can be stated
generally that a large percentage of the resident population in Fribourg
is mainly speaking a language other than French or German. This adds
another layer of complexity to the question of which language compe-
tences are decisive in gaining access to which positions. Unsurprisingly,
the outlined sociolinguistic situation of the Canton of Fribourg is mir-
rored in the composition of the clientele of the REO, and, thus, of the
participants in this project, as will be shown further down.
The fieldwork took place over the duration of 9 months, after an
initial phase of literature review (see Sect. 1.1) and policy analysis (see
Chap. 2). In addition, a variety of interviews were arranged with actors
and experts related to labour market policies (with cantonal officials
in charge of the REO and of the labour market measures LMM, with
directors and business liaison officers of the participating REO, with
Human Resources managers, union representatives and [language]
course providers). Finally, we also managed to sit in as participant
observers in three different language-related courses prescribed by the
REO (both for qualified and for unqualified job seekers).
From summer 2013 to early spring 2014, the main ethnographic
research was realised on the site of three REO (labelled as REO1,
REO2, and REO3 in this publication), situated in different language
regions of the canton. Nine consultants had offered to participate, and
in the end, a total of 30 job seekers accepted to participate in our pro-
ject: 23 had a migrant background, 19 were women, and 18 without
an (officially recognised) professional diploma or training qualifica-

tion. Generally, we looked for participants who had recently registered
with the REO (as long-term unemployment was often caused by mul-
tifarious complex factors). Yet, even if the cohort is heterogeneous on
a variety of levels, the majority of the participants actually either hailed
from Portugal or from Switzerland. The cohort’s composition was
largely due to our initial request that the consultants ‘recruit’ job seek-
ers as participants whose language competences they considered either
as advantageous or as disadvantageous on the labour market. Related to
the assessment of the consultants that multilingual job seekers hardly
became unemployed, an asymmetry in the cases transmitted can be
observed, leaning towards disadvantageous cases (only six cases were pre-
sented to us as advantageous, five of them being of Swiss nationality). In
the end, these disadvantageous cases were all migrant job seekers with
no or low professional qualifications and with limited competences in
the locally dominant language. During the nine months of fieldwork, we
were allowed as participant observers in different formal and informal
meetings across the three REO: in information events for job seekers,
at lunch and coffee breaks with consultants, in team meetings of con-
sultants and especially in consultations with job seekers (with the excep-
tion of a few instances, the observations and interviews always involved
one researcher only). The job seekers meet—after a first consultation (of
about 60 min)—with their personal consultants every 1–2 months for
about half an hour to discuss their job prospects, job seeking strategies,
and the possible development of their employability via specific labour
market measures (LMM) that the employment service can offer or pay
for (language courses, for example). The accompanied nine consultants
and 30 job seekers gave their written informed consent to the participa-
tion in the research project (including a warranty of the protection of
their privacy, of the anonymisation of data and use of pseudonyms, and
of the right to stop participation) and accepted that consultations and
interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed. We gave preference
to audio recordings, as video recordings would have been regarded as
too invasive and problematic in terms of protection of privacy of our
participants (the REO being an official institution, the access to this site
21
had to be negotiated with governmental offices and conform to sensitive

data protection policies).
Besides the different meetings, consultations, and interviews, we
also had access to written documents of the REO (official forms, strat-
egy papers, evaluations, LMM brochures) and of the job seekers (most
importantly, their CVs). All these documents, in combination with
the field notes, registrations, and photos, allowed for shedding light on
the multiple facets of the observed and accompanied processes and the
involved actors. For this publication, we are inspired by all these data
from this fieldwork, but, most importantly, we will draw on the data
concerning the professional and personal trajectories of the job seekers.
1.4 The Analysis of the Data: Case Studies

In order to do justice to the individual trajectories of the job seekers as
well as to the intricate and complex process of professional reintegra-
tion by the public employment service on the one hand, and to be able
to zoom in on questions of language investment and employability, on
the other, we drew on the constructivist paradigm of the qualitative case
study methodology (see Stake 2005; Yin 2014; Gentles et al. 2015). In
(linguistic) ethnography, case studies are a common analytical procedure
when it comes to identifying specific elements of individual events and
processes (see Martin-Jones 2011) and to understanding the views of
the participants and their actions. It is an approach that does not reduce
a site or object of study to a few quantifiable variables, but rather tries
to get an in-depth understanding of the case(s) analysed, to consider the
context, and to retain multiple perspectives (see Lamnek 2005; Hering
and Schmidt 2014). Foremost employed in other fields than sociolin-
guistics, as in psychology, sociology, anthropology, education, or health
(see Hoffmann 2009; Tight 2017), it is the preferred methodology ‘to
explore or describe a phenomenon in context using a variety of data
sources’ (Baxter and Jack 2008, p. 544), which is exactly the basis of our
analysis.
In linguistics, qualitative case study research made a relatively late
entrance. For example, in applied linguistics, it first emerged in the
subfield of SLA in the 1970s. Until the 1990s, however, it remained

with a rather narrow linguistic and (post-)positivist orientation and was
only later infused with a bigger interest in macro-contextual features as
social, political, and cultural factors (Duff 2008). A growing interest
for linguistic ethnography, which has been simultaneously ‘strengthen-
ing the epistemological status of ethnography and sharpening the ana-
lytic relevance of linguistics’ (Rampton et al. 2015, p. 14), has entailed
further attention to the analytical method of case studies, especially for
‘telling’ (rather than typical) cases. Taking note of Andrews (2016) and
referring to Mitchell (1984), we will use the concept of the ‘telling case’,
which we understand as more than just illustrative. On the contrary, as
these telling cases are derived from data, based on analytical induction
and focus on ‘the particular circumstances surrounding a case, [they]
make previously obscure theoretical relationships suddenly apparent’
(Mitchell 1984, p. 239). As Mitchell further argues, the ‘particular cir-
cumstances surrounding a case’ have always to be located and analysed
in a wider context. On the basis of this qualitative methodology, we will
thus be able to take into account both individual and institutional idi-
osyncrasies. In bringing to the fore personal trajectories of the job seek-
ers as well as professional strategies of the consultants, we will also retain
the (legal, administrative, ideological, etc.) framework in which the con-
sultations are embedded.
Exploring and describing the different personal and institutional con-
ditions, constraints, and interactions over the period of a consultation
process and evaluating the role of language in this process, we selected
12 job seekers (out of the accompanied 30) for an extensive multiple
case study (Stake 2006). Based on the literature and on our fieldwork
experiences, we selected cases that covered a large spectrum and vari-
ability of the different trajectories and stories encountered on the field.
We took into account differences concerning language investment and
employability that depended on the consultants’ assessment of the cases,
on personal and institutional characteristics, and on the peculiarities
of the job seekers’ personal and professional biographies. Finally, the
selective sample represents job seekers of all the three REO and nine
consultants, of different age groups, gender, nationalities, and levels
of professional qualifications, and, finally, job seekers with language
23
competences categorised either as advantageous or disadvantageous by

their consultants. These 12 cases thus include telling cases of similar
vs. differential treatment of job seekers with regard to the investment
they experienced, i.e., what labour market measures they were assigned,
the relevance given to their linguistic skills for their employability, and,
finally, the negotiation of other elements considered to impact on their
employability. Therefore, these cases allow us to detect recurrent pat-
terns of practices and discourses of linguistic inequality, relating to our
above-mentioned research questions: (1) How do the employment ser-
vice consultants determine whether job seekers’ language competences
are sufficient on the labour market? (2) Why does the public employ-
ment service invest in the language competences of certain job seekers
rather than of others? (3) Is there room for negotiation for job seekers
who dis-/agree with the diagnostics of their employability as put for-
ward by their consultants and as conceptualised in the perspective of the
public employment service?
Concluding, the methodology of case studies and the ensuing con-
trastive comparisons (Rosenthal 2005) allowed us to analyse emerging
patterns in the processes of the (non-)investment in, or (de-)capitalisa-
tion of, job seekers in the assessment of their employability. We found
two of these patterns especially telling, which will be at the centre of
the ensuing analysis of the case studies and provide a ‘red thread’
in their discussion: (1) the logic of return on language investment in
the allocation of resources for employability (see Chap. 3), and (2)
the uneven recognition of language investment for employability (see
Chap. 4). While they focus on different facets, as will become evident
in Chaps. 3 and 4, they both discuss the presence/absence of negotia-
tions concerning language promotion measures, the different evalu-
ations of the return on investment in language competences, and the
different conceptions of the influence of other dimensions discussed in
the consultations, meetings, and interviews. With this analytical focus,
we try to encapsulate the different forms of language investment that
come together with perceptions of employability in order to under-
stand under which conditions and for whom language is constructed
as important (or not) for their employability and how this plays out in
terms of investment. In the end, we will see how these processes relate
to the capitalisation or, on the contrary, to the decapitalisation of par-

ticular job seekers, how it affects them in the context of the public
employment service and in their job search, and ultimately in the reduc-
tion, maintenance or improvement of linguistic and social inequality.
1.5 Outline of the Book

