The project of this volume is to (re)examine the various analytical tools used to study the relations between language and identity. In tune with this goal and with the interdisciplinary tradition in sociolinguistics, the chapters contain different theoretical and methodological references and study identity in research projects that focus on linguistic variation, language planning, dialectology, social interaction, and language learning, among other classical themes in the fields of sociolinguistics. Very interestingly, in recent edited volumes on identity, the kind of association seen here is not frequent: studies about variation, for example, are very rarely seen together with studies about interaction, either in conferences or in edited volumes. However, there are a few problems as regards how the papers are categorized under the different parts of the volume, as will be shown.

In the introduction, chapter 1, the editors stress the centrality of the concept of identity in sociolinguistics and the recent move from a limited view of identity, as a stable and homogenous category, to the present complex, dynamic, multilayered model. Part 1 proposes a focus on theory and methods. Tope Omoniyi, in chapter 2, strongly criticizes the essentialist view of identity in traditional sociolinguistics and proposes a theoretical model that represents identity construction as a dynamic process of hierarchization in monologues, interactions, and individual acts of interpretation, which, in addition, would capture the multiple and fluid quality of identity. To build this model, Omoniyi incorporates ongoing discussions, like the one about the strategic political uses of essentialism, and draws on constructs from existing theories – for example, on Goffman’s concepts of “footing” and “self-presentation.” In the analysis that follows, however, it is not always clear how these concepts are working, nor if they are supposed to function in some analytical contexts and not in others. In chapter 3, David Block begins with the discussion around social determinism and agency, which is closely related to the change in the concept of identity from product to process. In the context of this discussion, he addresses the critique that, in postmodern theories, the concept of identity is undertheorized, in the sense that a deeper and psychoanalytically informed theory is needed. Reviewing recent psychoanalytically inspired research in applied linguistics, Block discusses some problems of data interpretation, concluding that, although it would be important to “be attentive to the subconscious deeper inner workings of the mind,” it is very difficult to integrate the psychoanalytic view with a sociologically oriented investigation: Research questions are different, the competence of the researchers is different, and the nature of the theoretical constructions is different (psychoanalysis is praxis and not theory). In chapter 4, Yasir Suleiman remarks that most of the research on national identities takes the national language for granted. To argue that languages, as well as nations, are also “constructed units of self definition,” the author gives a very impressive number of examples of how historical processes of language standardization, orthography, and identity politics, among other things, work in the linguistic construction of national identity. In addition, he shows how discussions around good/bad language, grammar, correctness, and so on are presently used as a proxy in many political conflicts between nations, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and so on. In the end, Suleiman adds that the construction of a language and its function in the construction of national identity have to be coherent with the collective memory of the community in question.

Part II puts together, under the label of “micro-sociolinguistics,” three studies: one on language learning, focusing on English pronunciation standards in EFL, and two variation-inspired studies, looking at language attitudes in towns in the North and North-East of England. These very different studies, in terms of theoretical references and goals, have in common an interest in individual attitudes and in linguistic forms (phonology and syntax). This latter interest seems, surprisingly, to have motivated the presence of “micro-sociolinguistic” in the title of Part II. In chapter 5, Jennifer Jenkins addresses teachers’ reactions to her proposal of a model of pronunciation in EFL based on intelligibility and not on native speaker standards. For Jenkins, this (negative) reaction is related to identity issues, such as identification with the valued native speaker group, and the non-native sense that sounding right is as important as being understood. In addition, Jenkins raises the question of economic and political coercion: Speakers’ attitudes to their accents and their choice of the standard pronunciation are certainly linked to the professional opportunities they expect to gain through studying English. Carmen Llamas in chapter 6 and Lourdes Burbano-Elizondo in chapter 7 locate their work on regional variations within a language ideology framework, in the sense that linguistic information should be complemented by attitudinal information, which they obtain through interviews and questionnaires. This is how Llamas explains the ambiguous and contradictory results of the phonological variation analysis in her study. Burbano-Elizondo in addition draws on the notion of speech community to describe how the speakers of the town she studied mark their identities in relation to other groups. Both chapters subscribe to non-essentialist approaches to identity and succeed in showing how complex the communities they studied are. However, the long variationist tradition of treating social categories (like age and gender) as fixed and “given” is sometimes visible.

