3. Fundamentals of Urban Semiotics: Exemplified by Examples taken from the Chinese City
-
Dieter Hassenpflug
Abstract
Following the influential studies on sociological and spatio-political analysis by Henri Lefebvre (1991), sociology focuses on the semiotics of urban space as advocated for by Mark Gottdiener (1994). The production of urban space is primarily regarded as the result of cultural negotiations, ideological orientations, and political conflicts. Urban semiotics is thus part of theorizing in urban sociology. Rather than following urban sociology and its concept of space, this article presents an intercultural approach that leans heavily on the practices employed in architecture, urban planning, and construction. The sociocultural aspects of the physical and architecturally structured urban space are especially important here. Urban semiotics must therefore move in the direction of morphogenetic and theoretic architectural approaches as proposed by Wolfgang Wildgen (2013) and Umberto Eco (1979). This article sketches a conceptual framework for urban semiotics that includes intercultural perspectives and ideas from urban planning theory. Urban planning and construction in China will exemplify and stress the socio-cultural dimension in the analysis of the urban space. The resulting contrastive perspective on urban planning theory can thus be seen as a constitutive part of a theory of urban planning that includes the relevance of space.
Abstract
Following the influential studies on sociological and spatio-political analysis by Henri Lefebvre (1991), sociology focuses on the semiotics of urban space as advocated for by Mark Gottdiener (1994). The production of urban space is primarily regarded as the result of cultural negotiations, ideological orientations, and political conflicts. Urban semiotics is thus part of theorizing in urban sociology. Rather than following urban sociology and its concept of space, this article presents an intercultural approach that leans heavily on the practices employed in architecture, urban planning, and construction. The sociocultural aspects of the physical and architecturally structured urban space are especially important here. Urban semiotics must therefore move in the direction of morphogenetic and theoretic architectural approaches as proposed by Wolfgang Wildgen (2013) and Umberto Eco (1979). This article sketches a conceptual framework for urban semiotics that includes intercultural perspectives and ideas from urban planning theory. Urban planning and construction in China will exemplify and stress the socio-cultural dimension in the analysis of the urban space. The resulting contrastive perspective on urban planning theory can thus be seen as a constitutive part of a theory of urban planning that includes the relevance of space.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Inhalt V
- Urban Linguistics: Ideas and Anchor Points 1
-
I Bezugsfelder der urbanen Linguistik/ Fields of Reference of Urban Linguistics
- 1. Urban Variationist Sociolinguistics 33
- 2. ‘Rural’ and ‘Urban’ in Dialectology 52
- 3. Fundamentals of Urban Semiotics: Exemplified by Examples taken from the Chinese City 74
- 4. Experience as Moving Methodology: Notations on the Study of Urban Diversity 86
-
II Kommunikationsraum Stadt/ City as Communicative Space
- 5. Urban Communities of Practice 117
- 6. Neue Dialekte im urbanen Europa 137
- 7. Urbanes Place-Making und Sprechen über Musik 165
-
III Mobilität, Fluidität und Konstruktionen in städtischen Zeichenarealen/ Mobility, Fluidity and Constructions in Urban Semiotic Areas
- 8. Mobilities and Mobile Methods 191
- 9. Linguistic Landscapes 218
- 10. Semiotic Landscapes 245
-
IV. Historizität der Stadt im Diskurs/ Historicity of the City in Discourse
- 11. Folk Linguistics and the Nostalgia of the Past City 271
- 12. Historical Discourse about Cities 292
- 13. Polyhistorizität im öffentlichen Raum 311
-
V Experimente/ Experiments
- 14. Melancholy Objects Remixed: A Multimodal Counterstatement on Photography in Urban Linguistics 333
- 15. The HeiURBAN Database: A Brief and Unconventional Position Piece 394
- Index 415
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Inhalt V
- Urban Linguistics: Ideas and Anchor Points 1
-
I Bezugsfelder der urbanen Linguistik/ Fields of Reference of Urban Linguistics
- 1. Urban Variationist Sociolinguistics 33
- 2. ‘Rural’ and ‘Urban’ in Dialectology 52
- 3. Fundamentals of Urban Semiotics: Exemplified by Examples taken from the Chinese City 74
- 4. Experience as Moving Methodology: Notations on the Study of Urban Diversity 86
-
II Kommunikationsraum Stadt/ City as Communicative Space
- 5. Urban Communities of Practice 117
- 6. Neue Dialekte im urbanen Europa 137
- 7. Urbanes Place-Making und Sprechen über Musik 165
-
III Mobilität, Fluidität und Konstruktionen in städtischen Zeichenarealen/ Mobility, Fluidity and Constructions in Urban Semiotic Areas
- 8. Mobilities and Mobile Methods 191
- 9. Linguistic Landscapes 218
- 10. Semiotic Landscapes 245
-
IV. Historizität der Stadt im Diskurs/ Historicity of the City in Discourse
- 11. Folk Linguistics and the Nostalgia of the Past City 271
- 12. Historical Discourse about Cities 292
- 13. Polyhistorizität im öffentlichen Raum 311
-
V Experimente/ Experiments
- 14. Melancholy Objects Remixed: A Multimodal Counterstatement on Photography in Urban Linguistics 333
- 15. The HeiURBAN Database: A Brief and Unconventional Position Piece 394
- Index 415
