Semiotic landscape in a green capital
The political economy of sustainability and environment
In the wake of the ‘climate apocalypse’ global discourse, the environmental agenda of the European Green Deal and
the overarching objective for the European Union are to deliver a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the
environment. European cities are under pressure to reinvent urban environments and develop resilience to environmental risks. This
paper looks at semiotic material appearing in Essen, a city in Germany awarded the European Green Capital title. Grounded in the
multimodal social semiotic approach and ecolinguistics, the paper investigates strategically emplaced ‘green’ semiotic material
which shape environmental values and privilege. The paper illustrates the political economy of city clean-ups which every so often
result in questionable environmental choices and fail to alleviate social inequalities. The analysis ultimately shows how semiotic
forms of sustainability are evidently implicated in the creation of urban eco-arenas accentuating the socioeconomic stratification
and privileges of valorized places.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Inventing Green Cities: The political economy of sustainability and environment
- 3.Methodology
- 4.Saving German(y) cities
- 5.Making (up) the green
- 6.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
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