In order to situate the discourses and practices of the public employ-
ment service (in particular, of the REO in Fribourg), in the next chapter
(Chap. 2) we will provide an analysis of the institutional regulations of
the REO, using their website as an entry point, as well as an analysis of
their historical background in the context of recurring unemployment
crises in Switzerland. We will pay particular attention to the institu-
tional instrument called ‘labour market measures’ with a special focus
on language courses. Thirdly, we will turn to Fribourg and shortly out-
line cantonal particularities in the management of REO. In returning to
the REO website, we are making use of the successfully narrated trajec-
tory of a fictional job seeker in order to prepare the field for the analysis
of our own case studies that show two particularly telling processes and
their patterns and logics: (1) the logic of return on language investment
in the allocation of resources for employability (Chap. 3), and (2) the
uneven recognition of language investment for employability (Chap. 4).
Dedicating one chapter to each of these processes, we will tease out
their particularities in narrating emblematic stories of job seekers. For
this purpose, we will tap into their professional and personal trajectory
that has led to their unemployment (and potential re-employment),
drawing on interviews and informal conversations both with them and
their consultants as well as on their documentation (for example CVs,
qualifications). To illustrate the negotiations on language investment
and employability, we will include transcription excerpts from inter-
views and consultations. In the end, the narratives of these job seekers
will allow us to gauge the reasons that are considered as speaking for
and/or against language investment when aiming for employability.
25
The publication will finally be rounded off with a conclusion (Chap. 5)

that argues for a political economic perspective for analyses of language
investment and employability.
Notes
1. www.time.com/money/137042/foreign-language-fluency-pay-salary/,
date accessed 4 March 2017.
2. www.thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2015/03/21/money-dream-jobs-a-bet-
ter-brain-why-everyone-should-learn-a-second-language, date accessed 4
March 2017.
3. www.abcnews.go.com/Business/SmallBiz/story?id=4349200&page=1,
date accessed 4 March 2017.
4. See the Annual Statistics Publication (2016) of the Canton of Fribourg
(in German and French), www.fr.ch/sstat/files/pdf86/annuaire_inter-
net_2016.pdf, date accessed 4 March 2017.
5. German original: ‘Für 68% der Freiburger ist Französisch die Hauptsprache
und für 29% Deutsch, was Freiburg zu einem der drei offiziell zweispra-
chigen Kantone der Schweiz macht. Englisch, Italienisch, Spanisch und
Portugiesisch sind ebenfalls weit verbreitet. Diese Mehrsprachigkeit eröffnet
Unternehmen den Zugang zu grossen Kulturgemeinschaften der Schweiz,
Europas und der Welt.’, www.fribourg.ch/stories/business/unternehmen-
nach-fribourg-zieht/, date accessed 4 March 2017.
6. In this survey, participants could chose more than one main language,
which is why the total surpasses 100%. All numbers are from the Annual
Statistics Publication (2016, p. 358), www.fr.ch/sstat/files/pdf86/annu-
aire_internet_2016.pdf, date accessed 4 March 2017.
References
Allan, K. (2013). Skilling the self: The communicability of immigrants as flex-
ible labour. In A. Duchêne, M. Moyer, & C. Roberts (Eds.), Language,
migration and social inequalities: A critical sociolinguistic perspective on insti
tutions and work (pp. 56–78). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Allan, K. (2016). Going beyond language: Soft skilling cultural difference and
immigrant integration in Toronto, Canada. Multilingua, 35(6), 617–647.
Andrews, P. (2016). Is the ‘Telling Case’ a methodological myth? International
Journal of Social Research Methodology. doi:10.1080/13645579.2016.1198165.
Araújo, L., Dinis da Costa, P., Flisi, S., & Soto Calvo, E. (2015). Languages
and Employability. JRC Science and Policy Report. Luxembourg: European
Commission.
Bachmann, S. (2016). Diskurse über MigrantInnen in Schweizer Integrationspro
jekten. Zwischen Normalisierung von Prekarität und Konditionierung zur
Markttauglichkeit. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Baxter, P., & Jack, S. (2008). Qualitative case study methodology: Study
design and implementation for novice researchers. The Qualitative Report,
13(4), 544–559.
Becker, G. S. (1993). Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis, with
special reference to education (3rd ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press.
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality. A trea
tise in the sociology of knowledge. New York: Penguin.
Blancke, S., Roth, C., & Schmid, J. (2000). Employability (‘Beschäftigungsfähigkeit’)
als Herausforderung für den Arbeitsmarkt. Auf dem Weg zur flexiblen
Erwerbsgesellschaft. Eine Konzept- und Literaturstudie. Stuttgart: Akademie für
Technikfolgenabschätzung. http://dx.doi.org/10.18419/opus-8562. Accessed
Mar 29, 2017.
Block, D., & Cameron, D. (Eds.). (2002). Globalization and language teaching.
London: Routledge.
Blommaert, J., & Jie, D. (2010). Ethnographic fieldwork: A beginner’s guide.
Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Bourdieu, P. (1977). The economics of linguistic exchanges. Social Science
Information, 16, 645–668.
Bourdieu, P. (1979). La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Les
Editions de Minuit.
Bourdieu, P. (1982). Ce que parler veut dire. L’économie des échanges linguis
tiques. Paris: Fayard.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.),
Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258).
Westport: Greenwood Press.
Bourdieu, P. (2004). Algerian landing. Ethnography, 5(4), 415–443.
27
Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. (1977). Reproduction in education, society, and cul
ture. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Boutet, J. (2008). La vie verbale au travail des manufactures aux centres d’appels.
Toulouse: Octares.
Boutet, J. (2012). Language workers. Emblematic figures of late capitalism. In
A. Duchêne & M. Heller (Eds.), Language in late capitalism. Pride and profit
(pp. 207–229). New York: Routledge.
Chiswick, B. R. (2008). The economics of language: An introduction and
overview. Institute for the Study of Labor (Discussion paper series, IZA DP
No. 3568), http://ftp.iza.org/dp3568.pdf. Accessed Mar 13, 2017.
Clark, J. B. (2008). So why do you want to teach French? Representations of
multilingualism and language investment through a reflexive critical socio-
linguistic ethnography. Ethnography and Education, 3(1), 1–16.
Coen, R. M., & Eisner, R. (1987). Investment. In J. Eatwell, M. Murray, &
P. Newman (Eds.), The New Palgrave: A dictionary of economics (Palgrave
Macmillan Online), www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde1987_
X001178. Accessed Jan 4, 2017.
Coray, R., Kobelt, E., Zwicky, R., Kübler, D., & Duchêne, A. (2015).
Mehrsprachigkeit verwalten? Spannungsfeld Personalrekrutierung beim Bund.
Zürich: Seismo.
Costigan, A., & Grey, L. (2015). Demythologizing educational reforms. Responses
to the political and corporate takeover of education. London: Routledge.
Darvin, R., & Norton, B. (2015). Identity and a model of investment in
applied linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 36–59.
Del Percio, A. (2016). Branding the nation: Swiss multilingualism and the
promotional capitalization on national history under late capitalism.
Pragmatics and Society, 7(1), 82–103.
Drew, P., & Heritage, J. (Eds.). (1992). Talk at work. Interaction in institutional
settings. Cambridge: University Press.
Duchêne, A. (2009a). ‘Formé-e pour servir!’ La part langagière de la formation
professionnelle dans la nouvelle économie. Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique
Appliquée, 90, 125–147.
Duchêne, A. (2009b). Marketing management and performance:
Multilingualism as commodity in a tourism call center. Language Policy, 8,
27–50.
Duchêne, A. (2011). Néolibéralisme, inégalités sociales et plurilinguisme:
l’exploitation des ressources langagières et des locuteurs. Langage et Société,
136(2), 81–108.
Duchêne, A. (2016). Investissement langagier et économie politique. Langage

