In South Africa, the township or sub-economic state housing development has achieved a very significant position as a site for sociolinguistic research. The Semiotics of New Spaces – Languaging and Literacy Practices in one South African Township looks at the ways in which people are responding, through their semiotic practices, to the intense socio-historical changes taking place in post-apartheid South Africa. The study is set against the backdrop of Wesbank – one of the first racially mixed housing developments in the Western Cape. The result is a range of related topics, such as how cross-cultural and crosslinguistic families influence the language practices of their younger members; the impact of translingual friendships on language practices and attitudes; the ways in which older people use their existing literacies to negotiate the multilingual realities of the township and aspects such as identity, voice and agency as markers of a developing participatory citizenship.

Kaaps as Afrikaanse omgangsvarieteit word deur verskillende outeurs vanuit diverse invalshoeke betrag. Die boek beslaan nege hoofstukke in twee afdelings wat onderskeidelike die taalkundigheid en die kontekstuele gebruike van Kaaps bekyk. Dis gebaseer op referate wat gelewer is by die eerste simposium oor Kaaps in 2012. Kaaps word in die boek voorgehou as ’n waardige, talig genuanseerde en lewenskragtige vorm van Afrikaans. Die ekonomiese potensiaal van Kaaps en die benutting daarvan as onderwys- en joernalistieke medium word ook bespreek.