Dynamics of Multilingualism: Spatialized Repertoires and Representations in Unstable Times

This book investigates the ways in which contemporary societal challenges are constructed, mediated, and lived through language and other semiotic modalities in on- and off-line spaces. Developing recent work in applied and sociolinguistics on posthumanist and new materialist perspectives, the book draws on the notion of ‘assemblage’ to explore how semiotic resources and the material realization of spaces intra-act in producing determinations of (linguistic) legitimacy and worth, imaginaries of past and future, and ideologies of belonging. Combining insights from sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, philosophy, and social sciences, it explores 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. Research sites include family, religious, and institutional settings, as well as urban landscapes and digital spaces.