This collection of essays examines sociolinguistic phenomena in a variety of marginal environments, providing both an overview of globalizaiton on the margins and a foundation for an expanded understanding of the processes of linguistic and cultural changes at work in these settings.

Chapter 1

Introduction:

Language and culture on the margins

Sjaak Kroon and Jos Swanenberg

Chapter 2

Redefining the sociolinguistic 'local':

Examples from Tanzania

Jan Blommaert

Chapter 3

Reterritorialization and the construction of margins and centers through imitation in Indonesia

Zane Goebel

Chapter 4

English in Asmara as a changing reflection of online globalization

Sjaak Kroon, Jenny-Louise Van der Aa and Yonas Mesfun Asfaha

Chapter 5

Gender performativity in virtual space:

Transglossic language practices of young women in country Bangladesh

Shaila Sultana

Chapter 6

The language and culture of New Kids:

Appreciation of and familiarity with online Brabantish identities

Jos Swanenberg

Chapter 7

Literacy acquisition and mobile phones in a South African township:

The story of Sarah

Fie Velghe

Chapter 8

Scaling queer performativities of genders and sexualities in the periphery of Rio de Janeiro in digital and face-to-face semiotic encounters

Luiz Paulo Moita-Lopes, Branca Falabella Fabrício and Thayse Figueira Guimarães

Chapter 9

Expanding marginality:

Linguascaping a Transcarpathian spa in south-western Ukraine

Petteri Laihonen and István Csernicskó

Chapter 10

Globalized linguistic resources at work:

A case study of a local supermarket in Finnish Lapland

Massimiliano Spotti

Chapter 11

Calypso music, globalization and plurilingualism in the Dutch Caribbean

Gregory Richardson

Chapter 12

Consuming English in rural China:

Lookalike language and the semiotics of aspiration

Xuan Wang

Sjaak Kroon is professor of Multilingualism in the Multicultural Society. He is a member of the Department of Culture Studies and Babylon, Center for the Study of Superdiversity at Tilburg University, The Netherlands. His main focus in research and teaching is on linguistic and cultural diversity, language policy, literacy and education in the context of globalization.

Jos Swanenberg is professor of Diversity in Language and Culture at the Department of Culture Studies and Babylon, Center for the Study of Superdiversity at Tilburg University, The Netherlands, president of the board of the Association of Applied Linguistics in The Netherlands and Belgium, and adviser on heritage, language and culture at Erfgoed Brabant (Cultural Heritage Foundation) in 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.