et Société, 157(3), 73–96.
Duchêne, A., & Del Percio, A. (2014). Economic capitalization on linguis-
tic diversity: Swiss multilingualism as a national profit? In J. W. Unger,
M. Krzyzanowski, & R. Wodak (Eds.), Multilingual encounters in Europe’s
institutional spaces (pp. 77–103). London: Bloomsbury.
Duchêne, A., & Heller, M. (2012). Multilingualism and the new economy. In
M. Martin-Jones, A. Blackledge, & A. Creese (Eds.), The Routledge hand
book of multilingualism (pp. 369–383). New York: Routledge.
Duchêne, A., Moyer, M., & Roberts, C. (Eds.). (2013). Language, migration
and social inequalities: A critical sociolinguistic perspective on institutions and
work. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Duff, P. A. (2008). Case study research in applied linguistics. New York:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
European Commission (2012). First European survey on language competences.
Final report. http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/repository/languages/
policy/strategic-framework/documents/language-survey-finalreport_en.pdf.
Accessed March 29, 2017.
European Council (2002). Presidency conclusions. Barcelona European
Summit, 15–16 March, No. 100/1/02.
Feintuch, A. (1955). Improving the employability and attitudes of “difficult-
to-place” persons. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 69(7),
1–20.
Flubacher, M., & Del Percio, A. (Eds.). (2017). Language, education, and neo
liberalism: Critical studies in sociolinguistics. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Flubacher, M., & Duchêne, A. (2012). Eine Stadt der Kommunikation:
Urbane Mehrsprachigkeit als Wirtschaftsstrategie? Bulletin suisse de linguis
tique appliquée, 95, 123–142.
Forrier, A., Verbruggen, M., & De Cuyper, N. (2015). Integrating different
notions of employability in a dynamic chain: The relationship between
job transitions, movement capital and perceived employability. Journal of
Vocational Behavior, 89, 56–64.
Franziskus, A. (2015). Les frontaliers sur le marché linguistique luxembour-
geois. Quelques pistes de réflexion (note de recherche). Anthropologie et
Sociétés, 39(3), 197–215.
Froehlich, D. E., Beausaert, S., Segers, M., & Gerken, M. (2014). Learning to
stay employable. Career Development International, 19(5), 508–525.
29
Gazier, B. (2001). Beschäftigungsfähigkeit: Ein komplexer Begriff. In

P. Weinert (Ed.), Beschäftigungsfähigkeit: Von der Theorie zur Praxis
(pp. 19–46). Bern: Peter Lang.
Gentles, S. J., Charles, C., Ploeg, J., & McKibbon, K. (2015). Sampling in
qualitative research: Insights from an overview of the methods literature.
The Qualitative Report, 20(11), 1772–1789. http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/
vol20/iss11/5. Accessed Oct 5, 2016.
Gogolin, I. (1994). Der monolinguale Habitus der multilingualen Schule.
Münster: Waxmann.
Greenhouse, C. J. (2010). Introduction. In C. J. Greenhouse (Ed.),
Ethnographies of neoliberalism (pp. 1–10). Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania.
Grin, F. (1999). Compétences et récompenses: la valeur des langues en Suisse.
Fribourg: Presses Universitaires de Fribourg.
Grin, F. (2006). Economic considerations in language policy. In T. Ricento
(Ed.), An introduction to language policy. Theory and method (pp. 77–94).
Malden: Blackwell.
Grin, F. (2014). 50 years of economics in language policy. Critical assessment and
priorities. Genève: Observatoire économie, langues, formation élf. www.
unige.ch/fti/recherches/groupes/elf/files/7614/5865/9203/elfwp13.pdf.
Accessed Mar 14, 2017.
Gumperz, J. J. (1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Heller, M. (2006). Linguistic minorities and modernity (2nd ed.). London:
Continuum.
Heller, M. (2009). Doing ethnography. In W. Li & M. G. Moyer (Eds.), The
blackwell guide to research methods in bilingualism and multilingualism (pp.
249–262). Malden: Blackwell.
Heller, M. (2010). Language as resource in the globalized new economy. In N.
Coupland (Ed.), The handbook of language and globalization (pp. 349–365).
Oxford: Blackwell.
Heller, M. (2011). Paths to post-nationalism. A critical ethnography of language
and identity. Oxford: University Press.
Hering, L., & Schmidt, R. J. (2014). Einzelfallanalyse. In N. Baur & J. Blasius
(Eds.), Handbuch Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung (pp. 529–541).
Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Hoffmann, C. (2009). Disziplinschwierigkeiten in der Schule: Eine qualitative

Einzelfallstudie mit einem gruppen- und bindungstheoretischen Schwerpunkt.
Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Kim, H. Y. (2014). Learner investment, identity, and resistance to second lan-
guage pragmatic norms. System, 45, 92–102.
Kirilova, M. (2013). All dressed up and nowhere to go: Linguistic, cultural and
ideological aspects of job interviews with second language speakers of Danish.
Linguistics. University of Copenhagen. Faculty of Humanities, 2013.
English, https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00843515/. Accessed March 4,
2017.
Klein, C. (2007). The valuation of plurilingual competences in an open
European labour market. International Journal of Multilingualism, 4(4),
262–281.
Kraus, K. (2007). Employability—ein neuer Schlüsselbegriff. Panorama, 6,
4–5. www.panorama.ch/pdf/2007/pan076d04.pdf. Accessed Jan 4, 2017.
Kres, M. (2003). Employability und Demografie: Macht Rentenalter 67 Sinn?
Die Volkswirtschaft, 11, 36.
Lamnek, S. (2005). Qualitative Sozialforschung (4th ed.). Weinheim: Beltz
Verlag.
Lessenich, S. (2008). Die Neuerfindung des Sozialen: Der Sozialstaat im flexiblen
Kapitalismus. Bielefeld: transcript.
Mandel, E. (1975). Late capitalism. London: Humanities Press.
Martín Rojo, L. (2010). Constructing inequality in multilingual classrooms.
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Martín Rojo, L. (2013). (De)capitalising students through linguistic practices.
A comparative analysis of new educational programmes in a global era. In
A. Duchêne, M. Moyer, & C. Roberts (Eds.), Language, migration and social
inequalities: A critical sociolinguistic perspective on institutions and work (pp.
118–146). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Martin-Jones, M. (2011). Languages, texts and literacy practices: An ethno-
graphic lens on bilingual vocational education in Wales. In T. McCarty
(Ed.), Ethnography of language policy (pp. 231–253). New York: Routledge.
Mitchell, C. J. (1984). Case studies. In R. F. Ellen (Ed.), Ethnographic research.
A guide to general conduct (pp. 237–241). London: Academic Press.
Motakef, M. (2015). Prekarisierung. Bielefeld: transcript.
Norton, B. (2013). Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation
(2nd ed.). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
31
Norton Pierce, B. (1995). Social identity, investment, and language learning.

