This book presents cutting-edge research into the complex interrelationships between linguistic diversity and ideology. It provides insight into how institutions and individual stakeholders carry ideologies forward into the discursive space through policies, propaganda or individual perceptions and reflections. The chapters focus on different European localities (UK, Central Europe, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Italy), social actors (migrant communities, citizens, and policy-makers), and institutional contexts such as public bodies (European, national) and private enterprises. Understanding ideology as a social act of conceptualization, the book contributes to the growing interdisciplinary body of linguistic research into the social theory of meaning and change.

Erzsébet Barát is Associate Professor of Gender Studies and Social Linguistics at the University of Szeged (Hungary). Her research interests cover critical studies of discourse, relational models of identity, the relationship between language, power and ideology, and feminist critical theory. Patrick Studer is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (Switzerland). He takes a particular interest in style as a theoretical concept as well as a perspective that can be applied to a wide range of communicative contexts involving the diffusion and transformation of knowledge. Ji?í Nekvapil is Associate Professor at the Institute of General Linguistics at Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic), where he specializes in sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. His current research focuses on multilingual practices in companies, language management, and the structures of relevance in biographic narratives.