Multilingualism in Public Spaces - by Robert Blackwood & Deirdre A Dunlevy (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Advocates of multilingualism are always seeking new ways to articulate the advantages inherent in living out life in more than one language. This volume brings together researchers from across Europe to explore sociolinguistic perspectives on multilingualism, with specific emphasis on identity, diversity, and social cohesion, as they focus explicitly on the potential of this phenomenon to empower individuals, groups, and communities.

Positioned around the idea of empowerment, this book explores the potential of multilingualism to overcome divisions and build social cohesion. In particular, chapters discuss how multilingualism can help the individual to become critically conscious and to develop an in-depth understanding of the world, while also benefiting society as whole. Understanding 'public space' in broad terms, including domains such as education, online, and the linguistic landscape, this volume explores how multilingualism can empower people from a range of perspectives, including memorialisation, onomastics, direct action, linguistic rights, migration, and educational play.

Review Quotes

"This inspiring volume offers a fascinating mapping of the complex relationship between power, multilingualism and public spaces. Through rich case studies of multilingual practices and choices across different public spaces, the writers provide crucial insights to the forces that shape linguistic landscapes and the ways in which communities and their members can belong and participate." --Sari Pietikäinen, Professor of Discourse Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

"In critically questioning the phenomena of both multilingualism and public space, this volume showcases the convoluted processes of presence and invisibility of multilingualism within Europe (and beyond). Together, the chapters convincingly demonstrate how multilingualism can be understood as a means of social transformation. A must-read for scholars within the fields of linguistic landscapes and multilingualism studies." --Dr. Kellie Gonçalves, Senior Lecturer at the Department of English, University of Bern, Switzerland

"A timely collection about how multilingualism may enrich and variegate public space, and in so doing, may empower speakers. This excellent book will engage a wide readership concerned with questions of how to live harmoniously with others in cultural and linguistic difference." --Christopher Stroud, Emeritus Professor, University of the Western Cape and Professor of Transnational Multilingualism, Stockholm University, South Africa and Sweden

About the Author

Robert Blackwood is Professor of French Sociolinguistics at the University of Liverpool, UK.

Deirdre A. Dunlevy is a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Limerick, Ireland.