TESOL Quarterly, 29(1), 9–31.
Park, J. S. Y. (2009). The local construction of a global language: Ideologies of
English in South Korea. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Piller, I., & Lising, J. (2014). Language, employment, and settlement:
Temporary meat workers in Australia. Multilingua, 33(1–2), 35–59.
Pittaway, D. S. (2004). Investment and second language acquisition. Critical
Inquiry in Language Studies, 1(4), 203–218.
Pörksen, U. (2004). Plastikwörter: Die Sprache einer internationalen Diktatur.
Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.
Raeder, S., & Grote, G. (2003). Arbeitsmarktfähigkeit ersetzt Arbeitsplatzsi
cherheit. Die Volkswirtschaft, 11, 9–12.
Rampton, B., Maybin, J., & Roberts, C. (2015). Theory and method in lin-
guistic ethnography. In J. Snell, S. Shaw, & F. Copland (Eds.), Linguistic
ethnography. Interdisciplinary explorations (pp. 14–50). Hampshire: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Roberts, C. (1985). The interview game. London: BBC.
Roberts, C. (2000). Professional gatekeeping in intercultural encounters. In
S. Sarangi & M. Coulthard (Eds.), Discourse and social life (pp. 102–120).
Essex: Pearson Education.
Roberts, C. (2011). Gatekeeping discourse in employment interviews. In
C. N. Candlin & S. Sarangi (Eds.), Handbook of communication in organisa
tions and professions (pp. 407–432). Berlin: de Gruyter.
Roberts, C. (2013). The gatekeeping of Babel: Job interviews and the linguistic
penalty. In A. Duchêne, M. Moyer, & C. Roberts (Eds.), Language, migra
tion and social inequalities. A critical sociolinguistic perspective on institutions
and work (pp. 81–94). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Roberts, C., Campbell, S., & Robinson, Y. (Eds.). (2008). Talking like a man
ager: Promotion interviews, language and ethnicity (Research Report No. 510).
London: Department for Work and Pensions. http://research.dwp.gov.uk/
asd/asd5/rports2007-2008/rrep510.pdf. Accessed Aug 5, 2017.
Rosenthal, G. (2005). Interpretative Sozialforschung. Eine Einführung.
Weinheim and München: Juventa.
Silverstein, M. (1996). Monoglot ‘Standard’ in America: Standardization and
metaphors of linguistic hegemony. In D. Brenneis & R. Macauley (Eds.),
The matrix of language: Contemporary linguistic anthropology (pp. 284–306).
Boulder: Westview Press.
Spilker, N. (2010). Die Regierung der Prekarität: Zur neoliberalen Konzeption

unsicherer Arbeitsverhältnisse. Münster: Unrast.
Stake, R. E. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In Y. S. Lincoln & N. K.
Denzin (Eds.), The handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 443–466).
Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Stake, R. E. (2006). Multiple case study analysis. New York: Guilford Press.
Studer, P., Kreiselmaier, F., & Flubacher, M. (2007). Language policy-plan
ning in a multilingual European context (Arbeitspapiere des Instituts für
Sprachwissenschaft 43). Bern: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft.
Tight, M. (2017). Understanding case study research. Small-scale research with
meaning. Los Angeles: Sage.
Urciuoli, B. (2008). Skills and selves in the new workplace. American
Ethnologist, 35, 211–228.
Veltz, P., & Zarifian, P. (1993). Travail collectif et modèles d’organisation de la
production. Le travail humain, 57, 239–249.
Williams, R. (1983). Keywords: A vocabulary of culture and society (revised ed.).
New York: Oxford University Press.
Williams, D. R. (2011). Multiple language usage and earnings in Western
Europe. International Journal of Manpower, 32(4), 372–393.
Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.). Thousand
Oaks: Sage.
Zarifian, P. (1990). La nouvelle productivité. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Zarifian, P. (1996). Travail et communication. Paris: Presses universitaires de
France.
2
The Politics of Investment
and Employability in the Public
Employment Service
Abstract This chapter introduces the historical and legal development

of public employment service and its institutions in Switzerland, most
importantly the Regional Employment Offices (REO), the official
institution in charge of job seekers. In this context, it discusses labour
market measures (LMM), which are the main instrument of the REO’s
activation policy to improve the employability of job seekers. It focuses
on the internal guidelines of the Canton of Fribourg for the allocation
of LMM, namely language courses, which are based on the logic of
return on investment. This chapter allows for a better understanding of
the various logics of how and why investment and employability oper-
ate within bureaucratic institutions.
Keywords Switzerland · Unemployment · Labour market policies ·

Activation · Language courses
‘Unemployment in sight? Take action!’ This is the first recommendation

on the website of the public employment service entitled ‘Treffpunkt
Arbeit’ in German and ‘Espace emploi’ in French (our English trans-
lation: ‘Work meeting point’).1 On this website, the national labour
© The Author(s) 2018 33
M. Flubacher et al., Language Investment and Employability,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60873-0_2
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
1871 bei Tanette erfuhr; Hirschjagden spielen daselbst eine grosse
Rolle; der Hirsch wird auf ungesatteltem Pferde mit dem Lasso
gejagt. Der Gouverneur von Süd Celébes, B a k k e r s , erzählte mir,
dass bei einer Treibjagd in Goa 750 Hirsche auf einmal erlegt
worden seien. G r a a f l a n d s citirte Angabe verdient zweifellos
alles Vertrauen, da er ein grosser Kenner der Minahassa ist, seine
Bemerkungen über die Thiere des Landes aber, die er l. c. p. III-XLV
macht, sind nur mit Kritik zu benutzen, und er hätte besser gethan,
alle lateinischen Namen wegzulassen, da kaum ein fehlerloser
darunter ist.
Die S a r a s i n schen Djampea-Geweihe ähneln vieren von Buru im

Dresdner Museum, das ausserdem je ein Exemplar von Halmahéra
und Ternate besitzt; eines der Buru-Exemplare und das von Ternate
(wie bemerkt) weisen den von R ö r i g seinem „celebensis“
zugeschriebenen Charakter auf, was weiter gegen die versuchte
Abtrennung spricht. Quoy & Gaimard bildeten den Hirsch (juv.) auch
von Ambon ab (l. c. pl. 25 und p. 134). L y d e k k e r s Abbildung von
moluccensis (l. c. pl. XII) nach einem Exemplare des Britischen
Museums ohne sichere Herkunft, im Winterpelze, differirt sehr von
der Q u o y & G a i m a r d schen Abbildung des Buru- (l. c. pl. 24)
und des Ambon-Hirsches (pl. 25). Keinenfalls ist moluccensis
genügend bekannt, um bereits ein sicheres Urtheil aussprechen zu
können, zumal der Verbreitungsbezirk ein relativ grosser und der
Hirsch noch nicht von allen in Frage kommenden Inseln bekannt ist.
Auch auf Banggai kommt ein Hirsch vor. [31]

[Inhalt]
Marsupialia
Phalangeridae
[Inhalt]
43. Phalanger ursinus (Temm.)
fem.,a.Balg, Makassar, Süd Celébes, XI 95.

fem.
b–d.
und 2 fem. juv., in Spiritus, Kema, Minahassa, Nord
Celébes, VIII 93.
in Spiritus,
e. Tomohon, Minahassa, Nord Celébes (dazu
Skelet l).
mas, f.in Spiritus, von Tjamba lebend angebracht, Maros,
Süd Celébes, VII 95 (dazu Skelet m).
Skelette,
g–i. mas, fem., fem. juv., Kema, VIII 94, IX 93.
Skelette,
k, l. fem., Tomohon, 94 (l zu e)
Skelet,
m. mas, Tjamba, Süd Celébes (zu f).
Die Herren S a r a s i n hatten dem Dresdner Museum schon im Jahr

1893 ein Exemplar in Spiritus von Kema gesandt. S. auch Abh. Ber.
Dresd. 1896/7 Nr. 6 p. 34.
[Inhalt]
44. Phalanger celebensis (Gr.)
fem.,a.in Spiritus, Kema, Minahassa, Nord Celébes, VIII

