
Language, Water, Power
Alastair Pennycook(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Will be published approx. on 18. June 2026
Book
Hardback
75 pages
978-1-009-73650-3 (ISBN)
Description
This Element is about language, water and power. It challenges the terracentric bias of much scholarship in language studies, suggesting instead that oceans and rivers should be central in investigations of language, history, culture, society and politics. Working through different engagements with water - swimming, surfing, sailing and diving - this Element explores how thinking in and with water can transform our understandings of justice, power and language. By taking water seriously as both a social and material category, hydrosocial perspectives draw attention to the ways modern water and language are controlled, restricted, standardized and contained. A hydrocolonial lens focuses on the centrality of water in colonial regimes, the oceanic origins of creoles and the need to decolonize control and conceptions of water. For critical hydrosocial language studies language is entangled in an inequitable watery world, and language study from below is a form of spiritual, material and embodied engagement.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
ISBN-13
978-1-009-73650-3 (9781009736503)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Alastair Pennycook
Language, Water, Power
Book
approx. 06/2026
Cambridge University Press
€22.50
Not yet published
Person
Content
1. From bottled water to water languaging; 2. Swimming laps: modern water and filtered languages; 3. Bodyboarding at Bronte: language and embodiment; 4. Sailing through the heads: hydrocolonial relations; 5. Watching Weedies 20 metres down: other worlds; 6. Critical hydrosocial language studies; References.