With Issue 5, Volume 54, we are very pleased to be publishing the special issue of 2025, entitled Anthropocenic Landscapes: Space and Semiosis in Planetary Crisis, guest-edited by Sean Smith. The issue includes an introduction by Sean Smith, six articles and concludes with a commentary by Kellie Gonçalves. It provides a critical understanding of the idea of the ‘Anthropocene’ in relation to the study of space and semiosis, offering new theoretical and methodological frameworks for sociolinguistic scholarship in a time of planetary crisis.
In this issue, we are also publishing an article that is not connected to the theme of the special issue, ‘Heritage language recognition: The multimodal construction of language in a Tibetan-Canadian family’s literacy activities’ by Shannon Ward. It is with great sadness that we inform our readers that Shannon passed away on September 9th, 2025. Because of some technicalities connected to Language in Society becoming open access in 2026, it was necessary for Shannon’s article to be published in 2025. In memory of Shannon, we publish this article and a review of her recent book from University of Toronto Press, Amdo Lullaby: An Ethnography of Childhood and Language Shift on the Tibetan Plateau.