93 (hierzu ein Foetus).
mas,b, c.
fem., in Spiritus, Tomohon, Minahassa, Nord
Celébes, II 94.
mas,d. in Spiritus, lebend angebracht, angeblich von
Bonthain, Makassar, Süd Celébes, IX 95 (dazu Skelet i).
mas,e. in Spiritus, Maros, Süd Celébes, VII 95 (dazu Skelet
k).
fem.,e1in. Spiritus, Makassar, Süd Celébes, VI 95.
mas,f, g.
fem., Skelette, Tomohon, V 94.
mas,h. Skelet, Masarang, Minahassa, Nord Celébes, IX 94.
mas, Skelet,
i. Bonthain, Süd Celébes, IX 95 (zu d).
mas, k. Skelet, Maros, Süd Celébes, VII 95 (zu e).
Ich verweise bezüglich der Verbreitung der Art über Celébes auf
meine Bemerkungen Abh. Ber. Dresd. 1896/7 Nr. 6 p. 33–34. [32]
[Inhalt]
Anhang:
Die löffelförmigen Haare der Molossi
von
J. Jablonowski
Tafel X und XI
Bei der Bearbeitung der von den Hrn. S a r a s i n in Celébes

gesammelten Säugethiere beobachtete Hr. A. B. M e y e r (s. oben
S. 17) im Gesichte der von ihm aufgestellten neuen Fledermausart
Nyctinomus sarasinorum Haare von sehr eigenthümlicher, einem
Senflöffelchen vergleichbarer Form, die, wie eine sogleich
vorgenommene Prüfung des im Museum vorhandenen Materials
ergab, bei den Arten der Gruppe Molossi ziemlich allgemein
verbreitet sind.
Die anfänglich gehegte Vermuthung, dass diese Haare überhaupt

noch nicht bekannt geworden seien, bestätigte sich bei genauerer
Durchforschung der Literatur allerdings nicht. Abgesehen von
einigen Angaben älterer Autoren, aus denen hervorgeht, dass sie
etwas von der Form der Haare erkannt haben, und die im Verlaufe
der Darstellung einzeln Berücksichtigung finden werden, erwähnt
D o b s o n 1 1876 bei der Beschreibung des Molossus abrasus
Temm. diese Haare als „short spoon-shaped hairs“ ohne jeden
anderen erläuternden Zusatz. Da er die Beobachtung nicht weiter
verfolgt hat und die kurze Notiz auch im Texte seines umfangreichen
Werkes ganz versteckt ist, so ist es erklärlich, dass sie in die
Lehrbücher und andere zusammenfassende Werke, soweit meine
Kenntniss reicht, keinen Eingang gefunden hat 2. [33]
Es wird daher gerechtfertigt sein, diese eigenthümliche Form von
Säugethierhaaren durch eingehendere, von Abbildungen begleitete
Schilderung weiteren Kreisen bekannt zu machen.
Ich bemerke vorweg, dass ich ausserhalb der Gruppe Molossi

solche Haare nicht beobachtet habe. Nachdem ich mich hier mit
ihnen vertraut gemacht, wurde das gesammte in Spiritus
aufbewahrte Chiropterenmaterial des Dresdener Museums, worin
alle Abtheilungen der Ordnung vertreten sind, ohne Erfolg
durchgesehen.
Von den Molossi standen mir zur Verfügung Cheiromeles torquatus

Horsf., vier Arten von Molossus und vierzehn von Nyctinomus, die
theils dem Bestande des Dresdener Museums angehören, theils von
Herrn Prof. L a m p e r t , dem Director des Königlichen Naturalien-
Cabinets in Stuttgart, für die Zwecke dieser Untersuchung in
entgegenkommendster Weise hergeliehen waren.
Die Untersuchung führte ich derart aus, dass jedes einzelne

Exemplar zunächst unter dem Zeiss’schen binocularen
Präparirmicroscope, das sich für diesen Zweck als sehr geeignet
erwies, auf das Vorkommen und die topographische Anordnung der
fraglichen Haare genau geprüft wurde. Sodann wurden von den
Haaren einer jeden Art eine Anzahl microscopischer Präparate
angefertigt.
Um Wiederholungen möglichst zu vermeiden, werde ich bei der

Darstellung der Befunde dagegen so vorgehen, dass ich zuerst die
allgemeinen Eigenschaften dieser Haare schildere, wie sie sich aus
der Vergleichung der Einzelbeobachtungen ergeben, und dann erst
das besondere Verhalten bei den einzelnen Arten beschreibe.
Am Haarkleide der Säugethiere kann man allgemein unterscheiden

das eigentliche K ö r p e r h a a r , das die gleichmässige Bedeckung
für den grössten Theil des Leibes bildet, und die von ihm nach Form
und Grösse mehr oder weniger a b w e i c h e n d e n ,
b e s o n d e r e n Z w e c k e n a n g e p a s s t e n H a a r e , die sich
nur an bestimmten Stellen, namentlich, als sogenannte Spürhaare,
im Gesichte, vorfinden. Die Haare, die den eigentlichen Gegenstand
dieser Mittheilung bilden, gehören zwar in die zweite Gruppe, doch
wird es ihre Charakterisirung erleichtern, wenn wir vorher einen Blick
auch auf das gewöhnliche Körperhaar werfen.
Durch seine Beschaffenheit, die schon öfter die Aufmerksamkeit der

Forscher 3 auf sich gezogen hat, nehmen die Fledermäuse unter den
Säugethieren eine Sonderstellung ein. „Die Haare der Fledermäuse
sind abgeplattet und deutlich charakterisirt durch den Mangel an
Mark im grössten Theile des Schaftes, durch die stark
vorspringenden Cuticularschuppen und besonders durch die
eigenthümliche Spiraltour, in welcher die Schuppen gestellt sind“
(W a l d e y e r 4). Die eigenthümliche Ausbildung der Cuticula ist zwar
nicht bei allen Chiropteren gleich ausgeprägt, namentlich unter den
Frugivoren tritt sie zurück (K o c h 5, M a r c h i 6) und andererseits
findet sie sich gelegentlich in ähnlicher Weise auch bei Angehörigen
anderer Säugethiergruppen (vgl. G e g e n b a u r , Vergl. Anat. I.
1898, p. 147, Fig. 59), aber als Ordnungscharakter bleibt sie doch
für die Chiropteren bezeichnend. Einen guten Überblick über die
dadurch bedingten, oft sehr zierlichen und complicirten Formen der
Körperhaare in den verschiedenen Abtheilungen der Ordnung
gewährt die Arbeit von M a r c h i 7.
Von der uns beschäftigenden Unterfamilie Molossi besitzt das Haar

der zahlreichen Arten der beiden Gattungen Molossus und
Nyctinomus durchweg den typischen Fledermauscharakter,
abweichend verhält sich dagegen die dritte Gattung Cheiromeles mit
der einzigen Art torquatus.
Die Arten der beiden erstgenannten Gattungen stimmen wieder
unter einander im allgemeinen soweit überein, dass es für die
Zwecke der vorliegenden Abhandlung genügt, das Verhalten einer
Art zu berücksichtigen, und zwar mag als Beispiel die neue Species
Nyctinomus astrolabiensis A. B. M. dienen. [34]
In einer von der Brust genommenen Probe (Fig. 30, Taf. X)

