Cover not available

Article published In: Linguistic Landscape
Vol. 9:4 (2023) ► pp.387–412

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

Contextual graffiti and collective action frames at the Chilean social outbreak in 2019

ORCiD logo with link | University of Edinburgh
Published online: 11 April 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.22002.mir
Abstract
Protest graffiti as visual activism provides a democratic space for demonstrators to articulate their narratives. Nevertheless, the lack of leadership in the Chilean social outburst in 2019 becomes a challenge in outlining its impact. Thus, this article provides an empirical case of political graffiti and explains how graffiti had a constitutive role in the social movement and the immediate country’s political course after that. This paper proposes a transdisciplinary approach by combining the analysis of graffiti as contextual texts (Pennycook, A. (2007). Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) with ‘collective action frames’ in studying political graffiti collected in a six-kilometre walk in Santiago, Chile. As a result, graffiti frameworks of injustice denounce the state and police violence; frameworks of agency tend to organise protesters’ ideas for change, such as a new constitution and the end of the current pension systems; and a strong sense of feminism conforms part of identity frames.
Resumen
El grafiti de protesta como activismo visual proporciona un espacio democrático para que los manifestantes articulen sus narrativas. Sin embargo, la falta de liderazgo en el estallido social chileno de 2019 se convierte en un desafío para delinear su impacto. Por lo tanto, este documento proporciona un caso empírico de grafiti político y explica cómo el grafiti tuvo un papel constitutivo en el movimiento social y el curso político inmediato del país después de eso. Este artículo propone un enfoque transdisciplinario al combinar el análisis de los grafitis como textos contextuales (Pennycook, A. (2007). Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) con ‘marcos de acción colectiva’ en el estudio de los grafitis políticos recogidos en una caminata de seis kilómetros en Santiago de Chile. Como resultado, marcos de injusticia denuncian la violencia estatal y policial; los marcos de agencia tienden a organizar las ideas de cambio de los manifestantes, como una nueva constitución y el fin de los actuales sistemas de pensiones; y un fuerte sentido del feminismo conforma parte de los marcos identitarios.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Literature review
    • 1.2A short history of the social movement in 2019
    • 1.3Positionality as a Chilean researcher
  • 2.Social movement studies into the Linguistic Landscape research
    • 2.1Transmodal graffiti in arenas of conflict
    • 2.2Methodology and outcomes
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1Diagnosing the injustice of the model
    • 3.1Feminism in the movement’s identity
    • 3.3Movement’s agency through a new constitution
    • 3.4Intertextual relationships between CAF components and the new constitution
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (64)
References
Adams, K. L., & Winter, A. (1997). Gang Graffiti as a Discourse Genre. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 1(3), 337–360. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aguilera, C. Vicente. (2022). “Chile despertó”: los sentidos políticos en la Revuelta de Octubre. “Chile despertó”: the political meanings in the October Revolt Polis, Revista Latinoamericana, 21(61), 10–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
BBC. (October 22, 2019). Protestas en Chile: “Estamos en guerra”, la frase de Piñera que se le volvió en contra en medio de las fuertes manifestaciones. Protests in Chile: “We are at war”, Piñera’s phrase that turned against him amid the strong demonstrations. BBC world.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
BCN. (2019). Acuerdo por la paz social y la nueva constitución. Agreement for social peace and the new constitution.: Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional Retrieved from [URL]
Benford, R. D., & Snow, D. A. (2000). Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment. Annual review of sociology, 26(1), 611–639. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, J. (2016). Meeting of Styles” and the online infrastructures of graffiti. Applied linguistics review, 7(2), 99–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
CC, C. C. (2022). Borrador Nueva Constitución. [New Constitution draft]. Retrieved from [URL]
CHV. (2019). Chilevisión noticias (TV news channel) «Hasta que la dignidad se haga costumbre»: Cómo surgió la frase emblema del estallido social chileno. “Until dignity becomes customary”: How the emblematic phrase of the Chilean social outbreak arose. In C. Noticias (Ed.), Nacional – Estado de emergencia. Retrieved from [URL]
Claude, M. (2020). Retrato de un clan de la Primera Línea [Portrait of a Frontline Clan]. CIPER.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Concha Bell, C. (2022, September 7, 2022). Why did Chile’s new constitution fail? red pepper. Retrieved from [URL]
