Commodification or shared ownership? A case study of Chinese communities in the linguistic landscape of Bendigo

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofang Yao
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Landscape Studies ◽  
Semiotic Resources ◽  
Institutional Forces ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Lived Spaces ◽  
Shared Ownership

Abstract Current linguistic landscape studies of tourism are primarily concerned with the commodification of languages, and less attention is focused on ownership discourses that are constructed in tourist spaces through varied semiotic resources. This study employs a spatial perspective to analyse commodification and ownership in the linguistic landscape of Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, focusing on how these discourses materialise in the conceived, perceived, and lived spaces through the semiotic resources of Chinese communities. Built on a comprehensive dataset of photographs, field notes, interviews, and archived materials, this study reveals the agency of Bendigo’s Chinese community members, who claim ownership of semiotic resources despite the institutional forces seeking to commodify Chinese cultural heritage for tourist consumption. Examination of Chinese heritage sites demonstrates the possibility of shared ownership of Chinese semiotic resources among Chinese and non-Chinese residents in an Australian cultural tourism context. This balancing act of commodification and ownership constitutes a critical part of the lived experiences of Chinese communities in today’s era of mobility and globalisation.

Complexity perspectives on linguistic landscapes

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josep Soler-Carbonell
Keyword(s):  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Landscape Studies ◽  
Semiotic Resources ◽  
Scalar Analysis

Linguistic landscape studies (LLS) have become popular tools to investigate multilingual settings; yet they often lack theoretical elaboration. This paper tries to contribute to filling this gap by combining the postulates of complexity theory with the concept of ‘scale’. Taking Tallinn as a case study, I conceptualise scales as nodes of complexity, dynamically produced and reproduced by the inter-connection of different agents in interaction. The results show a significant degree of language heterogeneity in Tallinn’s LL, but one that adopts different forms in different places, something that indexes the diverse types of mobility in those settings. What appears as multilingual messiness becomes logically coherent when we look at how different semiotic resources are mobilized to co-construct different scalar frameworks. In conclusion, it is argued that a scalar analysis informed by a complexity perspective can be beneficially exploited for theoretical and methodological purposes in LLS.

Change and continuity in Hurstville’s Chinese restaurants

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Zhan Xu ◽  
Wei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Landscape Studies ◽  
Chinese Restaurant ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Restaurant Owners ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Sydney Australia

Abstract This paper investigates the Linguistic Landscape of Chinese restaurants in Hurstville, a Chinese-concentrated suburb in Sydney, Australia. It draws on Blommaert and Maly’s (2016) Ethnographic Linguistic Landscape Analysis (ELLA) and Scollon and Scollon’s geosemiotics (2003). Our data set consists of photographs, Google Street View archives, and ethnographic fieldwork, in particular in-depth interviews with restaurant owners. This paper adopts a diachronic perspective to compare the restaurant scape between 2009 and 2019 and presents an ELLA case study of a long-standing Chinese restaurant. It aims to unveil the temporal and spatial relationships between signs, agents, and place, that demonstrate how a social and historical perspective in Linguistic Landscape studies of diasporic communities can shed light on the changes in the broader social context.

A layered investigation of Chinese in the linguistic landscape

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 302-336
Author(s):  
Xiaofang Yao ◽  
Paul Gruba
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Language ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Landscape Studies ◽  
Block Area ◽  
Landscape Research ◽  
Layered Approach ◽  
A Site

Abstract Increased attention to urban diversity as a site of study has fostered the recent development of linguistic landscape studies. To date, however, much of the research in this area has concerned the use and spread of English to the exclusion of other global languages. In a case study situated in Box Hill, a large suburb of Melbourne, we adopted a layered approach to investigate the role of Chinese language in Australia. Our data set consisted of hundreds of photographs of street signage in one square block area of the shopping district. Results of our analyses show that signage portrays a variety of code preferences and semiotic choices that in turn reveal insights into the identities, ideologies, and strategies that help to structure the urban environment. As demonstrated in our study, such complexity requires a renewed and situated understanding of key principles of linguistic landscape research (Ben-Rafael & Ben-Rafael, 2015).

