Cover not available

Article published In: The Linguistic Landscape of Covid-19:
Edited by Jackie Jia Lou, David Malinowski and Amiena Peck
[Linguistic Landscape 8:2/3] 2022
► pp. 184–201

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

A sign in the window

Social norms and community resilience through handmade signage in the age of Covid-19

ORCiD logo with link | San José State University
Published online: 1 September 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.21037.dou
Abstract
The proliferation of handmade signage, physical installations, and other neighborhood scale visual communication in the months following the outbreak of Covid-19 presented a unique opportunity to consider how new norms of social conduct and community solidarity are established and negotiated in public space. This study examines the cultural and spatial implications of this informal visual communication through street-level photographic analysis conducted over 18 months in communities around the United States, producing a typology of observed phenomena and highlighting differences across time, place, politics, and intentions. In particular, the author illustrates how the signs not only work to negotiate new norms for public conduct during a time of fear, misinformation, and inconsistent guidelines, but in doing so effectively demonstrate what a grassroots community response looks like to this unusual kind of extreme event.
Resumen
En los meses posteriores al estallido de Covid-19, la proliferación de carteles hechos a mano, instalaciones físicas y comunicaciones visuales al nivel del barrio presentó una oportunidad única para considerar cómo se establecen y negocian nuevas normas sociales y solidaridad comunitaria en el espacio público. Se examinan en este estudio las implicaciones culturales y espaciales de esta comunicación visual informal a través de un análisis fotográfico realizado durante 18 meses en comunidades de los Estados Unidos. Se produce una tipología de los fenómenos observados y se destacan las diferencias en el tiempo, el lugar, la política y las intenciones. En particular, se ilustra cómo los carteles/señales no solo funcionan para negociar nuevas normas sociales durante una época de miedo, desinformación y pautas inconsistentes, pero también que se desvelan de manera eficaz cómo es la respuesta comunitaria de base en momentos de crisis extraordinaria.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Street level photoethnography
  • 3.Social norms and disaster response
  • 4.Directive and Community Building signs
  • 5.A grassroots response to a public health emergency
  • Note
  • References
References (58)
References
Abuhashesh, M. Y.; Al-Dmour, H.; Masa’deh, R.; Salman, A.; Al-Dmour, R.; Boguszewicz-Kreft, M.; AlAmaireh, Q. N. (2021). The Role of Social Media in Raising Public Health Awareness during the Pandemic COVID-19: An International Comparative Study. Informatics 8(4): 80. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anfinson, A. (2020). Hong Kong’s Paper Cities: Heterotopia and the Semiotic Landscape of Civil Disobedience. In D. Malinowski and S. Tufi (eds.) Reterritorializing Linguistic Landscapes, 137–159. London: Bloomsbury. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Attardo, S. (2020). The Linguistics of Humor: An Introduction. London: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barsky, L. E., Trainor, J. E., Torres, M. R., & Aguirre, B. E. (2007). “Managing Volunteers: FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue Programme and Interactions with Unaffiliated Responders in Disaster Response.” Disasters, 31(4): 495–507. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berg, S. H., O’Hara, J. K., Shortt, M. T., Thune, H., Brønnick, K. K., Lungu, D. A., Røislien, J., Wiig, S. (2021). Health authorities’ health risk communication with the public during pandemics: a rapid scoping review. BMC Public Health, 21(1):1401. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chimuanya, L. & Ajiboye, E. (2016). Socio-Semiotics of Humour in Ebola Awareness Discourse on Facebook. In R. Taiwo, A. Odebunmi and A. Adetunji (eds.) Analyzing Language and Humor in Online Communication, 252–273. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Douglas, G. C. C. (2014). Do-it-Yourself Urban Design: The Social Practice of Informal ‘Improvement’ Through Unauthorized Alteration. City and Community, 13(1): 5–25. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). The Help-Yourself City: Legitimacy and Inequality in DIY Urbanism. New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(forth.). Research by the Seat of Your Pants: The Bicycle, the Camera, and the Sequential Case Method in the Study of Urban Informality. In H. Kamalipour, P. Aelbrecht, and N. Peimani (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Urban Design Research Methods. New York: Routledge.
