ABSTRACT
Throughout the twentieth century, family multilingualism research has been shaped by various disciplinary traditions and their corresponding theoretical underpinnings and methodological approaches. Only recently has the field begun to embrace critical and Southern perspectives. In this chapter, insights from decoloniality, Southern epistemologies, and Southern theory are drawn upon to discuss certain limitations of underlying assumptions in current investigations of language practices in the home. Reframing discussions around language socialization, immigration, and family-making from the analytical vantage point of Southern approaches urges us to engage with local histories and epistemologies and to explore how these are shaped by local/global experiences of colonialism. Particularly, the review of studies of language practices of families in immigrant communities across geopolitical locations presented in this chapter probes Northern understandings of the notion of ‘family’ against Southern experiences of family-making. Moreover, viewing the hierarchization of social classes, race/ethnicity, and gender/sexuality as foundational to colonialism and modernity can help us explicate the structures of inequality that families engaged in contemporary South–North transnational flows need to navigate. The chapter concludes with a discussion on employing Southern frameworks in investigations of family multilingualism as a step towards incorporating social and epistemic justice into the field as it flourishes into further transdisciplinarity.
