While the field of linguistics is far from an undifferentiated whole,¹ much linguistic theorizing over the centuries is unified by an understanding of linguistic patterns as being separate from individual and cultural knowledge. With the end of the Cold War, however, that conceptualization is seen as severely hindering our ability to address pressing problems on all levels of society. Among these are the concurrent demands for sophisticated levels of multiliteracies in the multicultural environment of the global information age, even as countries must deal with the consequences of dramatic migrations of entire ethnic groups and momentous country-internal demographic and economic shifts. All of these involve the ability to use languages competently in order for individuals and groups to participate in and contribute to the knowledge of societies, indeed in order to enable the existence of a viable multicultural civil society.