Multilingualism in Public Spaces

Empowering and Transforming Communities

Robert Blackwood, Deirdre A. Dunlevy, Robert Blackwood, Deirdre A. Dunlevy

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781350186637
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350186606
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Sociolinguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Multilingualism in public spaces: Empowering and transforming communities (Robert Blackwood and Deirdre A. Dun
• 1 Multilingual inequality in public spaces: Towards an inclusive model of Linguistic Landscapes (Durk Gorter)
• 2 Demarcating the space for multilingualism: On the workings of ethnic interests in a ‘civic nation’ (Marián Sloboda)
• 3 Empowering multilingualism? Provisions for place names in Northern Ireland and the political and legislative context (Mích
• 4 The transformative power of linguistic mobility: Evidence from Italian borderscapes1 (Stefania Tufi)
• 5 Invisible presence? Polish in Norwegian public spaces (Toril Opsahl1)
• 6 Place names and the complexity of language recognition in Northern Ireland (Deirdre A. Dunlevy)
• 7 Postcolonial re-memorization in the public space: A Patrice Lumumba Square in Brussels (Luk Van Mensel)
• 8 Linguistic Landscape activism as a means of community empowerment: Direct action, Ai’Ta and Breton in France (Robert Blackw
• 9 Multilingualism in the model multicultural city: The influence of authors in Leicester’s Golden Mile (Michelle A. Harrison
• 10 Empowering dialect speakers in formal education: The case of the Greek Cypriot dialect in preschool education in Cyprus (A
• Conclusion: Multilingualism in public spaces: Empowering and transforming communities (Robert Blackwood and Deirdre A. Dunlevy
• Index