Die Sprachlandschaft des schulischen Raums

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jannis Androutsopoulos ◽  
Franziska Kuhlee
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Location ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Landscape Studies ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Spatial Differences

Abstract The study of signage in educational settings (‘schoolscape’) is a recent development in linguistic landscape research. Some approaches to schoolscapes focus on signs in schools of various types, which are coded for formal and functional characteristics, including language choice. Other approaches examine signs alongside spatial practices, e. g. the arrangement of furniture and classroom activities, thereby taking the viewpoints of teachers, students and parents into consideration. The research presented in this paper centers on school signs. We propose an analytical framework for schoolscape research which integrates the geosemiotic framework by Scollon and Scollon (2003), the classification of school signage by Gorter and Cenoz (2015), the notion of ‘sign genres’ from linguistic landscape studies and text linguistics, and a context-sensitive approach to spatial differences within educational institutions. Our framework includes four interlocking levels of examination: (a) discourses, i. e. knowledge-and-power configurations, indexed by a sign; (b) genres by which a discourse is materialized in space; (c) a sign’s precise spatial location, e. g. a classroom as opposed to the school foyer, and (d) the semiotic resources that are routinely deployed for various genres of school signage. Empirical evidence comes from a case study of a secondary school in Hamburg, with more than 550 signs photographed and coded. The paper presents an exhaustive analysis of this data in terms of seven discourses, each materialized by a number of genres and with a specific spatial distribution in the school. The potential of this framework for future schoolscape research is discussed.

Memories and semiotic resources in place-making

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nhan Phan
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Place Making ◽  
Local Resident ◽  
Activity Spaces ◽  
Semiotic Resources

Abstract This paper explores how semiotic resources are used to build individuals’ place-making during a walk around the Old Quarter in Hanoi, Vietnam. Using Lefebvre’s (1991) spatial triad as the perceived, the lived and the conceived, the paper uses a case study of a local participant and myself to consider how our differing perspectives affect place-making. I show how the local resident makes meaning using perceived resources in the here-and-now as backdrops for the lived, presented via his recounting of memories of activity spaces. I then contrast how these memories differ from the researcher’s place-making, where the conceived affects how I perceive the significance of visual resources on signs in the here-and-now. The study shows the value of Lefebvre’s (1991) triad for explaining the conflicting generalisations researchers have made about the nature of what is seen in the linguistic landscape or about the roles played by linguistic landscape in defining place.

The utility of non-formal education in addressing the school dropout phenomenon : a case study of Asifundeni Secondary School in Makonde District Zimbabwe

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-69
Author(s):  
Francis Muchenje ◽  
◽  
Pedzisai Goronga
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
School Dropout ◽  
School Level ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Secondary School Level

The study sought to explore students' views on the utility of non-formal education in addressing the school dropout phenomenon at secondary school level. Qualitative research approach was adopted and a case study design was utilised. The population consisted of all the students in the non-formal programme at the school from which a sample of 11 students (2 male and 9 female) was selected through purposive stratified sampling technique. Data were gathered through structured in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Non-formal education was seen to address the school dropout phenomenon by providing school drop outs with an opportunity to continue their education and hence becomes a form of empowerment. A number of challenges such as lack of adequate tuition in some subjects, lack of conducive learning environment as well as negative perception of non-formal education held by pupils in the formal stream and community members were identified. The study recommends that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education should review the staffing situation in schools to ensure the availability of teachers in the various subjects in the non-formal stream. Schools should make an effort to provide appropriate learning facilities for students in the nonformal stream. Furthermore, schools should conscientise their communities on the importance of non-formal education.

scholarly journals Photovoltaics Enabling Sustainable Energy Communities: Technological Drivers and Emerging Markets

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1862
Author(s):  
Alexandros-Georgios Chronis ◽  
Foivos Palaiogiannis ◽  
Iasonas Kouveliotis-Lysikatos ◽  
Panos Kotsampopoulos ◽  
Nikos Hatziargyriou
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Energy Market ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Local Energy ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Open Research ◽  
Energy Community

In this paper, we investigate the economic benefits of an energy community investing in small-scale photovoltaics (PVs) when local energy trading is operated amongst the community members. The motivation stems from the open research question on whether a community-operated local energy market can enhance the investment feasibility of behind-the-meter small-scale PVs installed by energy community members. Firstly, a review of the models, mechanisms and concepts required for framing the relevant concepts is conducted, while a clarification of nuances at important terms is attempted. Next, a tool for the investigation of the economic benefits of operating a local energy market in the context of an energy community is developed. We design the local energy market using state-of-the-art formulations, modified according to the requirements of the case study. The model is applied to an energy community that is currently under formation in a Greek municipality. From the various simulations that were conducted, a series of generalizable conclusions are extracted.

