This book discusses salient moments of multilingual encounters and brings together contributions focused on the interplay between language use by individuals and societies, and language-related inequalities or opportunities for speakers. The chapters demonstrate how biographical and speaker-centred approaches can contribute to an understanding of linguistic diversity, how researchers can empirically account for lived experiences of languages, and how such accounts are embedded in a larger discussion on social (in)equality. Together the chapters make a powerful case for the importance of speaker-centred methodologies in multilingual and multilingualism research. The book is a rich source of theoretical and methodological reflections and will thus be a valuable resource for both experienced researchers and students beginning to explore biographical research methods.

This brilliant contribution to language research reframes our understanding of linguistic repertoires, diversity and (in)equality in multilingual societies. Through creative and thought-provoking ideas, it inspires researchers to think differently regarding the creation of knowledge about speakers and their languages. A must-read for anybody interested in speaker-centred approaches to language. * Isabelle LeBlanc, Université de Moncton, Canada *
This volume is both a sophisticated theoretical orientation to language biographical research and a practical methodological guide, encompassing the history and on-going development of this vibrant cross-disciplinary area. Researchers seeking to engage with inequalities, shifting categories, and the socio-political and emotional lives of speakers will find inspiration and guidance. * Haley De Korne, University of Oslo, Norway *

As a qualitative methodologist who studies multilingualism, I found the volume’s methodological variety enlightening, the theoretical and conceptual lenses enriching, and the examination of minority, Indigenous, deaf, post-apartheid, and post-colonial language users’ lived experiences refreshing.

Judith Purkarthofer is a Junior Professor in the German Studies Department at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. She holds a PhD from the University of Vienna, Austria, and has completed postdoctoral work at the Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan of the University of Oslo, Norway, and at Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany. She carries out ethnographic and biographic research in families, schools and kindergartens.

Mi-Cha Flubacher is a Postdoc-University Assistant in the Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, Austria. She is the author of Language Investment and Employability: The Uneven Distribution of Resources in the Public Employment Service (with Alexandre Duchêne and Renata Coray, 2018, Springer) and the editor of Language, Education and Neoliberalism: Critical Studies in Sociolinguistics (with Alfonso Del Percio, 2017, Multilingual Matters).