Language, Global Mobilities, Blue-Collar Workers and Blue-collar Workplaces

This collection explores how language is used and managed in blue-collar workplaces, shedding light on power relations and the broader role of language in constructing meaning. It integrates theoretical and methodological approaches with empirical data from diverse workplaces, making it valuable for students and researchers in critical sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, sociology, and linguistic anthropology.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 258 pages
Publication date: 30 May 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This comprehensive collection brings together a diverse range of global perspectives that critically explore the multifaceted ways in which language serves as a valuable resource in various blue-collar workplace settings within the context of the modern, globalized economy. By focusing on these environments, the book delves deeper into the informal processes through which top-down language policies unfold in diverse multilingual contexts, ultimately resulting in asymmetrical power dynamics between employees and employers. By incorporating the latest debates on poststructuralist theories of language, the volume expands its conceptualization of language to encompass a broader spectrum of multilingual and multimodal resources and communicative practices. These resources and practices intertwine in unique and diverse ways to shape meaning-making in the workplace. Moreover, the book's unique emphasis on these workplaces highlights previously less visible domains of work, presenting methodological challenges that arise from studying them. By integrating a diverse range of theoretical and methodological approaches, along with empirical data derived from a wide array of blue-collar workplaces, this book offers invaluable insights to students and researchers in critical sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, sociology, and linguistic anthropology.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367642730