The ultimate beginnings of this book lie in the interest that we the editors have expressed in the role that socioeconomic structures have played in determining the varying language choices speakers make in situations of language contact and multilingualism. Contrary to the received doctrine in...

"Communication as work: we have recently experienced a profound transformation in the processes of production. While the assembly line (invented by Henry Ford at the beginning of the last century) excluded any form of linguistic productivity, today, there is no production without communication....