The burgeoning field of the Linguistic Landscapes (LL) renders this review of the field most timely. The authors themselves note the exponential growth in studies employing the approach (10), where their count of publications displays an increase from thirty studies in 2007, to a total of about 1,300 studies at the time of the book's publication. As they (rightly) note, LL appears to be making its way into university curriculums, attracting the interest of junior and senior scholars alike. This is an impressive development for a relatively new subfield, and its widespread take-up is perhaps one way in which the merit of the paradigm is ratified.
In the first two chapters, the book begins with a valuable discussion of the origins of the field, considering how the term ‘LL’ came into being. Durk Gorter & Jasone Cenoz are, of course, two pioneering researchers themselves, and in a box on page 44 they present summaries of four classic studies, including their own 2006 study on the Basque Country and Friesland. Another useful box on page 3 discusses the oft-cited and almost mythical Landry & Bourhis (Reference Landry and Bourhis1997) quote, helpfully pointing out that the term ‘LL’ predated the 1997 article in other languages. Gorter & Cenoz ask: ‘is it acceptable to see the translation of an existing term into English as the first use of the term, or as inventing a whole new discipline?’ (4); in chapter 2, this idea is further expanded upon where great detail is provided on studies employing the principles of LL in the 1970s and 1980s, before the early-2000s when the field was ‘properly’ established (cf. 40). This historicization of the field is an original, comprehensive, and useful resource to anyone, especially those new to the field and teachers who teach courses on the discipline. As such, the common attribution of 1997 as a starting point is given much further nuanced treatment, and it would be appropriate for forthcoming studies to reconsider this ‘fact’. In chapter 1.4, there is some discussion on the competing terms ‘linguistic’ vs. ‘semiotic’ landscape, and the authors approach this distinction most diplomatically, suggesting that LL researchers ‘have rarely if ever argued for hard dividing lines or a need for orthodoxy’ (17). This calls to mind the generosity I particularly associate with the LL scholars I have met and personally know, and an intellectual openness willing to incorporate theories from other fields of study outside linguistics, easily evident in the variety of work that has resulted.
Chapters 3 and 4 discuss theory and method respectively, a somewhat difficult distinction but which the authors approach neatly. Chapter 3 describes concepts that underlie LL studies, including sociological concepts, Scollon & Scollon's well-regarded theory of geosemiotics, theories of space often drawing from human geography, pragmatics, contact linguistics, and history. It is also in chapter 3 that the authors introduce their model, which they call MIIPS, short for ‘Multilingual Inequality in Public Spaces’ to propose a ‘comprehensive way to be inclusive’ (81) in the field. Containing ‘five component parts that are conceived as the connected dimensions of an interlocking chain’ (81), the model provides a useful paradigm as a way of understanding the field as a whole, although in my own experience it is often the case that studies only manage to engage with some of the five parts described in the MIIPS model. It will be interesting to observe the uptake of this model among scholars in the near future. Chapter 4 describes research methods both quantitatively and qualitatively, again diplomatically arguing for the validity of both approaches. Chapter 5 continues with the question of photography, key to LL research, providing discussion on how the affordances of cameras and photographs are consequential to LL data and analysis.
The subsequent chapters provide a thematic look into LL studies themselves, serving as a comprehensive literature review. This thematic look is of course complicated by the fact that many studies engage with more than one theme, although thematic foci can be observed in individual articles. Chapter 6 considers the theme of multilingualism, which underlies nearly every LL study. Chapter 7 looks at the theme of minority languages, related to multilingualism, and again a major theme of LL work. The later part of the chapter reviews work conducted in particular contexts, which will be immediately useful to those looking for a review of studies from a certain area or place. The ‘place’ of Chinatown is appended to the end of this chapter, and the summary of many studies concerning global Chinatowns on page 216 is a useful snapshot. Chapter 7.6 considers the question of commodification; in my view this could easily have been expanded into a separate chapter, of course, notwithstanding the limitations of (publication) space.
A return to the field's origins is made in chapter 8, which considers the theme of language policy, pointing out how pioneering LL researchers including Bernard Spolsky and Elena Shohamy have extensively engaged with the question of language policy in their work. Like chapter 7, particular contexts are discussed in detail. Chapter 9's focus on English is structured along the lines of Braj Kachru's model of concentric circles of World Englishes; I found this a somewhat dated way of conceiving the spread of English. The authors themselves concede this, citing criticisms of the model whilst consciously opting to retain the model as a structuring device for the chapter due to its supposed usefulness in the LL paradigm (255), as the circles are ‘still somewhat accepted and used’ (256). While it is certainly a convenient model, I suggest that the vastly disparate post-colonial contexts of English use render it largely inaccurate today, and perhaps an alternative structure might have avoided this distraction in the chapter.
Chapter 10 looks at the theme of education. I would certainly consider work on education and LL a major emerging thread in LL research, in part evident from the theme of the 13th Linguistic Landscape Workshop, ‘Semiotic landscapes in educational spaces’, organized by the Universität Hamburg in 2022. The possibilities for LL as a pedagogical tool for learning English and other languages, as well as meta-discursive knowledge are discussed here. A helpful case example of the use of LL as an assignment in a master's degree program should provide inspiration for others to do the same. A student's feedback read, ‘it was totally different to see my same everyday environment with different lenses’ (330), aptly capturing how understanding the LL paradigm is really about a way of seeing. The following section discusses ‘schoolscapes’, studies featuring signs found in classroom settings. Finally in chapter 11, the last thematic chapter, the question of names is discussed where an overlap between the fields of onomastics and LL is explored. Questions surround the classification of names into various languages, an issue that easily arises when considering commercial signage in multilingual contexts, as well as how social change can be observed when (place) names are displayed in particular varieties.
The last chapter reflects on the overall development of the field, noting the tension for a young field wishing to leave its boundaries transparent, while considering that there has indeed been some crystallisation among common themes, which the authors believe they have captured in the respective chapters. The topic of technological development is given some attention here, and perhaps a further question worth asking is whether fully online environments and social media sites warrant the attention of LL researchers in the same way as offline contexts do. The topics of borderlands, gentrification, gender and sexuality, and graffiti, presented as emerging topics in this section, certainly in my view have already emerged as contemporary themes in LL research and a further discussion of these themes might hopefully make it into a sequel or second edition to this volume.
Overall, this weighty tome provides an incredible overview into the field and succeeds in being both macro and micro at the same time, zooming in and out at opportune moments. Most impressive is its inclusion and consideration of a great number of LL studies, no doubt in part aided by a lovingly maintained bibliography of LL research (Troyer Reference Troyer2023), even though the scale of the field means that a completely comprehensive overview of the field exceeds the constraints of a single volume. It is certainly an invaluable resource to both current and new researchers in the field, providing inspiration for future research as well as methodological development. Alongside the authors, I look forward to the continued flourishing of this promising area of applied linguistic research, both in terms of the breadth and depth of studies which are being published as we speak. The open access nature of the publication contributes to the democratic ethos of LL research, allowing scholars from even broader contexts inroads into the field.