scholarly journals Intrinsic Value and Perceived Essentialism of Culture Heritage Sites as Tools for Planning Interventions

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5078
Author(s):  
Magdalena Roszczynska-Kurasinska ◽  
Anna Domaradzka ◽  
Anna Wnuk ◽  
Tomasz Oleksy
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Design Changes ◽  
Culture Heritage ◽  
Response To Change

In order to remain alive and relevant, cultural heritage sites have to react and adapt to changing context in a coherent manner, i.e., in a way that is in line with the memory and identity of the place. The incoherent changes, i.e., the transformations that according to the local community do not agree with a character of a place, can be destructive for the long-term vitality of urban cultural heritage. In this study, we test which factors influence social acceptance of different alternations within the context of urban historical gardens that might, in turn, ensure the resilience of the place. Our study focuses on the intangible qualities of the place measured by intrinsic value, perceived essentialism and anti-essentialism as important predictors shaping the response to change. The correlational study was conducted using an online questionnaire designed to empirically grasp intangible qualities of cultural heritage sites. Five hundred twenty-nine responses were included in the analysis. The study shows that perceived historic value, inherent value (uniqueness and importance of the place) and (anti-)essentialist character of a place capture the differences between parks well and enables the finding of interventions that are coherent with a site’s genius loci. Measuring intangible qualities of urban gardens can help to design changes that find higher approval among local community members and users of the site. We discuss how the analysis of an intrinsic value and essentialism allows for planning better spatial interventions that align with the human-centered approach to urban development.

scholarly journals Qualitative Fire Vulnerability Assessments for Museums and Their Collections: A Case Study from Kosovo

Fire ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Charlotte Fafet ◽  
Erinë Mulolli Zajmi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Risk Awareness ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Vulnerability Assessments ◽  
Suppression Systems ◽  
Simulation Exercises

Fires are among the most frequently recurring hazards affecting museums and cultural heritage sites. The fires of the National Museum of Brazil in 2018 and of Notre Dame de Paris in 2019 showed that the consequences of such events can be heavy and lead to irreversible heritage losses. In Kosovo, few studies were made about the risks that can affect cultural heritage sites. A project led by the NGO Kosovo Foundation for Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB Kosova) in 2018 explored the most prevalent risks for the cultural heritage sites of the country and highlighted fire as a predominant risk in Kosovo. In order to better understand it, vulnerability assessments were conducted in several museums in Kosovo. Data were collected through field visits in the different museums, in which interviews with staff members as well as observations were conducted. The aim of this paper is to present the main results of the fire vulnerability assessments conducted in Kosovo’s museums in 2018. An important aspect of this project is the approach to collect information in data-scarce environments. It is believed that the questionnaires used to lead interviews with museums’ staff members could help other practitioners to collect data in such contexts and evaluate more easily the risk of fire for the museums and their collections. In the context of Kosovo, one of the main findings is the identification and prioritisation of measures to ensure better protection of Kosovar museums. Structural mitigation measures such as alarm and fire suppression systems are not the only elements necessary to improve the resilience of Kosovar museums to fire. Indeed, the promotion of risk awareness, the training of staff members and the realisation of crisis simulation exercises are just as important in order to prevent and detect a fire, and above all, to respond quickly and accurately if a fire occurs.

Mirroring Empowerment: Exploring Structural Barriers to Volunteer Motivation Fulfillment in an All-Female Youth Sport Program

2021 ◽  
pp. 089976402110345
Author(s):  
Alaina C. Zanin ◽  
Katrina N. Hanna ◽  
Laura V. Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Youth Sport ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Organizational Mission ◽  
Female Youth ◽  
Sport Teams ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Volunteer Coaches

This study utilizes structuration theory to reveal how volunteer coaches in an all-female youth sport program describe barriers and agency to their organizational mission of athlete empowerment. The dataset in this ethnographic case study comes from volunteer coaching experiences within two youth sport teams. Ethnographic data included field notes from four volunteer coaches, collaborative interviews, archival organizational documents, as well as athlete and parent interviews. A qualitative analysis, informed by structuration theory, revealed specific legitimate, dominant, and symbolic structures that enabled and constrained volunteer and youth athlete empowerment within the teams. The analysis also revealed a process of mirroring empowerment, a novel theoretical concept, which describes how athletes reflected back their own empowerment to empower volunteer coaches. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document