Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity (Critical Language and Literacy Studies, 18)

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Review Jan Blommaert offers a sweeping tour of the complex geographies of contemporary sociolinguistics. Effortlessly combining erudition with accessibility, he maps a new terrain for linguistic landscapes through the deeper contours of ethnography; all of which is grounded in the intimate, culturally diverse histories of his own backyard. This, argues Blommaert, is how sociolinguists should be looking to untether themselves from the stability and predictability of synchronic analysis and seeking instead to live (and research) in the moment. (Crispin Thurlow, University of Washington, USA)This is not just another landmark book in Jan Blommaert's rich oeuvre. It's a conversation he's having with all of us on today's sociolinguistic landscapes. He argues they are chaotic and complex. His book is anything but. Written in cogent and clear style, provocative at times, boring never. A Berchem delight. (Adam Jaworski, The University of Hong Kong)Both lucid and profound, integrating a compelling theoretical imagination with very practical methodology, this book is yet another remarkable advance in Blommaert's powerful remapping of sociolinguistics. (Ben Rampton, King's College London, UK)The text is clear, accessible and interspersed with practical examples of ‘experienced’ semioticised space. Blommaert never disappoints in his compassionate, original and thoroughly enjoyable narrative(...) For the LL postgraduate student, the text is useful because it discusses the main developments of LLS, identifies its shortcomings clearly and succinctly, and presents fresh data within a newly conceived framework. (Stefania Tufi, Liverpool University, UK Language Policy (2015) 14:305–307) Read more About the Author Jan Blommaert is Professor of Language, Culture and Globalization and Director of the Babylon Center for the Study of Superdiversity, Tilburg University (Netherlands) and Professor of Applied Linguistics, Center for Diversity and Learning, Ghent University (Belgium). His publications include Discourse: A Critical Introduction (CUP, 2005), The Sociolinguistics of Globalization (CUP, 2010) and Ethnographic Fieldwork: A Beginner's Guide (Multilingual Matters, 2010). Read more