erscheinen die einzelnen Haare im ganzen fein, wenn auch in den
einzelnen Abschnitten ihrer Länge verschieden dick, ziemlich kurz (c
4 mm), marklos und jederseits am Rand einer feinen Säge ähnlich
gezähnt. Bei passender Einstellung des Microscops erkennt man
indessen, dass sich von der anscheinend freien Spitze einer jeden
Zacke über die Oberfläche des Haares eine feine, selbst wieder
gezackte Linie herüberzieht. Die Deutung der Beobachtung ist leicht.
Die Cuticularschuppen sind in trichter- oder manschettenartigen
Segmenten angeordnet, von denen jedes höher gelegene mit seiner
verengerten Basis in den erweiterten Endabschnitt des
vorhergehenden hineingesteckt ist. Stellt man daher genau auf den
Rand des Haares ein, sodass hier der trennende Raum zwischen
zwei Trichterstücken scharf hervortritt, die Oberfläche des Haares
aber undeutlich wird, so muss der Eindruck entstehen, als sei der
Schaft mit zwei gegenüberstehenden Zeilen stark vorspringender
isolirter Schuppen besetzt. Die trichterförmigen Segmente sind zur
Längsaxe des Haares meist etwas schräg abgestutzt, so dass die
Zacken an der einen Seite des Haares gegen die an der andern ein
wenig verschoben erscheinen. Die Schuppen sind also hier nicht in
einer eigentlichen fortlaufenden Spirallinie, sondern in etwas schräg
am Schafte stehenden Wirteln angeordnet. Nach D o b s o n 8 gilt
dies ausser für die Molossi allgemein für die Emballonuridae und
Phyllostomidae, während für die Vespertilionidae, Nycteridae und
Rhinolophidae ein anderer Typus — einfache Spirale mit
dachziegelartiger Deckung der einzelnen Schuppen — bezeichnend
wäre.
Das einzelne Haar zeigt nicht durch seine ganze Länge den gleichen
Bau. Innerhalb der Haut ist der Schaft glatt, auch der freie Theil zeigt
am Grund eine verschieden lange Strecke weit keine oder
undeutliche und wenige, darauf im grössten Theile seiner Länge
sehr deutliche und regelmässige Zacken. Im letzten Drittel etwa der
Schaftlänge werden die Segmente der Cuticula viel kürzer, und die
freien Enden der Schuppen stehen weniger stark ab, so dass dieser
Theil des Haares viel glatter als der untere erscheint. Die Dicke des
Haares ist im unteren, stark gezähnten Theil am geringsten (circa
0,009 mm) und ziemlich gleichmässig, doch entsteht, da das Haar
im ganzen etwas abgeplattet ist, infolge Drehung des Schaftes öfter
der Anschein, als nehme die Dicke wiederholt zu und ab. Im oberen
glatteren Abschnitte wächst sie aber in der That ziemlich rasch etwa
auf das Doppelte an, worauf die Zuspitzung dieses Theils zum freien
Ende des Haares ohne Änderung seiner Structur ganz allmählich
erfolgt. K o l e n a t i , der wohl zuerst auf diese Verschiedenheiten der
Structur des einzelnen Haares aufmerksam gemacht und sie als
regelmässig wiederkehrend bei vielen Arten nachgewiesen hat,
bezeichnet den untern Abschnitt, der die für die Art charakteristische
Ausbildung am deutlichsten zeigt, als das „charakteristische
Haardrittel“ 9. Bei den hier behandelten Haaren beträgt dieser
Abschnitt aber immer weit mehr, über die Hälfte bis 3–4 Fünftel, und
ungefähr dasselbe Verhältniss liegt übrigens auch in der von
K o l e n a t i 10 gegebenen Abbildung des Haares von Rhinolophus
hippocrepis (Hermann) [gleich Rhin. hipposideros (Bchst.)] vor.
Am einzelnen Haar erscheint unter dem Microscope der untere

„charakteristische“ Abschnitt fast farblos, im oberen findet sich
körniges Pigment gewöhnlich in segmentweiser, durch farbstoffreie
Strecken unterbrochener Anhäufung.
Das Haarkleid ist am ganzen Körper gleichartig, Haare vom Rücken

bieten die gleichen Verhältnisse wie die vom Bauch. Ein Unterschied
von Stichel- und Wollhaar ist nicht zu bemerken, ebensowenig eine
Anordnung in Gruppen.
Die functionelle Bedeutung der Eigenthümlichkeiten des

Fledermaushaares hat K o l e n a t i wohl richtig beurtheilt: „Da alle
Haare gleich sind, somit das die Körperwärme zusammenhaltende
Wollhaar nicht vorhanden ist, so muss das Haar an der Basis,
hiermit in der Nähe des Körpers die erwärmte Luftschichte
abschliessen und sich vermöge der an jener Stelle vorragenden
Spiralen stauen, in der breiteren Stelle des Haares dagegen dicht
aneinander anschliessen“ 11. [35]
Gewissermaassen einen negativen Beweis für die Richtigkeit dieser

Anschauung bietet der oben erwähnte Cheiromeles torquatus Horsf.,
der sich durch die Beschaffenheit seines Körperhaares wie in vielen
anderen Beziehungen von den Molossus- und Nyctinomus-Arten
wesentlich unterscheidet.
Das Thier besitzt eine sehr dicke und derbe Haut, die zunächst völlig
nackt erscheint, erst bei genauerer Prüfung erkennt man, dass sie
grössten Theils von einem spärlichen, kurzen Flaum überzogen ist.
Untersucht man eine Probe des letzteren, etwa von der Brust (Fig.
21, Taf. X), so findet man, dass er aus längeren und kürzeren
Haaren besteht, die im übrigen gleichen Bau zeigen. Es scheinen
um ein grösseres Haar von circa 1,2 mm Länge einige kürzere und
einige ganz kleine herumzustehen. Eine genauere Prüfung, ob hier
eine gesetzmässige Gruppirung im Sinne d e M e i j e r e s 12 vorliegt,
wurde nicht vorgenommen. Diese Haare sind spindelförmig, mit der
dicksten Stelle nahe dem Grunde des freien Schafttheiles, ohne
wahrnehmbares Mark und besitzen sehr wenig hervortretende
Cuticularschuppen (Fig. 21 e), die das Haar bei geringer
Vergrösserung nur fein quergestreift erscheinen lassen. — Das
eigentümliche Verhalten des Cheiromeles-Haares erklärt sich
offenbar daraus, dass bei diesem Thiere dem mächtig entwickelten
Integumente die Aufgabe des Wärmeschutzes zugefallen ist, was zu
einer Reduction des nun überflüssigen Haarkleides geführt hat, die
sich nicht nur auf dessen Menge im ganzen, sondern auch auf die
dem Zwecke des Wärmeschutzes angepasste feinere Structur des
einzelnen Haares erstreckt hat.
Bei den Molossus- und Nyctinomus-Arten ändert sich die

Beschaffenheit des Haarkleides, wenn wir von der Flughaut und dem
Schwanze, die zum grössten Theile nackt sind, absehen, an zwei
Stellen in schon für die Betrachtung mit freiem Auge merkbarer
Weise, am G e s i c h t und an den F ü s s e n . Eine kurze
Schilderung der äusseren Formverhältnisse dieser Theile wird das
Verständniss der folgenden Ausführungen, in denen öfter auf die
topographischen Beziehungen Rücksicht zu nehmen ist, erleichtern
und möge daher hier zunächst Platz finden.
Dem K o p f ist in den Gattungen Molossus und Nyctinomus

durchgehends der Besitz sehr breiter Ohren eigenthümlich, die,
seitlich weit herabreichend und in der Medianlinie sich dicht
berührend oder häufig sogar verwachsend, für das Gesicht nach
oben und rückwärts eine scharfe Begrenzung bilden (vgl. die Figuren
auf Tafel XI). Die Schnauze ist breit, kurz und frontal von oben vorn
nach unten hinten schräg abgestutzt (Taf. X, Fig. 3), so dass die,
häufig von einem verdickten und mit kleinen Vorsprüngen besetzten
Rand eingefassten, Nasenlöcher ihren vordersten Punkt einnehmen.
Die Oberlippe ist sehr dick und bei vielen Arten mit senkrecht zum
Mundspalte stehenden tiefen Falten versehen, über die Unterlippe
greift sie etwas über. Was die Behaarung anbelangt, so nimmt man
mit freiem Auge nur wahr, dass manche Stellen nahezu nackt sind,
während an anderen die Haare im Gegensatze zu denen am Körper
theilweise eine besondere Anordnung, wie in Büscheln und Reihen
erkennen lassen, bisweilen auch sich durch grössere Länge
auszeichnen.
Die F ü s s e , die von der Flughaut vollständig freigelassen werden,

sind kurz, breit und platt, die Zehen ziemlich gleich lang, aber die
erste und fünfte sind breiter als die anderen und besitzen je längs
der Aussenseite eine umgrenzte verdickte Stelle, eine Art Schwiele.
Auffallend ist die starke Behaarung der Füsse, wodurch die Molossi,
wie zuerst G e o f f r o y S a i n t - H i l a i r e 13 hervorgehoben hat,
unter den Chiropteren ganz vereinzelt dastehen. Die Haare sind
theils sehr lang, gekrümmt und stehen auf der Dorsalseite der
Nagelglieder, sodass sie über die Zehenenden frei herüberragen,
theils sind sie sehr kurz und überziehen dicht die beiden
schwielenartigen Felder an den Aussenseiten der ersten und fünften
Zehe. Soviel erkennt man hier mit blossem Auge.
Die genauere Prüfung der an Kopf und Füssen vorkommenden

