Occupy: The spatial dynamics of discourse in global protest movements

Front Cover
Luisa Martín Rojo
John Benjamins Publishing Company, May 11, 2016 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 180 pages
Large-scale protest movements have recently transformed urban common spaces into sites of resistance. The Arab Spring, the European Summer, the American Fall in 2011, the revolts in India and South Africa and, more recently, in Istanbul, in several cities in Brazil, and in Hong Kong, are part of a common wave of protests which reclaims squares and urban places, monumentally designed as political and economic centres, as places for discussion and decision-making, for increasing participation and intervention in the governance of the community. Through banners and signs, open assemblies, and other communicative practices in the encampments and interconnecting physical and virtual spaces, participants permanently reconfigure their lived spaces discursively. The attempt to account for on-going social phenomena from the moment they first happen, and with an international perspective, undoubtedly represents a theoretical and methodological challenge. This book is a successful and innovative attempt to address this challenge, capturing the complex interplay between social, spatial, and communicative practices, drawing on complementary and alternative methods. Originally published in Journal of Language and Politics issue 13:4 (2014).
 

Contents

Occupy
1
The Geosemiotics of Tahrir Square
23
Taking over the Square
47
Mobilities of a linguistic landscape at Los Angeles City Hall Park
77
Identity as space
99
The Occupy Assembly
127
Spatial practices and narratives
157
Index
179
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