The global spread of English raises a number of challenges for sociolinguistic theorizing as well as for language policy. As the language enters new environments and communities and takes on new forms, questions arise as to the ideological bases on which English is seen as constituting valuable linguistic capital. What does it mean when we say English has value, and how does English come to have such value in the first place? How does the value accorded to English affect the possibility of speakers of other languages claiming it as their own? What are the implications for speakers'¬" identities and cultures? How can such questions be rigorously investigated, and what are the lessons that might be drawn for language policy? In this book, the authors approach these questions by adopting Bourdieu'¬"s concept of the linguistic market. The book demonstrates how a market-theoretic perspective on global English provides a conceptual framework for highlighting critical issues, such as the multiplicity in the way linguistic capital is valued; the mechanism by which the value of linguistic capital is negotiated as speakers move across geographical and social space; and why language becomes a crucial resource in the reproduction of the neoliberal view of identity and personhood. By linking Bourdieu'¬"s economically-oriented social theory with insights from sociolinguistic and applied linguistic research, the book outlines a new perspective on English that is both sensitive to the political economic conditions of globalization and grounded on speakers'¬" local appropriation of the language.