The role of languaging in planetary health
Authors: Jeconiah Louis Dreisbach
Journal: The Lancet Planetary Health (2022)

Linguistic studies are often disregarded in the decision and policy-making processes concerning public health. This disregard exacerbates the health and quality-of-life risks at the individual and global level in planetary health. The persisting disregard for linguistic studies is rooted in colonial practices of public health that exclude societies that are not part of high-income countries or are not educated, industrialised, and democratic. As the 2020s started, discourses have begun to centralise decolonial thinking with the aim of breaking away from viewpoints dominated by high-income countries. Although the English language is recognised as the lingua franca of international academia, there is also a need for us to acknowledge that the continued reliance on western languages contributes to the systemic barriers, discrimination, and oppression of non-western-speaking peoples.2Dreisbach JL Mendoza-Dreisbach S The integration of emergency language services in COVID-19 response: a call for the linguistic turn in public health.J Public Health. 2021; 43: e248-e249Crossref Scopus (9) Google Scholar The Study Group on Language and the United Nations3Marinotti JP Symposium on language, the Sustainable Development Goals, and vulnerable populations. Final report.https://www.cal.org/content/download/4435/68006/file/Language%20the%20Sustainable%20Development%20Goals%20and%20Vulnerable%20Populations%20Final%20Report%20May%202017.pdfDate accessed: February 11, 2022Google Scholar identifies the absence of linguistic discourses in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a contributor to planetary vulnerability, which is disempowering marginalised communities. From an interdisciplinary viewpoint, language, climate readiness plans, and disaster preparedness are inextricably interconnected as they increase the resiliency of vulnerable sectors in global society. In the COVID-19 pandemic, collective multilingual discourses and public health policies showed that people have benefited from inclusive and equitable educational campaigns that sustainably mitigated the spread of the virus in China.2Dreisbach JL Mendoza-Dreisbach S The integration of emergency language services in COVID-19 response: a call for the linguistic turn in public health.J Public Health. 2021; 43: e248-e249Crossref Scopus (9) Google Scholar It is imperative for decolonial planetary discourses to be involved in the practice of languaging. Gross and Crawford4Gross ES Crawford JA Integrating language skills, practices, and content in equitable TESOL lesson planning.in: Crawford JA Filback RA TESOL guide for critical praxis in teaching, inquiry, and advocacy. IGI Global, Hershey, PA2022: 1-22Crossref Google Scholar defined languaging as “a collaborative dialogic activity or a process of making meaning and building knowledge through language to solve complex problems.” Languaging allows the emergence of multilingual democratic spaces that engage diverse populations concerning the state of affairs in public health and ways to move towards achieving the SDGs. It is essential for policy makers and public leaders concerned with planetary health to first recognise the diversity of multilingual and multicultural approaches to issues in sustainability, climate action, and future pandemics. Li and colleagues5Li J Xie P Ai B Li L Multilingual communication experiences of international students during the COVID-19 pandemic.Multilingua. 2020; 39: 529-539Crossref Scopus (24) Google Scholar advocated for an “epistemological shift from the global north to the global south where multilingual realities form thousands of years of history and civilization, and where indigenous knowledge constitutes the essence of guiding principles embedded in social practice”. Following such recognition should be the inclusion of diverse representation by minoritised peoples, such as Indigenous peoples, people who identify as LGBTQAI+, and people of colour, in global policy-making bodies and leading think tanks to ensure that crucial voices are heard and deliberated in crafting genuinely inclusive planetary health policies. Beyond public health,2Dreisbach JL Mendoza-Dreisbach S The integration of emergency language services in COVID-19 response: a call for the linguistic turn in public health.J Public Health. 2021; 43: e248-e249Crossref Scopus (9) Google Scholar the integration of emergency multilingual services (eg, disaster warnings in multiple languages and the mobilisation of translators and interpreters in the frontlines) is also crucial in climate change and disaster risk management to mitigate the potential hazards caused by a global climate crisis. Linguistic justice is social justice, climate justice, and planetary health justice. I declare no competing interests. The contribution of Islam to planetary healthThe human ecosystem interface, embodied by the planetary health paradigm, is deeply embedded in all the world's religions and indigenous traditions.1 Yet, the ongoing planetary health discourse remains predominantly Western-orientated. As calls to decolonise health ensues, there is a need to explore and acknowledge other non-Western perspectives, such as those originating from the Islamic faith.2 Full-Text PDF Open Access