Acknowledgements
Bujari gamarruwa Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura. I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation – Saltwater People – the traditional custodians of the country (land and water) around Warrane (Sydney Cove), where much of this book was written. I pay my respects to the Elders past, present and emerging, and recognize the importance for all of us of the knowledge they hold, and the significance of listening to what they have to say about language and other matters of concern.
‘Jede wissenshaftliche Arbeit, jede Entwicklung, jede Erfindung, ist die Frucht allgemeiner gemeinsamer Arbeit. Diese ist zum Teil eine Zusammenarbeit von Zeitgenossen, zum Teil eine Verwertung der Arbeiten früherer Geschlechter’ (Karl Marx, cited in Ahner, 1963).Footnote 1
Books always emerge from multiple collaborations, die Frucht allgemeiner gemeinsamer Arbeit, the fruit of general collective labour, sometimes, as Marx suggests, with Zeitgenossen, contemporaries, sometimes with the work of previous generations (früherer Geschlechter). Several major thinkers with whom I had long and lasting friendships and critical discussions have alas recently moved to become members of those previous generations no longer with us. As I write, we are mourning the death of Tim McNamara, a great intellectual who was always ready to engage in long and thoughtful discussions about language, poetry, art, deconstruction, life. We recently saw the departure of Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, such a fierce advocate for language rights. Bernard Spolsky, who did so much for language policy, will be sorely missed. And it is still hard to accept that as we constantly refer to Jan Blommaert’s remarkable body of work, he is sadly no longer with us.
Among the many contemporary thinkers, thanks first to Claire Kramsch, a long-term interlocutor on questions of language and (symbolic) power, who first invited me to contribute to this series. And to her co-editor, Zhu Hua, who has also been a collaborator with whom many of the ideas developed here first started to emerge (Zhu Hua et al., 2017). They have given me space to explore my ideas and have provided very helpful feedback on the first draft of this book. Anonymous reviewers also provided extensive and valuable commentary on the initial proposal. The team at Cambridge University Press – Becky Taylor and Izzie Collins – have been very supportive and made the publishing process smooth.
Books such as this – as Marx suggests – are the fruit of many labours and collaborative work, with colleagues both past and present. I am grateful to the members of MultiLing in Oslo (under directors Liz Lanza and Unn Røyneland) who have made many stimulating discussions possible through invitations, seminars and informal discussions. A summer school run by Gavin Lamb provided the chance to engage further with questions of posthumanism; Haley de Korne and Pia Lane have been insightful in discussions of Indigenous language reclamation, truth and reconciliation; Rafael Lomeu Gomes has been an important interlocutor on language and the Global South; Bente Svendsen has been very helpful in talking through the implications of citizen sociolinguistics; and Bjørn Torgrim Ramberg has been most generous in taking time to discuss at length, and for taking seriously, my questions about language, ontology and realism.
I’m also very thankful to all those who’ve been pushing forward thinking on assemblages, posthumanism, new materialism and related questions through seminars, papers, journal special issues, and so on, especially Britta Schneider and Theresa Heyd (the Unthinking Language project), and the various contributors and long-term collaborators on these ventures, such as Leonie Cornips, Ana Deumert, Kellie Gonçalves, Adam Jaworski, Catherine Kell, Annelies Kusters, Crispin Thurlow and Kelleen Toohey. I have also been fortunate to be part of an extended engagement on questions of ontology, and I thank Chris Hall and Rachel Wicaksono for that opportunity.
My two longtime collaborators and co-authors, Emi Otsuji and Sinfree Makoni, still inspire me with their constant ideas, suggestions and ongoing projects. The co-editors of our book series, Critical Language and Literacy Studies, Ryuko Kubota and Brian Morgan, have also provided a vibrant model of intellectual collaboration over many years. Critical colleagues with whom I have long been in dialogue are part of the background to this book: Samy Alim, Ros Appleby, Adrian Blackledge, David Block, Brigitta Busch, Suresh Canagarajah, Angela Creese, Sender Dovchin, Ofelia García, John Joseph, Li Wei, Beatriz Lorente, Stephen May, Lynn Mario Menezes de Souza, Tommaso Milani, Ricardo Otheguy, Sari Pietikäinen, Elana Shohamy, Kleber Aparecido da Silva, Shaila Sultana, Ruanni Tupas, Theo van Leeuwen and many others. And thanks as always to Dominique Estival, who asks many searching questions about what I write while also supporting my endeavours in multiple ways.
1 ‘Every scientific work, every development, every invention is the fruit of general common work. This is partly a collaboration of contemporaries, partly an exploitation of the labours of previous generations.’