Dalzell, T., & Victor, T. (2012). The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2 ed.). London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Donoso, S. (2013). Dynamics of Change in Chile: Explaining the Emergence of the 2006 Pingüino Movement. Journal of Latin American studies, 45(1), 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021). El movimiento estudiantil chileno y su (re)articulación con la política institucional. [The Chilean student movement and its (re)articulation with institutional politics]. In M. A. Garretón (Ed.), Política y movimientos sociales en Chile (pp. 77–102). Santiago, Chile: LOM.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dorfman, A. (2022, Tue 6 Sep 2022). Chileans rejected the new constitution, but they still want progressive reforms. The guardian. Retrieved from [URL]
Espinosa Herrera, G., & Castellanos Obregón, J. M. (2016). Procesos de estructuración de prácticas trasgresoras asociadas al consumo de sustancias psicoactivas en universitarios. [Structuring processes of transgressive practices associated with the consumption of psychoactive substances in university students.] Revista latinoamericana de ciencias sociales, niñez y juventud, 16(2), 777–795. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gamson, W. (1992a). Talking politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1992b). The social psychology of collective action. In A. D. Morris & C. M. Mueller (Eds.), Frontiers in social movement theory / edited by Aldon D. Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis : an essay on the organization of experience. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gonzalez Hernando, M. (2019). On the frontline: Chile is the future. Discover society. Retrived from [URL]
Gálvez, R., & Kremerman, M. (2019). Pensiones por la fuerza, Resultados del sistema de pensiones de las Fuerzas Armadas y de Orden Ideas para el buen vivir. Fundacion sol, 7. ISSN 0719-6741. Retrieved from [URL]
(2015). Occupy Baltimore: A Linguistic Landscape Analysis of Participatory Social Contestation in an American City. In R. Rubdy & S. B. Said (Eds.), Conflict, Exclusion and Dissent in the Linguistic Landscape. Language and Globalization (pp. 207–222). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hofer, R. P. (2020). Chile: Uprising against the subsidiary state. Trimestre económico, 87(346), 333–365. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Inai-Segovia, D. (2019). Imágenes insurgentes como herramientas de contrapoder durante el conflicto socio ambiental en Tranguil (Chile) y el asesinato a Macarena Valdés. [Insurgent images as tools of counter power during the socio-environmental conflict in Tranguil (Chile) and the murder of Macarena Valdés] Revista Científica de Información y Comunicación 161, 517–547. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
INDH. (2020). Archivo de Reportes de Estadísticas en la Crisis Social [Archive of Statistical Reports on the Social Crisis]. Retrieved from [URL]
Johnston, H. (1995). A methodology for frame analysis: from discourse to cognitive schemata. In H. K. Johnston, B. (Ed.), Social Movements and Culture (pp. 217–246). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2002). Verification and proof in frame and discourse analysis. In B. Klandermans & S. Staggenborg (Eds.), Methods of Social Movements Research (pp. 62–91). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jorgensen, J. N. (2008). Urban Wall Languaging. International journal of multilingualism, 5(3), 237–252. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jūratė, R. (2017). Linguistic Landscpae of Tbilisi: a case study of graffiti. Respectus philologicus, 32(37). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karlander, D. (2019). Mobile Semiosis and Mutable Metro Spaces: Train Graffiti in Stockholm’s Public Transport System. In A. Peck, C. Stroud, & Q. Williams (Eds.), Making sense of people and place in Linguistic Landscapes (pp. 71–87). London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lindekilde, L. (2014). Discourse and Frame Analysis. In D. Porta (Ed.), Methodological Practices in Social Movement Research (pp. 196–227). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Llanos, B. (2021). Revuelta feminista en Chile: cultura visual y performance. The feminist revolt in Chile: visual culture and performance Literatura y Linguística, 441, 169–184. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marquez, F. (2020). ‘For anthropology from the debris: The social revolt in Plaza Dignidad, Santiago de Chile’. Revista, 180(45), P1–P13. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, D., & Shaw, D. (2021). Chilean and Transnational Performances of Disobedience: LasTesis and the Phenomenon of Un violador en tu camino. Bulletin of Latin American Research, 40(5), 712–729. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mayol, A. (2019). Big Bang. Estallido social 2019. Modelo derrumbado – sociedad rota – política inútil. Santiago: Catalonia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McGowan, C. (2018). Poet, hero, rapist – outrage over Chilean plan to rename airport after Neruda. The Guardian, Retrieved from: [URL]
