Multilingualism in conflict: Investigating the linguistic landscape of Kenyan-Ugandan border towns

This study investigates the role of language in peace and conflict in Kenya-Uganda border towns through analysing the visibility of multilingualism within the linguistic landscape, and how this reflects the dynamics of peace and conflict in the area. This will be done by examining how intercultural communication and multilingual repertoires are visible in the landscape and whether it bridges linguistic differences in the multilingual area. We seek to answer the following research questions:

1) What languages make up the linguistic landscape in Busia and Malaba? 2) Are there any differences between the official linguistic landscape (road signs, government announcements) and the unofficial LL (e.g. posters, graffiti)? 3) What are community attitudes towards the visibility of languages within their environment?