A Sociolinguistics of Globalization

Teacher: Jan Blommaert, Finland Distinguished Professor (Department of Languages, University of Jyväskylä)

Course description: This course is intended to sketch a new theoretical platform for sociolinguistics in an age of globalization. Globalization forces sociolinguistics to abandon the primacy of locality in its approach: sociolinguistics has traditionally been well at ease when studying a village, while now it needs to study the world. Issues such as semiotic mobility become central to sociolinguistic research, and the theme of mobility introduces a score of new issues: networks versus communities, voice instead of meaning, and so on. The course will explore these issues, drawing on (and based on) the text of 'A sociolinguistics of globalization' (Jan Blommaert, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2009), and on examples from Africa, Asia and Europe.