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Arnaut, K., Blommaert, J., Rampton, B., & Spotti, M. (2015). Introduction: Superdiversity and sociolinguistics.
Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315730240
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Download date: 16. Aug. 2022
Paper
Introduction:
Superdiversity and sociolinguistics
by
Ben Rampton
©
(King’s College)
Jan Blommaert
©
(Tilburg University)
Karel Arnaut
©
(KU Leuven)
Massimiliano Spotti
©
(Tilburg University)
ben.ramptonl@kcl.ac.uk j.blommaert@tilburguniversity.edu
karel.arnaut@soc.kuleuven.be m.spotti@tilburguniversity.edu
March 2015
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/
1
Introduction:
Superdiversity and sociolinguistics
Ben Rampton, Jan Blommaert, Karel Arnaut and Massimiliano Spotti
This book brings together some of the work developed in a network of sociolinguistic research
groups that have collaborated for several years, with ‘language and superdiversity’ as a broad
thematic heading.
1
This introduction sketches (1) what we mean by ‘superdiversity’ and why we see
it as a useful cover term; (2) key features of our approach and our collaboration; and (3) areas linked
to superdiversity, where further work seems especially important (securitisation and surveillance).
1. Superdiversity: What and why?
Over the past two and a half decades, the demographic, socio-political, cultural and linguistic face of
societies worldwide has been changing due to ever expanding mobility and migration. This has been
caused by economic globalisation and by major geopolitical shifts – the collapse and fragmentation
of the Soviet communist bloc, China’s conversion to capitalism, India’s economic reforms, the
ending of apartheid in South Africa. The effects are a dramatic increase in the demographic structure
of the immigration centers of the world. These places are also now no longer restricted to ‘global
cities’ such as London or Los Angeles, but also include smaller provincial locations. The following
charts show these evolutions in the Belgian coastal town of Ostend between 1990 and 2011 (Maly
2014).
2
Figure 1: The population of Ostend, 1990 (© Ico Maly 2014)
3
Figure 2: The population of Ostend, 2000 (© Ico Maly 2014)
Figure 3: The population of Ostend, 2011 (© Ico Maly 2014.)