Abstract

What happens in globalised social contexts if people identify with a language that is not traditionally considered to be ‘their’ language? This unique contribution to the field of sociolinguistics scrutinises language ideologies of German and Australian Communities of Practice constituted by Salsa dance and asks what languages symbolise in transnational, non-ethnic cultures. Using ethnographic methodology and a deconstructive approach to language it examines these different Salsa communities and gives insight into the interaction of social discourses from local, national and transnational realms, examining differences, similarities and a simultaneous multiplicity of languages’ symbolic functions. This book will be welcomed by postgraduates, professional sociolinguists and linguistic anthropologists as well as scholars of cultural anthropology, sociology and cultural studies who are interested in the development of modernist categories in transnational culture.

Salsa, Language and Transnationalism is a unique and complex study about the deconstruction of the relationship between language ideologies and a cultural practice in transnational contexts. The novelty of this book lies in the object of study: while most studies have placed the center of attention on certain ethnic/national groups, Britta Schneider focuses on communities based on a Latin or Hispanic cultural practice – salsa dance in Germany and Australia. The research in these transnational salsa communities successfully stays away from the essentialist approach and abstains from the traditional “one-to-one” mapping of language and identity. At the same time, with the use of ethnographic observation and discourse analysis, the author moves beyond the national language discourses and offers an insightful discussion of the co-constitution of societal and cultural discourses and language ideologies in transnational salsa communities.

In this light-footed, fast-turning study (language is as language does), Britta Schneider takes us into the salsa classes of Sydney and Frankfurt, asking why it is that these Latin cultural practices may or may not be accompanied by Spanish. This original and intriguing book asks what language means to people, what ideologies inform these understandings of language, and how these views on language are connected to other cultural practices, such as dancing.

Schneider’s book serves as a model for future ethnographic research into other diverse communities of practice in which one may seek to explore language use and ideology as co-constructed by its participants. She also provides a solid research survey for anyone interested in language and identity, as well as a methodological introduction to the tools of discourse analysis in sociolinguistics. It is a comprehensive contribution to the field in one situated context, making the concepts and theories easier to grasp for those new to the fields of applied linguistics and sociolinguistics.

By tracing transnational movements of Spanish together with salsa, Britta Schneider finds her way into a subtle, language-centered approach to globalization. Dancing between Germany and Australia, partnering ethnography with social critique, she has written an account which is interesting for its particulars, but also important as an argument for thinking about language together with bodily practices in new projects of global modernity.

Britta Schneider is Lecturer in the Department for English Language and Literature at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Her research interests include sociolinguistics of globalisation, language ideology, language policy, epistemology of language and multilingualism, and superdiversity.

This book empirically justifies the theoretical necessity to reimagine the notion of language in the globalizing social system, which leading sociolinguists have called for in the last decade. This book demonstrates several important points that resonate with existing studies of the sociolinguistics of globalization, such as decoupling of linguistic and cultural authenticity, multiple layers of language practices and ideologies, and commodification of language and culture. However, this book does not lose sight of the nation-states roles in language practices in the transnational context.

Locating language choice and multilingualism at salsa parties on two different continents, this book offers a fresh and engaging way of doing sociolinguistics in the 21st century. On this global tour we meet dancers who embrace cosmopolitan, consumerist and strongly individualist identities at the same time that they cannot quite shake off the identities and ideologies of the nation state.