Mobilité. Histoire et émergence d’un concept en sociolinguistique. K.Ploog, A‐S.Calinon, N.Thamin, with the collaboration of C. De Gourcy, J‐F. Dupeyron, C. Mincke, Paris: L’Harmattan, Collection Espaces Discursifs. 2020. 352 pp., Pb (978‐2‐343‐18313‐8) 36€ (original) (raw)

2021, Journal of Sociolinguistics

This book is a stimulating contribution to sociolinguistics. MOBILITÉ ("MOBILITY" in French, which the authors have chosen to capitalize when it refers to literature) has become a major notion in contemporary sociolinguistics, used in various ways and in many different studies, but suffering a clear lack of conceptualization, as the term usually builds on a "presupposition", implicitly borrowed from different fields in the humanities. K. Ploog, AS. Calinon, and N. Thamin delve into the many uses of MOBILITÉ: in sociolinguistics (Chapters 1 and 4), in social discourse (Chapter 2) and in the humanities (Chapter 3). This analysis of the term then informs their own conceptualization (Chapter 5). Chapters 1 to 3 also include stimulating interdisciplinary highlights from different researchers (C. De Gourcy, J-F. Dupeyron, C. Mincke) adopting different perspectives (criminology, philosophy, sociology) on MOBILITÉ. These highlights open windows onto different and inspirational approaches potentially useful to sociolinguists interested in MOBILITÉ, whether or not they agree with the final proposal of the volume's authors. 1 In Chapter 1, the authors critique francophone sociolinguistic uses of the MOBILITÉ notion, through a strong discourse analysis of six major francophone sociolinguistics journals, 2 examining articles published between 2001 and 2014. Their aim is essentially to "trace the conceptual delimitation of the notion (…) in sociolinguistics" 3 (p. 20) drawing on multiple discourse analysis tools. MOBILITÉ is thus revealed to be "rarely defined in or for linguistics" (p. 19) and commonly euphemized through the use of quotation marks with no explicit quotation references (p. 22, 31); it remains a blurry concept (p. 26), which is sometimes in fact the stated preference of different researchers (p. 28). MOBILITÉ is regularly used in an obvious geographical way, mostly defining actual movement, and more rarely movement potential or dispositions. Vague and metaphorical use of the term MOBILITÉ elides the various relations often implied between geographic, linguistic, social, and psychological scales of mobility, making unclear how sociolinguists problematize it. For the authors, the lack of conceptualization of MOBILITÉ in sociolinguistics is so deep that it results in "irritating logical shortcuts" (p. 52). They describe the blurry use of the notion in the field, as "linguistic fashion, as inescapable as it is futile" while it tends to be permeable to "social discourse", offering "a space for ideology" (p. 54), and notably a neoliberal one. For the authors, MOBILITÉ is a notion "whose acceptation and interest for linguistics have still to be established" (p. 53). Chapter 2 then delves with more depth into the critiques proposed in chapter 1 and focuses on how sociolinguistic discourses on MOBILITÉ tend to be affected by social discourse (p.103) of which they explore the social and historical roots. They build their case by first examining French dictionaries in which MOBILITÉ historically tends to refer to a disposition or ability to move (or to change), rather than to an actual action of moving (or changing). Thus, MOBILITÉ, as much as MOBILE appears as "an activity stimulator" (p. 107). The next most common definition for MOBILITÉ refers to the