Publication: Identity and language policies
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2007-11
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Abstract
The process of individual identity formation is still an enigma, as it is the capacity of
public bodies to intervene on it. In 1983 the Catalan education system became
bilingual, and Catalan, together with Spanish, was taught in schools. Using survey data
from Catalonia and exploiting within and between cohort variation in exposure to
Catalan language at school, results show that individuals who have experienced
greater exposure to teaching in Catalan are more likely to say that they feel more
Catalan than Spanish. Interestingly, the effect appears to be present also among
individuals whose parents do not have Catalan origins. To the best of our knowledge,
this is the first paper to analyze how policies affect individual identity.