Elias, N. (1994 [1939]). The Civilizing Process (Revised Ed.). Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ellickson, R. C. (1991). Order Without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1999). The Evolution of Social Norms: A Perspective from the Legal Academy. Yale Law School Program for Law, Economics and Public Policy, Working Paper 230. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Finset, A., Bosworth, H., Butow, P., Gulbrandsen, P., Hulsman, R. L., Pieterse, A. H., Street, R., Tschoetschel, R., & van Weert, J. (2020). Effective health communication – A key factor in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient Education and Counseling, 103(5), 873–876. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fleming, R. L. (2007). The Art of Placemaking: Interpreting Community Through Public Art and Urban Design. London: Merrell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fritz, C. E. & Mathewson, J. H. (1957). Convergence Behavior in Disasters: A Problem of Social Control. Committee on Disaster Studies, Disaster Research Group.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, J. P. (1965). Norms: The Problem of Definition and Classification. American Journal of Sociology, 70(5), 586–594. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gorter, D. (2006). Further Possibilities for Linguistic Landscape Research. In D. Gorter (ed.) Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to Multilingualism, 81–89. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). Methods and Techniques for Linguistic Landscape Research: About Definitions, Core Issues and Technological Innovations. In M. Pütz and N. Mundt (eds.) Expanding the Linguistic Landscape: Multilingualism, Language Policy and the Use of Space as a Semiotic Resource, 38–57. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gotham, K. F. (2012). Make it Right? Brad Pitt, Post-Katrina Rebuilding, and the Spectacularization of Disaster. In R. Mukherjee & S. Banet-Weiser (eds.), Commodity Activism: Cultural Resistance in Neoliberal Times, 97–113. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Horne, C. & Mollborn, S. (2020). Norms: An Integrated Framework. Annual Review of Sociology, 46 (1): 467–487. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kalocsányiová, E., Essex, R. & Poulter, D. (2021). Risk and Health Communication during Covid-19: A Linguistic Landscape Analysis, Health Communication. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kendra, J. M. & Wachtendorf, T. (2001). Rebel Food… Renegade Supplies: Convergence After the World Trade Center Attack. University of Delaware Disaster Research Center, DRC Preliminary Paper No. 316.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klein, N. (2008). The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klinenberg, E. (2002). Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. New York: Crown.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koslov, L. (2016). The Case for Retreat. Public Culture, 28(2), 359–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The Lancet. (2020). COVID-19: fighting panic with information (editorial). Lancet, 395(10224). 537. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Larsen, R. (2020). How to See the World When You’re Stuck at Home. The New York Times, 24 March 2020. Accessed 13 Feb. 2022 from [URL]
Lou, J. J., Peck, A. & Malinowski, D. (2021). The Linguistic Landscape of COVID-19 Workshop: Background. The Linguistic Landscape of COVID-19 (blog). [URL]
Lydon, M. & Garcia, A. (2015). Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action for Long-Term Change. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lyth, A., Spinaze, A., Watson, P. & Johnston, F. H. (2018). Place, human agency and community resilience – considerations for public health management of smoke from prescribed burning, Local Environment, 23:10, 975–990. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Madden, K. (2011). Placemaking in Urban Design. In T. Banejee & A. Loukaitou-Sideris (eds.), Companion to Urban Design, 654–662, London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marshall, S. (2021). Navigating COVID-19 Linguistic Landscapes in Vancouver’s North Shore: Official Signs, Grassroots Literacy Artefacts, Monolingualism, and Discursive Convergence. International Journal of Multilingualism (online Jan. 2021). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mautner, G. (2012). Language, Space, and the Law: A Study of Directive Signs. International Journal of Speech Language and the Law, 19(2), 189–217. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montano, S. & Savitt, A. (2020). “Not All Disasters are Disasters: Pandemic Categorization and Its Consequences.” Items: Insights from the Social Sciences, Social Sciences Research Council website, 10 Sept. 2020. Accessed 29 Oct. 2021 from [URL]
