Encounters- Power, Mobility and Voice

Reflecting on and advancing Jan Blommaert’s work on language and power, this edited volume explores chronotopes, language ideologies, normativities in online and offline spaces, and voice as agency. It uses Blommaert’s frameworks as a starting point to approach the challenges of a changing social world and expands his work across varied contexts. Builds on the profound and challenging legacy of sociolinguist Jan Blommaert, one of the most important thinkers in contemporary sociolinguistics, who dismantled the theoretical and ideological orthodoxies of his time. This volume honours the influential work of Jan Blommaert, furthering his critical and constructive engagement with power dynamics across numerous domains. It takes Blommaert’s work as a starting point to approach the challenges of a changing social world, using his frameworks to explore new contexts and applying new methodologies to established fields of study. The chapter authors – Jan’s colleagues, students and others inspired by his work – explore four themes of his scholarly legacy, expanding on his work and looking to new contexts. They elaborate on the concept of chronotopes, explore ideologies of language diversity and inequality, address normativities in complex online and offline spaces, and analyse voice as agency in time and space. Spanning a wide range of academic disciplines and contexts, they share a core commitment to analysing language in relation to society and power, arguably the most pressing legacy of Blommaert’s work. This book is open access under a CC BY NC ND licence.