This volume emerged out of a series of workshops and colloquia, all focused on language, place, identity, and belonging, and is organized into three parts, each one introduced by an expert commentator. The first part, ‘Interpersonal relations, place, and belonging’, focuses on the language of groupness and underlines the need for contextualizing the construction of identity and belonging by grounding it in the micro-level of language use (Jürgen Jaspers, p. 25). An excellent example of this kind of micro-analytical approach is Bambi B. Schieffelin's chapter on how children in Bosavi, Papua New Guinea use place-names as acts of identification in their participation in everyday conversations. Maintaining a focus on interactional data, Anna Banaś investigates the linguistic construction of inclusive/exclusive categories in a group of Japanese immigrant women in the Netherlands. Similarly, Peter Auer & Leonie Cornips look at a linguistic variety used by miners in a Belgian village, arguing that its use serves to symbolically construct group identity, rather than simply practical communicative needs.
The second part, ‘Parodic performances from the margins’, emblematizes one of the strongest points that the volume makes: the need for a more nuanced sociolinguistic analysis of how spatialized power relations are locally constructed and negotiated. Kathryn A. Woolard's exceptional introduction to the section offers an overview of the literature on the center-periphery analytic frame and problematizes unquestioned assumptions regarding fixed relations between the two. The three papers presented here are examples of well-grounded—theoretically, methodologically, and interpretatively—analyses of how speakers transgress peripheralization through parodic language. Both Lotte Thissen's study on a carnival celebration in a Dutch village and Irene Steng's analysis of the linguistic strategies of a world-famous Dutch musician question the center-periphery model, pointing instead to a triangle (national center – periphery – globe) and the dynamic relations operating within it. Along with Tanja Petrović’s analysis of the creative combination of discursive resources materialized in a Serbian Facebook page, analyses show how subversion of the periphery is achieved through humor and parody, revealing political aspects of language use. Overall, not only does the section delve deeper into place-making processes as informed by geopolitics, but it also highlights the social effectiveness of humor, as well as the risks that such a strategy entails (Kathryn A. Woolard, p. 123).
The last part, ‘Agency in linguistic place-making’ introduced by Barbara Johnstone, foregrounds linguistic reflexivity as a ‘big part of the story about why linguistic variation persists’ (210). Malene Monka's quantitative and qualitative analysis of dialect leveling in two Danish areas, Pia Quist's work on the use of unofficial place-names in hip hop and graffiti practices in Denmark, and Kathryn A. Ramlinger's account of how dialectic features are re-signified as a product of tourist developments in Canada, contribute to this goal.
Place has always been a popular topic in sociolinguistics, operating in various ways within different analytical approaches. The present collection enriches this body of work, highlighting a wide range of linguistic data in various national contexts, as well as creative and—in some case—novel methodological approaches. As such, it showcases promising directions for future sociolinguistic research in this area.
