-Author 's manuscript. May differ from published version. Please see: Nilep, Chad, 2006. "Book review: Negotiation of Identity in Multilingual Contexts." Journal of Pragmatics 38(2), 276-281. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2005.02.001 Negotiation of Identity in Multilingual Contexts presents a broad view of issues related to language contact, multilingualism, and language and identity. The book's eleven chapters draw data from five continents, and use a range of qualitative analyses, including participant observation and ethnographic methods, interviews, and discourse analysis. Theoretical perspectives are also somewhat varied, though the volume's editors, Aneta Pavlenko and Adrian Blackledge, see all of them united under the heading of 'post structuralism'. Certainly, the authors all take a clear-eyed, more or less critical view of the societies they analyze, the functions of language varieties within these societies, and the interrelationship of language and identity, broadly defined. Of course, the broadness of definitions of identity – or worse, the lack of systematic definitions – can be a problem for studies that claim to treat the subject. Fortunately, the contributions to this volume do share at least a general definition. In their introduction, the editors declare, "We view identities as social, discursive, and narrative options offered by a particular society in a specific time and place to which individuals and groups of individuals appeal in an attempt to self-name, to selfcharacterize, and to claim social spaces and social prerogatives." By locating identity within particular social settings, and allowing individuals to position themselves through more or less ratified practices, this definition provides the volume with a suitably specific subject and unites the various contributions. Post-structural analyses such as those presented here are sometimes criticized for implying a lack of agency on behalf of individual subjects. The contributions here are aware of this issue: eight of the eleven papers include some discussion of agency and the role of individual actors. While the volume doesn't provide an ultimate working out of the complex interaction of individuals and the organizing principles that encompass them, it does not avoid the issue. In their introduction, the editors declare, "Individuals are agentive beings who are constantly in search of new social and linguistic resources which allow them to resist identities that position them in undesirable ways, produce new identities, and assign alternative meanings to the links between identities and linguistic varieties" (27). There is tension, though, between this statement and the editors' assertion that some identity positions may be assumed without negotiation, while others are imposed and non-negotiable, leaving only a portion of identities to be negotiated. This seems to relegate agency to the position of resistance, an unnecessary narrowing. It would, one assumes, be interesting to examine the mechanisms by which identities are imposed or assumed, as well. The unifying focus of the papers gathered here is on negotiated identities. While important early work may have treated social categories as more or less fixed positions, scholars have for some time thought of identity rather as a social accomplishment, enacted through the practices of individuals within the strictures of particular societies. Negotiation of Identity in Multilingual Contexts begins with the assumption that the practices and positions of individuals are limited within their social and historical context, while at the same time being continuously renegotiated. The range of identities available to any individual is indexed by particular practices, especially linguistic behavior and the selection of language varieties. Language varieties are valued differently in the linguistic market, and this dissimilar valuation is related to the unequal status of individuals and groups within a given society. It is somewhat unfortunate, given the linking of identities to status and to the linguistic marketplace, that the editors seem to make a distinction between the negotiation of identities and other forms of social negotiation. They allow, "In some contexts, where power relations are relatively stable, dominant interpretations and identity options may reign uncontested, at least temporarily. As a result, linguistic practices in these contexts may be better understood in sociopolitical and economic terms, rather than in terms of identity" (19). It is not necessary to draw such a sharp separation between politics, economics, and identity as is apparent here. Indeed, identity formation and the links between linguistic practices and social positions would seem to be tied up with issues of politics and economics, especially in terms of hegemonic power and the imposition of -Author 's manuscript. May differ from published version. Please see: Nilep, Chad, 2006. "Book review: Negotiation of Identity in Multilingual Contexts." Journal of Pragmatics 38(2), 276-281. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2005.02.001 certain identities. For example, several contributions to this volume (e.g., Blackledge, Chapter 2; James and Woll, Chapter 4; Giampapa, Chapter 6; Kanno, Chapter 11) discuss the relationship between language use and the construction of race and/or gender, while others (Doran, Chapter 3; Kinginger, Chapter 7) illustrate links between language, identity, and class. In fact, Jennifer Miller (Chapter 10) presents an effective and illuminating discussion of the relationship between individual speakers and the linguistic marketplace (though, like many scholars, she seems to view this notion more as a useful metaphor than as a link between language practice and economics). Moreover, it seems counter-productive to avoid discussion of "dominant interpretations." The investigation of such positions, and the mechanisms by which they gain and maintain dominance, is both theoretically and analytically interesting, and politically important. Indeed, as the examples above suggest, several chapters do consider these dominant ideologies. In fact, the editors' own investigations of ideologies of monolingualism both in this volume and elsewhere (e.g., Blackledge, 2000; Pavlenko, 2002) provide effective analyses of politically and economically dominant positions. The persistence of rhetoric that seems to separate economic and political issues from an understanding of identity, however, is regrettable. The editors point out that a possible locus of the negotiation of identity is in the links between language varieties and the statuses or positions they index. Renegotiation of such links is seen, for example, in crossing (Rampton, 1998). Meredith Doran's contribution to the volume (Chapter 3), discusses crossing and similar renegotiations in relation to Verlan, a nonstandard French language variety. Not present in this volume is discussion of similar renegotiations in "polyphonic" identities such as the queer identity practices discussed by Barrett (1998). It is unfair, though, to judge a volume on analyses that it does not contain. The editors' discussion of the links between practices and positions, and the possibility of renegotiating these links, is appreciated, and leads the reader toward avenues for additional consideration. The book contains an introduction and 11 chapters. In Chapter 1, "'The Making of an American': Negotiation of identities at the turn of the twentieth century," Aneta Pavlenko analyzes the memoirs of US immigrants published between 1901 and 1935. These individuals were able to reimagine American national identity to include Southern and Eastern European immigrants within the fold (though, as Pavlenko points out, non-Europeans still had no access to this negotiation process). At the same time, while national origin was being renegotiated, linguistic affiliation does not appear as an area of controversy within these texts. This stands in opposition to the memoirs of more recent immigrant writers, where issues related to language use or bilingualism are often sources of conflict. This chapter gives one of the clearer glimpses of the relationship between a dominant group (here, the US mainstream of the early twentieth century) and a dominated subgroup (immigrants). Pavlenko illustrates how the central tension of this relationship has shifted over the decades from a negotiation about national origin or ethnicity early in the century, to debates about language and multilingualism at the end of the century. Chapter 2, "Constructions of identity in political discourse in multilingual Britain," is Adrian Blackledge's analysis of events leading to the introduction of the Nationality, Immigration, and Asylum Act in 2002. A series of 'race riots' in the north of England in 2001 were linked in parliamentary debates to "the established tradition [among Asian men] of bringing wives . . . from the sub-continent who . . . often have no English." Blackledge explores how semiotic links are forged between speaking English and 'good race relations,' and how this, in turn, leads to 'common sense' requirements that all British citizens speak English. Meredith Doran investigates the use of Verlan by minority youths in Chapter 3, "Negotiation between bourge and racaille: Verlan as youth identity practice in suburban Paris." Verlan is a language variety characterized by a mixture of standard French with elements from Arabic, English, and Romani, along with reversals such as meuf for femme 'woman.' The suburban youth who speak Verlan use it as a resource to enact a 'third space' between the monolingual, monocultural French -Author 's manuscript. May differ from published version. Please see: Nilep, Chad, 2006. "Book review: Negotiation of Identity in Multilingual Contexts." Journal of Pragmatics 38(2), 276-281. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2005.02.001 (imagined) community and la racaille, minority ghetto youths. These young people are able to assert ethnic, class, and cultural "difference without stigma" (106). Doran uses interviews and observational data to paint a complex picture of her subjects' language practices, using minority languages at home, Verlan among peers, and Standard French with others. For "Black Deaf or Deaf Black? Being Black and Deaf in Britain," Melissa James and Bencie Woll interview 21 British Black Deaf individuals aged 18–35. All are bilingual in British Sign Language and English. Transcripts of the interviews are analyzed, and major themes are reported. The chapter is not primarily interested in the linguistic practices by which these subjects negotiate their identity, but in categories to which informants seem to belong. Subjects are categorized as either Black Deaf, those who identify strongly with Black culture; Deaf Black, those for whom Deafness is a more important source of identity and culture; and subjects with 'cosmopolitan' identity who resist either label. Jean Mills also employs interviews in her analysis of "Mothers and mother tongue: Perspectives on self-construction by mothers of Pakistani heritage." Mills' subjects are British women of Pakistani origin. Through interviews, these women reveal how issues of language use are tied up with ideals of being a good mother. Chapter 6, "The politics of identity, representation, and the discourses of self-identification" is Frances Giampapa's critical ethnography of three individuals inhabiting the periphery