Asymmetrical power relations

Finally, this beautiful volume, published with Language Science Press, is available online!

Global and local perspectives on language contact, edited by Katrin Pfadenhauer, Sofia Rüdiger and Valentina Serreli (University of Bayreuth), brings together a series of papers resulting from a conference held online in September 2021 entitled “Language Contact Through Time and Space”. The studies deal with very different geographical and linguistic spaces, including Bulgaria, Israel, Morocco, Mexico, Canada and Oman. In addition, two papers by researchers from the University of Basel are published in this volume: “The discursive construction of code-switching in Yanito among the young population of Gibraltar”, by Marta Rodríguez García, as part of the first section entitled “Globalization and power relations”; and my own chapter: “Asymmetrical power relations between languages of Equatorial Guinea: Views from the migration context in Madrid”, in the third section on “Migration and language contact”.

As we can read in the book’s synopsis: “A particular focus lies on contact between languages of unbalanced political and symbolic power, language contact and group identity, and the linguistic and societal implications of language contact settings, especially considering contemporary global migration streams”.

Many thanks to the editors of this beautiful volume for their great work!