Books by Jan Blommaert

The authors draw on their experiences in explaining the complexities of ethnographic fieldwork as a knowledge trajectory. They do so in an accessible way that makes these complexities easier to understand and to handle. The 2nd edition of this bestselling book updates the 1st edition and includes a new postscript on ethnography in an online world.

Ethnography must be seen as a full theoretical system, not just as a method. In this book, a range of authors are examined, whose work was either instrumental in creating this theoretical system, or might productively be used in developing it further. Authors discussed include Hymes, Scollon, Kress, Bourdieu, Bakhtin and Lefebvre.

Tanzania is often seen as an exceptional case of successful language planning in Africa, with Swahili being spread to all corners of the country. Yet, this objective success has always been accompanied by a culture of complaints proclaiming its utter failure. State Ideology and Language in Tanzania sets out to explore this paradox through a richly documented historical, sociolinguistic and anthropological approach covering the story of Swahili from the early days of independence until today. Focusing on the ways in which Swahili was swept up in the 'Ujamaa revolution' - the transition to socialism led by president Nyerere - Jan Blommaert demonstrates how the language became an emblem not just of the Tanzanian 'cultural' nation, but above all of the 'political' nation. Using Swahili meant the acceptance of socialism, and the spread of Swahili across the country should equal the spread of Ujamaa socialism. When this did not happen, the verdict of failure was proclaimed on Swahili, which did not prevent the language from becoming one of the most widely used and dynamic languages on the continent.This book is a thoroughly revised version of the 1999 edition, which was welcomed at the time as a classic. It now extends the period of coverage to 2012 and includes an entirely new chapter on current developments, making this updated edition an essential read for students and scholars in language, linguistics and African Studies.

Superdiversity has rendered places, groups and practices complex and the usual tools of analysis need rethinking. Using an innovative approach to linguistic landscaping, the author investigates his own neighbourhood from a complexity perspective and demonstrates how multilingual signs can be read as chronicles documenting the histories of a place.

An eminently readable analysis on the rhetoric of the 'tolerant majority' - those who view themselves as being open to a diverse society; a rhetoric that is prevalent throughout the news media and political world.