Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity

by Jan Blommaert

Superdiversity has rendered familiar places, groups and practices extraordinarily complex, and the traditional tools of analysis need rethinking. In this book, Jan Blommaert investigates his own neighbourhood in Antwerp, Belgium, from a complexity perspective. Using an innovative approach to linguistic landscaping, he demonstrates how multilingual signs can be read as chronicles documenting the complex histories of a place. The book can be read in many as a theoretical and methodological contribution to the study of linguistic landscape; as one of the first monographs which addresses the sociolinguistics of superdiversity; or as a revision of some of the fundamental assumptions of social science through the use of chaos and complexity theory as an inspiration for understanding the structures of contemporary social life.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction

142 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

From my perspective, Bloomaert provides a fantastic way to use his influence from complexity and chaos theory to understand and advance both ethnography and linguistic landscape as methodologies. However, the beginning of the book is (as expected) heavy on theory - if you're struggling with this part of the text, try skipping ahead to see his analysis and then coming back to read the theory again.

Perhaps the single most useful thing I took away from this (in terms of linguistic landscape specifically) is the historicity of signs: the way they point to the past as an influencer, the way they indicate simultaneous infeluences in the present, and how they may be used to understand future influences or expectations of people who read them. Another useful perspective was the inherent nature of change and complexity within a structure: structures may show stability at a larger level, or change may be incorporated as part of a consistent structure, but at some smaller scale there is always tension and changes that, over time, will lead to the overall "stable" structure shifting. This is useful not just in linguistic landscape and ethnography, but a helpful consideration in any social science study or project.

[Selim Ben Said · Rating 4 out of 5]

An essential toolkit for people interested in urban multilingualism and 'superdiversity' and the study of social semiotics. Late Jan Blommaert eloquently maps out an ethnographic framework to understand and study the LL (i.e. Linguistic Landscape) and move beyond synchronic perspectives in sociolinguistic research. The book emerged from a decade-long (2003-2013) exploration of his own neighborhood (Oud-Berchem) in the vicinity of Antwerp and presents a non-linear and multilayered approach to conducting ethnography. What I would call an 'organic' approach to the study of street signs must - - as Blommaert argues - - include further nodes of analysis which include aspects of the neighborhoods' history, architecture, stories, people, and so forth.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an essential read for me for linguistic landscape research. Blommaert's book hinges on the necessity of moving past classical structuralism and purely quantitative methods of understanding cityscapes. He draws on the Scollons' research, including mediated discourse analysis, nexus analysis, and geosemiotics.
This book also addresses the need to understand multimodality and the context in which linguistic signs occur. It's a pretty thin book, but it covers a lot of material for people who are interested in taking an ethnographic approach to studying linguistic landscapes.

[Corinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly written, super interesting!!

[Jennifer Wiget · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting. a bit too complex for me at some times.