Book review: standardizing diversity: the political economy of language regimes

What explains the different language regime choices and what are the economic repercussions of these decisions? In Standardizing Diversity: The Political Economy of Language Regimes the author argues we need to pay more attention to the role that a neutral language of inter-ethnic communication plays in generating a sense of fairness, equality and inclusivity in heterogeneous multilingual societies. By focusing on Malaysia and Singapore as case studies, Medha finds this to be a highly readable book that focuses on the role and impact of lingua francas—common, link languages between speakers with different mother tongues.