Introduction: Service provision in a globalised world

Rosina Márquez Reiter, Luisa Martín Rojo
2011 Sociolinguistic Studies  
This issue brings together a collection of essays on the most prevalent approaches to the analysis of linguistic practices in institutional contexts in the light of the social and communicative changes that have taken place in late modernity. The articles explore institutional discourse in public and private institutions with special attention to the provision of services in relatively new and developing multicultural contexts. From their different analytic perspectives and institutional
more » ... ments, the analyses illustrate how communicative practices have been modified in order to adapt to the new ways in which capitals, production, management, the markets, the labour force, information and technology are organised in this global era via flows which cut across national borders. Institutional discourse in general, and the discourse of service encounters in private and public sites has received a great deal of attention in recent years (see, for example, Arminen 2005; Collins and Slembrouck 2005; Dûchene and Heller forthcoming; McHoul and Rapley 2001; Rampton 2006; Risager 2006). Recently, Spain has experienced an influx in the flow of immigration from non-Spanish speaking countries, and therefore of speakers of languages other than Spanish (see, for instance, the National Immigrant Survey, published yearly by Instituto Nacional de Estadística). This has created a new multicultural reality, and as a result, there has been a burgeoning interest in the various discursive ramifications of this new multiculturalism in Spain (see, for example, Carmona 2007; Pérez Milans and Martín Rojo 2007; Moyer and Martín Rojo 2007; Affiliations
doi:10.1558/sols.v4i2.259 fatcat:szga2aec2fhdpa6jrcg4s226ge