Five of the six chapters in Part III address (more or less directly) a traditional and central issue in sociolinguistics and applied linguistics: teaching and learning. All six chapters offer discussions of power relations and inequalities, in terms of gender, ethnic group, immigration, and language politics. Chapters 9 to 12 present discourse analysis of narratives and interaction. Some of them are ethnographically oriented research projects with a micro-analytical perspective of analysis (chapters 9 and 12, for example), which may be in conflict with the expression “macro-sociolinguistics” in the title of Part III. Chapters 8 and 13 study “endangered” languages and political forces, using various methods from questionnaires to corpus linguistics.

In chapter 8, Julia Sallabank documents in detail of the process of the loss of Guernsey French in the island of Guernsey, off the coast of northern France, and discusses at length what regional identity means in this context. Based on data from questionnaires and interviews, the author identifies informants’ attitudes toward the endangered language, to conclude that (i) Guernsey French is not necessarily a central issue in their identities, and (ii) the movement to revitalize the language is part of a folklorization process directed toward attracting tourists. In chapter 13, Goodith White observes that, in spite of the difficulty of defining national identity in our post-nationalist world, nationality is still a potent organizing social force. In her study of the relations between languages and Irish identity, she identifies an emerging variety of standard Irish English, suggesting that, more than the Irish language, it could promote Irish identity at the same time that it allows international communication.

Chapters 9 to 12 all feature discourse-oriented analysis. Louise Mullany, in chapter 9, analyses narratives produced by business managers, focusing on the performance of gender and professional identities. Drawing on the work of authors such as Coates, Holmes, Cameron, and Schiffrin, who articulate the study of gender, narrative, interaction, and performance, and on the community of practice framework, Mullany observes how the dominant pattern of femininity is orienting the performance of successful executives. Although they were women who had to break through the “glass ceiling,” they worried about how they looked and about the need to push for family projects, like maternity leave, in their workplaces. Very much within the same theoretical frame, Siân Preece, in chapter 10, looks at masculine identities in the context of academic writing classes. In the analysis of talk produced in group discussions in the classroom, the author considers that in students’ identity performance there is a conflict between at least three available identities, linked to three communities of practice: their peers, their families, and the university. In addition, Preece analyzes these performances as resistance (in Foucault’s sense) to the academic institution and to being in a remedial class. The resistance is performed through “doing being a lad,” that is, through trash talk, bad behavior, exhibiting disinterest, and laughing. In chapter 11, Massimiliano Spotti looks at the talk of pupils from a Dutch Islamic primary school, in an ethnographically oriented research project, in order to examine the role of cultural and linguistic affiliation in the construction of the pupils’ identities. The talk analyzed in the chapter was produced in answers to questions about language choice and nationality. Drawing mostly on the content of the answers, Spotti observes, among other things, that the choice of Dutch (and not Turkish or Arabic, for example) is motivated by rebellion against their parents, by their peer networks, and by the low value of their home languages. Their sense of displacement, of being a foreigner and Dutch at the same time, is linked to their success or failure at mastering the languages involved. In chapter 12, Roberta Vann, Katherine Richardson Bruna, and Moisés Perales Escudero analyze face-to-face interactions between teachers and immigrant students in a secondary school multilingual classroom. From an interactional sociolinguistic perspective, their goal is to examine the process of identity negotiation and transition. Through an exhaustive analysis of fragments of classroom interaction, they show how social categories such as “woman” and “Spanish speaker” are locally intertwined with individual characteristics. They also focus on power relations, and show, in the dynamics of the interactions, how the teachers’ as well as the students’ power is constructed.

In brief, the volume displays a variety of theoretical questions and methodologies, according to which identity is seen as nationalism, as speakers’ attitudes, as geographic boundaries, as (genre, professional) performance, and so on. It shows that sociolinguistics is moving on, attending to contemporary theories of identity, as well as to a growing interest in relevant social issues and to the practical applicability of research results.