Digital superdiversity in Luxembourg: The role of Luxembourgish in a multilingual Facebook group

Abstract

The concept of superdiversity (Vertovec, 2007) is useful for describing the linguistic and demographic situation of Luxembourg. Luxembourg has a historically trilingual language situation incorporating Luxembourgish, French and German. In addition to this, the growth of the financial sector has increased the presence of English as a lingua franca. In addition to changing migration patterns, new online phenomena also influence language and communication practices in Luxembourg. This paper analyses digital communication practices related to superdiversity in a Facebook group associated with Luxembourg. Although the main purpose of this group is to facilitate the gifting of consumer goods, it has the side-effect of promoting intercultural and multilingual contact among diverse residents of Luxembourg. The paper focuses on how communication is organised between the diverse members of the group, based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of language practices over the first eighteen months of the group׳s existence. The analysis illustrates how language became an issue with the growth of the group, shows how members׳ language practices changed over time, and highlights the role of the group administrators, who intervened to regulate incidents within the group and facilitate group communication. The paper also considers how technical features of this particular digital environment impact on communication practices within the group. The results of the analysis show that language practices of group members tend inexorably towards homogenisation rather than diversification, putting into question the relationship between a superdiverse context and superdiverse communicative practices.