of Canadian and Italian Canadian worlds. Giampapa describes the lives of three self-identified Italian Canadians who resist dominant ideas of what that designation means in terms of religion, sexuality, and language use. These subjects challenge an imposed identity, while still claiming a position within the realm of italianità. The book's five latter chapters are located within the realms of schooling or the academy. In "Alice doesn't live here anymore: Foreign language learning and identity reconstruction," Celeste Kinginger analyzes the writing as well as interview statements of a working-class American woman studying French as a foreign language. She illustrates the interconnectedness of gender and class identity with linguistic practices in second language acquisition. Like Kinginger, Benedicta Egbo interrogates language learning and its links to gender, here focusing on "Intersections of literacy and constructions of social identities." By examining literate and non-literate women in Nigeria, Egbo also draws connections to aspects of individual and group identities in a post-colonial setting. She reveals that literate women experience a relatively high living standard and degree of social influence, compared to their non-literate peers. Literacy is seen as necessary but not sufficient to ameliorate the repression of these women. Chapter 9, "Multilingual writers and the struggle for voice in academic discourse," is Suresh Canagarajah's examination of the strategies used by multilingual writers in presenting academic essays. Canagarajah takes a comparative approach, considering three novice writers and three expert multilingual writers. The chapter offers a taxonomy of the strategies writers may use to negotiate identity conflicts within their writing. Five strategies are discussed: A writer may choose not to foreground identities, a practice Canagarajah calls 'avoidance.' She may practice 'accommodation,' adopting a voice in line with dominant discourses. Conversely, a writer may align with less dominant vernacular voices through 'opposition.' Multilingual writers may also negotiate new positions via 'appropriation,' infusing the dominant academic discourse with elements from the vernacular, or 'transposition,' effectively creating a new discourse style that uses the writer's 'non-native' outsider status to effectively engage with discourses of the majority. Canagarajah encourages second language writers and teachers to acknowledge conflicts within discourse styles, and to use this tension to create unique, independent, and critical voices. Jennifer Miller studies migrant students in Queensland, Australia, who use their second or third language to claim social position. "Identity and language use: The politics of speaking ESL in schools" introduces the concept of 'audibility,' which Miller defines as "the degree to which -Author 's manuscript. May differ from published version. Please see: Nilep, Chad, 2006. "Book review: Negotiation of Identity in Multilingual Contexts." Journal of Pragmatics 38(2), 276-281. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2005.02.001 speakers sound like, and are legitimated by, users of the dominant discourse" (291). Schools provide a central venue for newly arrived migrants to find an acceptable voice with which to impose reception (Bourdieu, 1977) and thereby become authorized as members of society. Ultimately, Miller argues, the individual speaker's competence cannot be divorced from the linguistic market in which exchanges take place. Audibility requires speaking in a variety that will be judged acceptable by other speakers. Miller suggests that schools may shift some of the responsibility for audibility from language minority speakers to other communication participants. This shift needs to include institutional practices, curriculum, and pedagogical practices. Yasuko Kanno's "Sending mixed messages: Language minority education at a Japanese public elementary school" suggests that institutional practices designed to welcome second language students into a community of speakers may not be sufficient. Kanno shows how individual teachers and the principal at an elementary school in a working class neighborhood near Tokyo nurture Japanese as a Second Language students by communicating the value of their first languages and their experiences as immigrants and members of minority ethnic groups. Despite these collaborative relations of power, however, the school's curriculum and other practices exert a coercive power over language minority students. For JSL students, Japanese language instruction takes priority over content teaching. This language instruction is often intellectually undemanding, and separated from content learning. As a result, despite teachers' efforts to nurture students' 'identity of competence,' the school forces language minority students into a position of incompetence. Sadly, teachers, administrators, and other adults are apt to attribute these students' underachievement on measures such as standardized tests to the students' own inadequacy, failing to interrogate their own competency or the effectiveness of their educational practices. Overall, Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts provides a very useful, analytically solid set of investigations. At the same time, the chapters in this volume advance the theory and understanding of identity and language practice. The book makes useful links between diverse subfields, including education, applied linguistics, ethnography, and social theory. The book represents an important contribution to our understanding of the interconnectedness of social practices, languages, and identities. Barrett, R., 1998. 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