Abstract
This issue brings together a collection of essays on the most prevalent approaches to the analysis of linguistic practices in institutional contexts in the light of the social and communicative changes that have taken place in late modernity. The articles explore institutional discourse in public and private institutions with special attention to the provision of services in relatively new and developing multicultural contexts. From their different analytic perspectives and institutional environments, the analyses illustrate how communicative practices have been modified in order to adapt to the new ways in which capitals, production, management, the markets, the labour force, information and technology are organised in this global era via flows which cut across national borders.