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Article published In:
Occupy: The spatial dynamics of discourse in global protest movements
Edited by Luisa Martín Rojo
[Journal of Language and Politics 13:4] 2014
► pp. 653–674

Mobilities of a linguistic landscape at Los Angeles City Hall Park

 | City University of Hong Kong |
In this article, I expand a category of linguistic landscapes, the signs by individuals in public spaces, to include another form of linguistic landscape even more transgressive in nature and intent: the panoply of protest signs produced and mobilized by the Occupy Movement during the Fall of 2011 at Los Angeles City Hall Park. My data are drawn from the photographs I took of these signs at the Park and the near vicinity, a YouTube video of a protest sign, a blog commenting on this sign, and a political cartoon using the same image featured on two other signs. I explore how social actors drew upon and mediated specific discourses in their protest signs that became transportable across time and space, the role of these signs in transforming public space, and this linguistic landscape’s ensuing mobilities in its mediated relocations to online social media sites and blogs.
Keywords: linguistic landscapes, space, mobility, allusion, social media, mediated discourse analysis, Occupy Movement
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The production of spaces
  • 3.Following the objects: A methodology
    • 3.1Data analysis
  • 4.Mobilities of a linguistic landscape
    • 4.1Looking at the “Class warfare” sign
  • 5.The monopoly guy
  • 6.Occupy and its discourses – what and where now?
  • Acknowledgement
  • References
Published online: 20 February 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.13.4.04chu
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Velásquez Urribarrí, Jessica
2023. Resemiotisations across time, space, materials and modes: an analysis of political signage in Venezuela. Social Semiotics 33:1 ► pp. 25 ff. DOI logo
Lou, Jackie Jia & Adam Jaworski
2016. Itineraries of protest signage. Journal of Language and Politics 15:5 ► pp. 609 ff. DOI logo

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