A Review of Natalia Bichurina, Gory, yazyk i nemnogo sotsialnoy magii: opyt kriticheskoy sotsiolingvistiki [Mountains, Language аnd а Little Social Magic: аn Experience оf Critical Sociolinguistics]. St Petersburg: EUSP Press, 2021, 288 рp.

Abstract

The book presents results of longitudinal fieldwork in the Alpine region on the border of France, Italy and Switzerland, called “the country around Mont Blanc” by the locals and “Arpitania” by political activists. The study is based on rich data including field notes, observations, interview notes, as well as a variety of texts collected by the author. The book convincingly demonstrates how, as a result of socio-cultural processes—as well as political and scientific projects—a group of idioms begins to be recognized as a language—Francoprovençal, or Arpitan. The study was carried out in the spirit of critical ethnographic sociolinguistics, which involves the critical analysis of collected field data as well as of the researcher’s position. The analysis of a specific multilingual situation implements this approach (for the first time in Russian), as well as other contemporary approaches, such as critical analysis of discourse, historical linguistics, linguistic anthropology, and models of nation and cross-border communities. The book thus can be used as a textbook and become an inspiration for sociolinguistic and anthropological research of any community.