Haare ergiebt, dass man sie füglich in z w e i G r u p p e n scheiden
kann, zwischen denen es allerdings auch Übergangsformen giebt.
Die H a a r e d e r e r s t e n G r u p p e besitzen die gewohnte

spindlig-fadenförmige Gestalt, sie gleichen dem Körperhaare durch
die immer noch ziemlich stark vorspringenden Cuticularschuppen,
die auch die charakteristische Anordnung in trichterförmigen
Segmenten besitzen, unterscheiden sich aber von ihm durch meist
bedeutendere Dicke, oft auch Länge, sowie stärkere Pigmentirung.
Im einzelnen treten diese Haare [36]nicht nur bei verschiedenen
Arten, sondern z. Th. auch bei derselben je nach dem Standort in
mancherlei Formen auf, die alle anzuführen, ausserhalb des
Rahmens dieser Arbeit liegt. Es muss auch hier genügen, ein paar
Beispiele herauszugreifen. Fig. 12 und 18 auf Taf. X geben Haare
vom Gesichte von Nyctinomus bivittatus Hgl. wieder, die unter sich in
der Dicke und der Zähnelung der Cuticula ziemlich übereinstimmen.
Von dem eigentümlichen Aufsatz auf der Spitze, den das eine
aufweist, wird weiter unten noch die Rede sein. Ein Haar von der
Oberlippe von Nyctinomus astrolabiensis (Fig. 19) ist dagegen
schmächtiger und glatter, es gleicht einigermaassen dem
Körperhaare von Cheiromeles (Fig. 21 a).
Die z w e i t e G r u p p e umfasst sodann die eigentümlich

ausgebildeten, in den ausgeprägten Fällen dem Körperhaare ganz
unähnlichen Haare, die den eigentlichen Gegenstand dieser
Mittheilung bilden. Sie finden sich sowohl am Gesichte wie an den
Füssen, und, mit einer geringfügigen Ausnahme bei Cheiromeles, ist
ihr Vorkommen auch auf diese Stellen beschränkt.
Ihre Anordnung im Gesicht ist bei den einzelnen Arten sehr

verschieden und wird weiter unten für jede Species besonders
geschildert werden. Vorläufig sei bemerkt, dass sie sich allgemein
finden auf dem Felde zwischen der Nase und dem äusseren Rande
der Oberlippe sowie auf den seitlichen Theilen der letzteren,
besonders auf den Kämmen der senkrechten Falten, wo solche
vorhanden sind. Nur bei manchen Arten kommen sie vor in dem
Theile des Gesichts oberhalb der Nase bis gegen den Grund der
Ohrmuscheln hin und ferner auf dem Unterkiefer.
Weit einförmiger ist das Verhalten an den Füssen. Hier bedecken sie
die oben erwähnten Schwielen an den freien Seiten der beiden
äusseren Zehen, und die Ausdehnung dieser Felder ist bei den
einzelnen Arten von Nyctinomus und Molossus nur sehr wenig
verschieden (Taf. XI Fig. 1 a u. 2 a). Abweichend verhält sich
wiederum Cheiromeles, wie weiter unten geschildert werden wird.
Eine allgemeine Anschauung von der Beschaffenheit dieser Haare

gewinnt man am leichtesten bei ihrer Musterung in situ unter dem
binocularen Microscope; die Figuren 28 und 29 auf Tafel X
versuchen das Bild wiederzugeben, das die charakteristischen
Felder an der Schnauzenspitze von Nyctinomus sarasinorum und
Molossus rufus obscurus bei dieser Art der Betrachtung gewähren.
Bei Nyctinomus sarasinorum erscheinen die Haare als kurze, circa 1

mm hohe, derbe, dunkle Borsten, die an der Spitze nach einer Seite
hin ein annähernd halbkugliges Knöpfchen tragen, das gegenüber
dem dunklen Schafte fast weiss erscheint, nur in seiner mittleren
Parthie etwas dunkler gefärbt ist. Bewegt man das Object hin und
her, so vermag man schon jetzt mit völliger Sicherheit zu erkennen,
dass die Knöpfchen an der Unterseite ausgehöhlt sind, sodass sich
der Vergleich des ganzen Haares mit der Form eines Senflöffelchens
unwillkürlich aufdrängt. Jedes Haar steht in einer seichten,
muldenartigen Vertiefung der Haut, die etwas heller gefärbt ist als
ihre Nachbarschaft und sich gegen diese durch eine geringe
wallartige Erhebung absetzt. Nicht alle Haare sind gleichmässig
ausgebildet, man beobachtet, namentlich in den seitlichen Parthien
des Gesichts, auch solche, bei denen das Knöpfchen viel weniger
ausgeprägt ist. So typische Formen wie an der Schnauze von
Nyctinomus sarasinorum findet man überhaupt nur noch bei wenigen
Arten.
Über die Zahl und die gegenseitige Anordnung dieser Haare lässt
sich etwas allgemein Zutreffendes nicht sagen. Bei Nyctinomus
sarasinorum stehen sie nicht besonders dicht, zeigen aber eine
gewisse Neigung, Gruppen von zwei bis drei zu bilden. Bei anderen
Arten habe ich indessen nichts dergleichen bemerkt.
Dagegen ist ganz allgemein eine gewisse Regelmässigkeit in der

Orientirung dieser Haare nicht zu verkennen. Überall im Gesichte
sind sie nämlich vorwiegend so gestellt, dass die verbreiterte
Endplatte nach einem Punkt hingerichtet ist, der median zwischen
den Nasenlöchern liegt. In der Figur 28 auf Taf. X, wo der Pfeil am
Rande die Medianlinie und die Richtung nach der Nase zu anzeigt,
tritt dies auch deutlich hervor.
Auf dem Feld an der Schnauzenspitze des Molossus rufus obscurus

(Fig. 29, Taf. X) stehen die Haare sehr viel dichter als bei
Nyctinomus sarasinorum, doch ist ihre Form im ganzen weniger
typisch und bei manchen nur schwach angedeutet. Dagegen gilt in
Betreff der Orientirung der einzelnen Haare wieder das für
Nyctinomus sarasinorum Bemerkte. [37]
Die Haare an den Füssen besitzen im allgemeinen noch weniger

ausgeprägte Form, orientirt sind sie in der Regel derart, dass die
Enden nach der proximalen Seite des Fusses und zugleich etwas
nach dem zunächst gelegenen freien Zehenrand hin gerichtet sind.
Wir gehen nun zur genaueren Betrachtung des einzelnen Haares

über. Die Haare, deren Gestalt am ausgeprägtesten ist, sind sehr
kurz (Taf. X, Fig. 4, 5, 7, 8). Ausnahmen machen einerseits die an
der ersten Zehe von Cheiromeles (Fig. 6), die die doppelte Länge
und darüber erreichen; andererseits finden sich bei Nyctinomus
pumilus (Crtschm.) solche von kaum der Hälfte der gewöhnlichen
Länge. Im Vergleiche mit dem Körperhaar ist der Schaft meist von
beträchtlicher Dicke (0,08 mm und mehr), gewöhnlich ist er ziemlich
gerade, oft aber besitzt er auch eine leichte Krümmung, und bei
Nyctinomus sarasinorum bildet eine solche von s-Form sogar die
Regel. Sie ist besonders deutlich an den kürzeren Haaren von wohl
ausgeprägter Form, wodurch deren Ähnlichkeit mit einem
Senflöffelchen noch auffallender wird (Fig. 4 auf Taf. X, auch in dem
Habitusbilde Fig. 28 zu bemerken), findet sich aber auch an den
längeren weniger typischen (Fig. 3, Taf. X).
Das eigenthümlich gestaltete Endknöpfchen, das den Charakter des

