ABSTRACT
This chapter scrutinizes how current sociolinguistic research at the Chair “Languageculture in Limburg” at Maastricht University is conducted by outlining three case-studies investigating regional and social identity construction. Makkinga reveals how processes of in/exclusion take place through address terms in a nursing home; Pecht highlights how a combination of social factors has influenced language mixing in a former coal mining community in Belgium; and van de Weerd sheds light on how students at a Dutch secondary school negotiate their “multi-ethnic” context by constructing social boundaries and negotiating the implications of category membership. Our research is characterized by an interdisciplinary approach, by a focus on languagecultural practices in the periphery in the context of globalization, and by close attention for societal concerns.
