Book Review: Durkheim and the Internet

Authors

Andrew Jocuns

Publication Date

2019-01-01

Abstract

Jan Blommaert's Durkheim and the Internet: On sociolinguistics and the sociological imagination is a timely reflection on relating one of the great thinkers in sociology to the field of sociolinguistics. One of Blommaert's points throughout this work is how sociolinguistics has done a great job at focusing upon the linguistic aspects of the field, but has often not paid attention to, or not made a stronger contribution to, the field of sociology. This book is a strong theoretical account in which Blommaert introduces some of the main concepts of Emille Durkheim and how those can be applied to sociolinguistics. In addition, Blommaert introduces us to some theories based on this work in relation to on-line/off-line worlds Sociolinguistically. Sociolinguists of English as well as English teachers who have an interest in researching language on-line may find this work particularly useful. In what follows I offer a summary of the five chapters that make up this book and then offer a case study of a popular Thai video Bloggers Loukgolf's English Room analyzing it based on Blommaert's theory and relating it to the field of Global English.

First Page

209

Last Page

223

Recommended Citation

Jocuns, Andrew (2019) "Book Review: Durkheim and the Internet," PASAA: Vol. 57: Iss. 1, Article 9.
Available at: https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/pasaa/vol57/iss1/9