Dynamics of Multilingualism

This edited book focuses on the ways in which contemporary societal challenges are constructed, mediated and lived through language and other semiotic modalities in new on- and off-line spaces. It conceives of linguistic repertoires as part of dynamic assemblages that can enable an understanding of the ways in which different bodies, lived experiences, discourses, semiotic resources, and objects intra-act, change and ‘become’ together in unpredictable ways. The chapters reveal the conditions under which such assemblages occur and the nature of the entangled elements that enable certain practices to emerge and then either to endure or disappear, drawing on a range of critical sociolinguistic and discourse analytical methods to explore how histories, languages, bodies, and the material realisation of each space intra-act in the production of determinations of (linguistic) legitimacy and worth, shaping contemporary ideologies of belonging and, thereby, other possibilities. This book will be of interest to students and researchers in fields including sociolinguistics, anthropology, migration studies, and education. Maria Kuteeva is Professor of English Linguistics in the Department of English, Stockholm University, Sweden. Caroline Kerfoot is Professor in Bilingualism at the Centre for Research on Bilingualism, Stockholm University, Sweden.