Haares bestimmt, ist gegen den Schaft winklig abgesetzt, und zwar
beträgt der Winkel bei den typischen Formen ungefähr einen
Rechten, während er bei weniger typischen im allgemeinen um so
stumpfer wird, je weniger die Endplatte die charakteristische Form
zeigt (Taf. X, Fig. 3, 15, 16). Bei den Anfangsformen mit nur wenig
verbreitertem Ende (Fig. 10), wie wir sie neben den ausgeprägten im
Gesicht und, bei den meisten Arten vorwiegend, an den Füssen
finden, ist es nur wenig gegen den Schaft gekrümmt.
Meist ist mit der geringeren Ausbildung der Endplatte eine Zunahme
der Länge und Verminderung der Dicke des Schaftes verbunden
(Fig. 3, Taf. X), doch kommen solche Formen auch mit kurzem
dünnem (Fig. 11) und mit langem dickem Schafte (Fig. 14, 15) vor.
Für die topographische Vertheilung der verschiedenen Formen gilt

allgemein die Regel, dass sich die am besten entwickelten auf dem
Felde zwischen Nase und oberem Mundrande finden, während mit
der Entfernung von dieser Region die minder typischen an Zahl
zunehmen. Die sehr langen und dicken Borsten (Fig. 14, 15) stehen
besonders oberhalb der Nase gegen die Ohrmuscheln hin. Die
Haare auf den senkrechten Wülsten der Oberlippe besitzen meist
ziemlich typische Form, während auch auf dem Feld unterhalb der
Nase, wenn es, wie bei Molossus rufus (Fig. 29 Taf. X) sehr dicht
bestanden ist, die Haare an seiner Peripherie z. Th. nur
Anfangsformen von Spatelhaaren sind.
Das umgebogene Ende des Haares selbst stellt bei bester

Entwicklung nahezu ein Kugelsegment dar, das so ausgehöhlt ist,
dass seine Wand im Centrum am stärksten ist und sich nach der
Peripherie zu allmählich verdünnt, um in scharfem Rande zu enden.
Bei einem etwas geringeren Grade der Ausbildung ist die Endplatte
mehr verkehrt eiförmig und flacher ausgehöhlt.
Hier ist die einfache Bezeichnung „löffelförmig“, wie sie D o b s o n 14

für die Haare an der Schnauze des Molossus abrasus Temm.
gebraucht, am Platze. Schliesslich schwindet auch die geringe
Ausbuchtung, und es bleibt nur die mehr oder weniger verbreiterte
und gegen den Schaft gekrümmte Endplatte, wodurch das Haar eine
Gestalt gewinnt, die man am passendsten vielleicht mit den bei
microscopischer Präparation gebräuchlichen Spateln vergleichen
könnte. Bei manchen Haaren ist die Verbreiterung und Krümmung
des Endes so wenig ausgeprägt (Taf. X, Fig. 11 u. 17), dass man
erst nach Kenntniss der typischen Formen durch vergleichende
Beobachtung auf sie als erste Andeutung solcher Bildung
aufmerksam wird.
Der Schaft der löffel- oder spatelförmigen Haare ist so glatt, wie etwa
der eines Menschenhaares. Bei stärkerer Vergrösserung treten nur
feine Querlinien auf der Oberfläche als Ausdruck der
Cuticularstructur hervor. Er ist an den Haaren vom Gesicht in der
Regel dunkel, öfter, z. B. bei Nyctinomus plicatus und sarasinorum
fast schwarz. Gewöhnlich ist in der Axe ein besonders dunkler
ziemlich scharf begrenzter Strang zu bemerken, den man für einen
Markcylinder halten könnte. Doch zeigt die genauere Untersuchung,
besonders von Querschnitten, dass auch den Spatelhaaren ein
gesondertes Mark mangelt, jener Eindruck rührt daher, dass das
Pigment ganz überwiegend eine ziemlich genau kreisförmige
centrale Parthie des Schaftes erfüllt. [38]
Die Endplatte muss schon infolge ihrer grösseren Dünne heller als
der Schaft erscheinen, sie ist aber auch absolut ärmer an Pigment,
da sie vorwiegend aus einer Fortsetzung der peripherischen
pigmentlosen Parthie des Schaftes besteht. Der dunkle centrale
Strang des Schaftes setzt sich gewöhnlich eine Strecke weit in die
Endplatte hinein fort, bisweilen entspricht dieser Stelle in der
Concavität der Endplatte ein kielartiger, distalwärts allmählich
verstreichender Vorsprung. Die Figur 5, Taf. X (von Nyctinomus
plicatus), die den Haarlöffel in der Ansicht schräg von unten darstellt,
zeigt ihn sehr deutlich. Von diesem dunklen Mittelstrang aus strahlt

Language Investment and Employability The Uneven Distribution of Resources in The Public Employment Service Coray Full Chapter

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Language Investment and Employability The Uneven Distribution of Resources in The Public Employment Service Coray Full Chapter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Language investment and employability

: the uneven distribution of resources

and Renata Coray

ISBN 978-3-319-60872-3 ISBN 978-3-319-60873-0 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017944591

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

Cover illustration: © saulgranda/Getty

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

Work or the lack of it defines people’s lives. So, it is surprising how

gate-keeping processes around specific work programmes and intern-

This publication is based on a project realised in the work programme

1 Language Investment and Employability: An Introduction 1

2 The Politics of Investment and Employability

3 The Logic of Return on Language Investment

4 The Uneven Recognition of Language Investment for

5 Concluding Considerations About Language Investment

AVIG Federal Unemployment Insurance Act (short for German:

SLA Second Language Acquisition

(······) not understandable speech

Abstract The introduction outlines the theoretical and empirical back-

Keywords Employability · Language investment · Critical

Learning a new language in order to increase one’s chances on the

and soft skills. After all, unemployment is one of these exemplary

1.1 Language Investment and Employability: A

as keywords, ‘definitions’ as proposed in dictionaries or textbooks are

1.1.1 Language Investment

The economic underpinnings of the concept ‘investment’ become evi-

with monetary investments, ‘they [human capital theorists] are unaware

In general, these researchers are in agreement on a positive effect of

(Urciuoli 2008), and finally, the investment of individuals into their

on capitalisation as well as decapitalisation processes goes to show that

and self-positioning in various learner contexts, hence first and foremost

resulting in a social politics of investment (‘investive Sozialpolitik’:

Employability is not only a keyword, but actually a field of research in

of politics, science, and practice, it remains ideologically vague, which

From a sociolinguistic perspective, we will analyse how the discursive

1.2 Ethnography, a Research Framework

phenomena, which, in the end, link and interconnect such individual

Fundamentally, ethnographies allow us to get at things we would other-

First, then, in a (socio-)linguistic ethnographic approach, there is an

factors become relevant (power relations, degree of education, gender,

1.3 Terrain and Data

While the celebration of a multilingual population is common in eco-

an (officially recognised) professional diploma or training qualifica-

had to be negotiated with governmental offices and conform to sensitive

1.4 The Analysis of the Data: Case Studies

subfield of SLA in the 1970s. Until the 1990s, however, it remained

competences categorised either as advantageous or disadvantageous by

to the capitalisation or, on the contrary, to the decapitalisation of par-

1.5 Outline of the Book

The publication will finally be rounded off with a conclusion (Chap. 5)

Duchêne, A. (2016). Investissement langagier et économie politique. Langage

Gazier, B. (2001). Beschäftigungsfähigkeit: Ein komplexer Begriff. In

Hoffmann, C. (2009). Disziplinschwierigkeiten in der Schule: Eine qualitative

Norton Pierce, B. (1995). Social identity, investment, and language learning.

Spilker, N. (2010). Die Regierung der Prekarität: Zur neoliberalen Konzeption

Abstract This chapter introduces the historical and legal development

Keywords Switzerland · Unemployment · Labour market policies ·

‘Unemployment in sight? Take action!’ This is the first recommendation

Die S a r a s i n schen Djampea-Geweihe ähneln vieren von Buru im

Auch auf Banggai kommt ein Hirsch vor. [31]

43. Phalanger ursinus (Temm.)

AVIG Federal Unemployment Insurance Act (short for German:

1.1 Language Investment and Employability: A

1.1.1 Language Investment

1.2 Ethnography, a Research Framework

1.3 Terrain and Data

1.4 The Analysis of the Data: Case Studies

1.5 Outline of the Book