This volume investigates the changes undergone by written communication in our globalized world as English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). The latter usually functions as a language for communication purposes, but also becomes a language for identification purposes. The study takes into account different web-genres: from the replication of existing genres in other media to cybergenres, whose key evolutionary force is the progressive exploitation of the new functionalities afforded by the new medium. The variety of the contexts of use has made it possible to consider different ELF-using communities of practice, whose members adopt ELF and adapt it to express individual, national and professional identities in international interactions. The analysis focuses on lexicogrammatical innovations, which inevitably change in accordance with the different contexts of use, as well as on the communicative strategies underpinning these changes.

Over the last few years there has been a burgeoning interest in both space and place as linguistic phenomena. Some of this interest stemmed from studies on the situatedness of language and speech in time and space and how deixis anchors speech to a context. Both our frame of reference with respect to surrounding space and how we conceive and describe it are closely linked to the language we speak. This is why different cultures perceive spatial relations differently, with speakers of one language, for instance, encoding spatial relations with respect to absolute directions while speakers of a different language use egocentric terms. This book focuses on space, place and the discursive construction of identity in the present, globalized era, where technological developments are causing a change in the perception of spatial boundaries and geographical locations, and identities are experienced in hitherto unknown ways.

Globalization, i.e. the spatio-temporal processes of change leading to a transformation in the organization of human affairs, is said to have started as long ago as the end of the 15th century. This first wave of globalization was subsequently followed by two others. The third wave of globalization, which began after 2000, has made the world noticeably smaller. In fact, technological innovations have sharply increased the availability of new modes and channels of communication. As a result, the sharing of knowledge and information all around the world has substantially increased and this has prompted the emergence of new `globalizing genres'. In addition, it has led to the implementation of a series of adaptations to the existing genres, in an attempt to guarantee their success and survival in an era which celebrates the need for a `global reach'.In order to investigate these `winds of change' in generic studies, the present volume combines a historical perspective with a detailed survey of different contemporary discourses and genres situated in an array of contexts of interaction. Accordingly, the empirically informed analyses of discourses and genres do not only focus on the textual, intertextual and interdiscursive features, but also on the institutional, organizational, professional and socio-cultural settings, i.e. all those aspects which show how genres reflect changing disciplinary and professional cultures.As a consequence, and in line with the multi-faceted nature of genre, different reading paths can be followed in the present volume. On the one hand, it is possible to make a distinction between professional, institutional and academic contexts. On the other hand, the concept of change will also be investigated by focusing on oral, written and web-mediated genres. Throughout the volume, the different reading paths aim at highlighting the influence of the three waves of globalization on genre evolution, thus contributing to providing evidence in favour of the homogenization or fragmentation hypotheses, which claim new `global genres' are outnumbering, or are outnumbered by, the proliferation of a myriad of new, customized genres.