LAUSR

Driven by the increasing immigration and mobility flows across continents and evolution of information and communication technology (ICT), many cities around the world today become a ‘super-diversity’ (Vertovec, 2007). One consequence of this relating to language use is multilingualism, the ‘coexistence, contact and interaction of different languages’ (Li, 2013, p. 26). As multilingualism is increasingly an everyday reality in cities today (Cenoz, 2013), developing effective language policies (LP) has become an urgent issue for governments. Various terms, such as ‘polylingualism’, ‘translanguaging’ and ‘metrolingualism’, are proposed by different scholars to capture this new language practice (Gurney & Demuro, 2019). Nevertheless, to date, only a few publications have been devoted to urban multilingual policies and practices. Pioneering studies, such as Extra and Yagmur (2004), Duarte and Gogolin (2013), Siemund et al. (2013), and Pennycook and Otsuji (2015), have attempted to explore urban multilingualism from various perspectives in Europe and other cities in the world; however, these anthologies or monologues focus more on the language practices than on LP and reflect the multilingual scenario several years ago. The book under review, Urban Multilingualism in Europe: Bridging the gap between language policies and language practices, is a timely contribution to this line of inquiry by exploring the complex relationship between language policies and practices at different levels of social organisations. Apart from the introduction and conclusion, the volume consists of eight chapters by scholars with different disciplinary backgrounds. All these essays are originally presented at the symposium ‘Urban multilingualism in Europe: Bridging the gap between language policies and language practices’ in 2014. The introduction by the four editors offers readers a synopsis of the whole book, including its focus, aim, position, motivation, and an overview of each chapter. The conclusion recapitulates the gist of each chapter and outlines future research directions. The eight chapters are grouped into four parts, each of which focuses on one particular domain, as discussed in more detail below. Part 1 (Chapters 1 and 2) addresses the tensions between the existing language policies and emerging language practices. Janssens in Chapter 1 illustrates this conflict in Brussels. He points out that the current bilingual policy in Brussels’ capital region is still based on ‘The Belgian pacification model’ (15), whereas the successive Language Barometer surveys indicate that actual language use has shifted towards complex and dynamic ‘languaging’. This complexity and fluidity in communication practice is also corroborated by Mensel’s study (Chapter 6) in microlinguistic context. This model reflects the outdated ‘linguistic orthodoxy’ (Gurney & Demuro, 2019) and dominating monolingual ideal in linguistic ideology. In an attempt to frame an LP that can keep a balance between mobility and social inclusion, Janssens concludes that the top priority is to radically rethink our view of language, administration, and education. Chapter 2 by Catenaccio and Garzone follows up on the incongruity between LPs and practices in immigrant language education policy in Milan. Statistical data show the progressive rise of immigrant populations in the last two decades. Semi-structured interviews with educators, however, indicate that most of the activities aimed at promoting multilingualism and