Over the last fi fty years, language policy has developed into a major discipline, drawing on research and practice in many nations and at many levels. This is the fi rst Handbook to deal with language policy as a whole and is a complete ‘state-of-the-fi eld’ survey, covering language practices, beliefs about language varieties, and methods and agencies for language management. It provides a historical background which traces the development of classical language planning, describes activities associated with indigenous and endangered languages, and contains chapters on imperialism, colonialism, effects of migration and globalization, and educational policy. It also evaluates language management agencies, analyses language activism, and looks at language cultivation (including reform of writing systems, orthography and modernized terminology).