Linguistic Practice Changing Condition

Rampton shows what sociolinguistics can add to the study of everyday language use as social circumstances shift. The work builds on ideas that Gumperz and Hymes developed in the 1970s and 1980s, and it argues that these ideas still help explain how power operates in ordinary talk in cities. It also contends that the same framework can help researchers map environments increasingly shaped by security concerns.

The book draws on a decade of collaborative work and spans disciplinary, interdisciplinary and applied research. It opens with core principles and methodology, then moves to empirically grounded arguments within urban sociolinguistics.

The closing studies examine communication that is securitised and communication that is not, with an eye to the challenges the future will bring.