Molina Loyola, M. E. (2020). Arte urbano, política y memoria en 2019: Primeros pasos hacia la conformación de un archivo del muralismo político en Santiago de Chile. E-ciencias de la información, 10(1). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nogueira Alcalá, H. (2021). Presentación. Introduction. Estudios constitucionales, 191, 1–4. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Noonan, R. K. (1995). Women against the State: Political Opportunities and Collective Action Frames in Chile’s Transition to Democracy. Sociological Forum (Randolph, N.J.), 10(1), 81–111. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Partridge, E. (1967). A dictionary of slang and unconventional English: coloquialisms and catch-phrases, solecisms and catachreses, nicknames, vulgarisms and such Americanisms as have been naturalized / Eric Partridge (Sixth edition / Suppl. revised and enlarged.). London: Routledge & Paul.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pennycook, A. (2007). Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2009a). Linguistic Landscapes and transgressive semiotics on graffiti. In E. S. and. D. Gorter (Ed.), Linguistic Landscape expanding the scenery. (pp. 302–312), New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2009b). Spatial narrations: Graffscapes and city souls. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscape. Language, image, space (pp. 137–150). New York: Continuum International Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poulter, J. (2020). How ‘ACAB’ Became the Universal Anti-Police Slogan. VICE, News. 8 June. Retrieved from [URL]
radioUChile. (2013). “Marca tu Voto AC” hace positivo balance de la campaña. “Mark your vote AC” makes a positive balance of the campaign. Radio Universidad de Chile. Retrieved from [URL]
Rubdy, R., & Said, S. B. (2015). Conflict, exclusion and dissent in the linguistic landscape. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scollon, R., & Wong Scollon, S. (2003). Discourses in place: language in the material world. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Seals, C. A. (2015). Overcoming Erasure: Reappropriation of Space in the Linguistic Landscape of Mass-Scale Protests. In R. Rubdy & S. B. Said (Eds.), Conflict, Exclusion and Dissent in the Linguistic Landscape. Language and Globalization (pp. 223–238). London: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serafini. (2020). ‘A rapist in your path: Transnational feminist protest and why (and how) performance matters. European journal of cultural studies, 23(2), 290–295. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Snow, D. (2013). Framing and Social Movements. In The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements. (pp. 1–7), Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Snow, D. & Benford, R. (1992). Master frames and cycles of protest. In A. M. a. C. M. Muelle (Ed.), Frontiers in Social Movement Theory (pp. 133–155). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1988). Ideology, frame resonance, and participant mobilisation. International Social Movement Research, 11, 197–217.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Somma, N., Bargsted, M., Disi Pavlic, R., & Medel, R. (2021). No water in the oasis: the Chilean Spring of 2019–2020. Social movement studies, 20(4), 495–502. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Soto Barrientos, F. (2014). Asamblea Constituyente: La experiencia latinoamericana y el actual debate en Chile [Constituent Assembly: The Latin American experience and the current debate in Chile]. Estudios constitucionales (Universidad de Talca. Centro de Estudios Constitucionales), 12(1), 397–428. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spyer Dulci, T., & Alvarado Sadivia, V. (2021). El Estallido Social en Chile: ¿rumbo a un Nuevo Constitucionalismo? [The Social Outbreak in Chile: towards a New Constitutionalism?] Revista katálysis, 24(1). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stroud, C. (2016). Turbulent Linguistic Landscapes and the Semiotics of Citizenship. In R. Blackwood (Ed.), Negotiating and Contesting Identities in Linguistic Landscapes (pp. 3–18). London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). Linguistic Citizenship. In L. Lim, C. Stroud, & L. Wee (Eds.), The multilingual citizen : towards a politics of language for agency and change, (pp. 17–39). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Torres, S. (2019). The protests in Chile aren’t about 30 pesos. They’re about 30 years of failure. The Washington Post. October 23. Retrieved from [URL]
Vicari, S. (2010). Measuring collective action frames: A linguistic approach to frame analysis. Poetics (Amsterdam), 38(5), 504–525. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Waldner, L. K., & Dobratz, B. A. (2013). Graffiti as a Form of Contentious Political Participation: Graffiti as Contentious Political Participation. Sociology compass, 7(5), 377–389. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Amjad, Iram
2025. Reclaiming sociolinguistic identity through graffiti art: A social semiotics approach to wall expressions. Discourse & Society 36:6 ► pp. 823 ff. DOI logo
Correa, Melisa Miranda
2024. Kitchen soups and the October uprising in Chile: exploring their connection with collective action frames in pandemic times. Community Development Journal 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