This engaging sociolinguistic volume edited by Robert Blackwood and Deirdre Dunlevy features timely and varied contributions discussing the complexities of multilingualism and (dis)empowerment in various European settings.
In the first chapter, Durk Gorter proposes the cyclical MIPS (Multilingual inequalities in public spaces) model for linguistic landscape (LL) studies, which examines the creation of and reaction to language policies for public signs, making it suitable for analysing how speakers are (dis)empowered, and rectifying inequalities.
Such acts of disempowerment are commonplace in Marián Sloboda's LL study on Czechia, where non-Czech speakers are often restricted in their language choice, sometimes because of, sometimes in spite of, official policies.
The duality of empowerment (i.e. empowering one group risks excluding and disempowering others) is discussed in both Mícheál Ó Mainnín's and Deirdre Dunlevy's chapter on place names and the use of the minority languages Irish and Ulster Scots on signs in Northern Ireland. Ó Mainnín explores how a lack of uniform multilingual signs policies leaves this to be resolved locally, often resulting in contention. Dunlevy elaborates on the complex nature of empowerment by discussing how divergent usage of these two languages on signs empowers their respective communities differently: whereas Irish is presented as one community's living language, Ulster Scots instead emphasises the historicity of another.
Similarly, Stefania Tufi shows how similar multilingual signs can empower linguistic minorities very differently. Using Kaufman's (2002, 2011) motility framework to study the LL of two Italian border areas (German-Italian in South Tyrol and Italian-Slovenian in Friuli-Venezia Giulia), she discusses how bilingual signs in South Tyrol empower German speakers more than similar signs for Slovenian speakers in Friuli-Venezia Giulia do.
The book also examines multilingualism as a byproduct of migration, such as in Toril Opsahl's chapter on the limited presence of Polish as a minority language within Oslo's LL. The issue of using a migrant language, an official language, or both is also present in Michelle Harrison's chapter on signs in hyperdiverse Leicester, which investigates public and private actors’ motivations for (not) using Gujarati.
Luk Van Mensel discusses a square in Brussels being renamed after Congolese politician Patrice Lumumba and explores how changes in the LL can create feelings of inclusion and empowerment for ethnic and linguistic minorities such as Belgium's Congolese diaspora. Similarly, Robert Blackwood's chapter on Breton language activists in France shows minority language speakers using direct action to problematise the absence of their language, contest the LL, and empower themselves.
Finally, Andry Sophocleous extends the discussion to multidialectism, with preschool teachers in Cyprus empowering their students by allowing them to speak Cypriot Greek as they gradually learn Standard Modern Greek.
This volume's diverse chapters all demonstrate multilingualism's potential to transform society and empower certain speakers. In their conclusion, the editors rightly point out that work on empowerment is more relevant than ever in today's world. This excellently edited book not only achieves considerable progress with regards to examining multilingualism and empowerment, but will likely serve as inspiration for future work on these topics—both within and outside of Europe.