Nezlek, J. B. & Derks, P. (2001). Use of humor as a coping mechanism,psychological adjustment,and social interaction. Humor, 14(4), 395–413. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Brien, P. W. & Mileti, D. S. (1993). Citizen Participation in Emergency Response. In P. Bolton (ed.) The Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake of October 17, 1989 – Public Response, 23–30. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ogiermann, E. & Bella, S. (2021). On the dual role of expressive speech acts: Relational work on signs announcing closures during the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Pragmatics 1841, 1–17. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parsons, T. (1937 [1968]). The Structure of Social Action. A Study in Social Theory with Special Reference to a Group of Recent European Writers, New York, London: Free Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peleg, K., Bodas, M., Hertelendy, A. J., Kirsch, T. D. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic challenge to the All-Hazards Approach for disaster planning. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 551, Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Phyak, P. & Sharma, B. K. (this issue). Citizen Linguistic Landscape, bordering practices, and semiotic ideology in the COVID-19 pandemic. Linguistic Landscape.
Rydlink, K. (2020). Wie geht es weiter mit dem Coronavirus? Spiegel, 12 Dec. 2020. Accessed 13 Feb. 2022 from [URL]
Sunstein, C. R. (1996). Social Norms and Social Roles. Columbia Law Review, 96 (4), 903–968. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Suttles, G. D. (1976). Urban Ethnography: Situational and Normative Accounts. Annual Review of Sociology, 21, 1–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Svennevig, J. (2021). How to do things with signs: The formulation of directives on signs in public spaces. Journal of Pragmatics, 1751, 165–183. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Theng, A. J., Tse, V. W. S. & Wu, J. Z. Z. (this issue). Complicating solidarity: The Hong Kong Covid-19 landscape. Linguistic Landscape.
Thomas, D. (2016). Placemaking: An Urban Design Methodology. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tierney, K., Lindell, M. K. & Perry, R. W. (2001). Facing the Unexpected: Disaster Preparedness and Response in the United States. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry / National Academy Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thompson, T., Benz, J., Agiesta, J., Cagney, K., & Meit, M. (2013). Resilience in the Wake of Superstorm Sandy (AP-NORC Research Highlights). Chicago: Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Troyer, R. A. & Szabó, T. P. (2017). Representation and Videography in Linguistic Landscape Studies. Linguistic Landscape, 3(1), 56–77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsao, S-F., H. Chen, T. Tisseverasinghe, Y. Yang, L. Li, & Z. A. Butt (2021). What social media told us in the time of COVID-19: a scoping review. The Lancet 3(3): E175–E194. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yao, X. (2021). Face masks, materiality and exclusion in the COVID-19 semiotic landscape. Social Semiotics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Young, H. P. (2015). The Evolution of Social Norms. Annual Review of Economics, 7(1): 359–387. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Buso Jr, Nelson Mangaldan
2025. The semiotics of Maginhawa Community Pantry. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal DOI logo
Comer, Joseph
2022. ‘Together, soon enough’. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 8:2-3 ► pp. 149 ff. DOI logo
Milak, Eldin
2022. (Un)masking Seoul. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 8:2-3 ► pp. 233 ff. DOI logo
Modan, Gabriella & Katie J. Wells
2022. Signs at work. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 8:2-3 ► pp. 281 ff. DOI logo
Phyak, Prem & Bal Krishna Sharma
2022. Citizen Linguistic Landscape, bordering practices, and semiotic ideology in the COVID-19 pandemic. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 8:2-3 ► pp. 219 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2025. Linguistic Landscape Studies as a Reflection of Multilingualism in the United States. In The Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes and Multilingualism, ► pp. 375 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue