Immigration, racism and nationalism have become hotly debated issues in the Western world. This highly original and controversial work focuses on the language used by the vast majority who regard themselves as being open to a multi-cultural society. Using Belgium as a case study and drawing parallels with the UK, US, Europe and the former Yugoslavia, the authors analyse this language and reveal a remarkable consistency between these liberal voices, such as in news-reporting, and the language used by radical racist and nationalist groups.
Immigration, racism and nationalism have become hotly debated issues in the Western world. This highly original and controversial work focuses on the ...
In this work, the authors focus primarily on the rhetoric of the tolerant majority - those who view themselves as being open to a diverse society. An analysis is presented of this rhetoric of tolerance which is prevalent in news media, influential social-scientific research reports, the policy statements of major political parties, and in government-sponsored expressions of anti-racism.T he authors use empirical data taken from the context of migrant policies in Belguim, and connect this with wider European nationalist ideologies, and conclusions of research on racism and nationalism...
In this work, the authors focus primarily on the rhetoric of the tolerant majority - those who view themselves as being open to a diverse society. An ...
Organized thematically, this introduction outlines the basic principles and moves on to examine the methods and theory of CDA (critical discourse analysis). Topics covered include text and context, language and inequality, choice and determination, history and process, ideology and identity. Jan Blommaert focuses on how language can offer a crucial understanding of wider aspects of power relations, arguing that CDA should specifically analyze the effects of power.
Organized thematically, this introduction outlines the basic principles and moves on to examine the methods and theory of CDA (critical discourse anal...
This text presents analyses of historically-situated discursive events during which ideas about language are formed, articulated and authoritatively entextualized.
This text presents analyses of historically-situated discursive events during which ideas about language are formed, articulated and authoritatively e...
What effect has globalization had on our understanding of literacy? Grassroots Literacy seeks to address the relationship between globalization and the widening gap between 'grassroots' literacies, or writings from ordinary people and local communities, and 'elite' literacies.
Displaced from their original context to elite literacy environments in the form of letters, police declarations and pieces of creative writing, 'grassroots' literacies are unsurprisingly easily disqualified, either as 'bad' forms of literacy, or as messages that fail to be understood. Through close...
What effect has globalization had on our understanding of literacy? Grassroots Literacy seeks to address the relationship between globaliz...
Focuses on the endangering effects of language-ideological processes. This book looks at the challenges imposed by globalization and super-diversity on the nation state and its language situations and ideologies, and demonstrates how many of its problems rise from the tension between late-modern diversity and the (pre-)modernist responses to it.
Focuses on the endangering effects of language-ideological processes. This book looks at the challenges imposed by globalization and super-diversity o...
Superdiversity has rendered familiar places, groups and practices extraordinarily complex, and the traditional tools of analysis need rethinking. In this book, Jan Blommaert investigates his own neighbourhood in Antwerp, Belgium, from a complexity perspective. Using an innovative approach to linguistic landscaping, he demonstrates how multilingual signs can be read as chronicles documenting the complex histories of a place. The book can be read in many ways: as a theoretical and methodological contribution to the study of linguistic landscape; as one of the first monographs which addresses...
Superdiversity has rendered familiar places, groups and practices extraordinarily complex, and the traditional tools of analysis need rethinking. I...
Sociolinguistic evidence is an undervalued resource for social theory, and in this book, Jan Blommaert uses contemporary sociolinguistic insights to develop another sociological imagination. Taking Durkheim as the point of departure, he first demonstrates how the facts of language and social interaction can be used as conclusive refutations of individualistic theories of society such as 'Rational Choice'. Next, he engages with theorizing the post-Durkheimian social world in which we currently live. This new social world operates 'offline' as well as 'online' and is characterized by...
Sociolinguistic evidence is an undervalued resource for social theory, and in this book, Jan Blommaert uses contemporary sociolinguistic insights to d...
Sociolinguistic evidence is an undervalued resource for social theory, and in this book, Jan Blommaert uses contemporary sociolinguistic insights to develop another sociological imagination. Taking Durkheim as the point of departure, he first demonstrates how the facts of language and social interaction can be used as conclusive refutations of individualistic theories of society such as 'Rational Choice'. Next, he engages with theorizing the post-Durkheimian social world in which we currently live. This new social world operates 'offline' as well as 'online' and is characterized by...
Sociolinguistic evidence is an undervalued resource for social theory, and in this book, Jan Blommaert uses contemporary sociolinguistic insights to d...
Ethnography must be seen as a full theoretical system, not just as a method. In this book, a range of authors are examined, whose work was either instrumental in creating this theoretical system, or might productively be used in developing it further. Authors discussed include Hymes, Scollon, Kress, Bourdieu, Bakhtin and Lefebvre.
Ethnography must be seen as a full theoretical system, not just as a method. In this book, a range of authors are examined, whose work was either inst...
