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Article published In: The Political Economy of Linguistic Landscapes:
Edited by Johan Järlehed, Tommaso M. Milani and Tove Rosendal
[Linguistic Landscape 9:3] 2023
► pp. 247–267

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Hipsters and drunks, tourists and locals

Value production and ideological contestation in Calle Loíza

ORCiD logo with link | University of California Los Angeles
Published online: 14 August 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.22037.cas
Abstract
This article uses linguistic and semiotic landscapes as tools to analyze the ideological work required for rendering Calle Loíza, an urban street in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as successfully revitalized. Linguistic Landscapes provide insight on discursive chains that circulate logics and produce values of places, and therefore form an intrinsic part of capital-driven urban change. I aim to show how perspectives of places can be structured, and how values of places are naturalized and embedded in the neoliberal political economy. Drawing from ethnographic and online sources of data, I argue that Calle Loíza is a site of ideological contestation and that the processes of rhematization and erasure are required for Calle Loiza’s indexical relation to progress and its articulation as a successfully revitalized urban neighborhood. The findings demonstrate that online spaces are also material, and that language is essential in the production and circulation of political economic values of places.
Resumen
En este artículo analizo el paisaje lingüístico y semiótico de la Calle Loíza, en San Juan, Puerto Rico, para analizar los procesos semióticos requeridos para su revitalización. Los paisajes lingüísticos nos permiten analizar los discursos que promueven y circulan ciertas lógicas que producen valores, y por ende son intrínsecos en procesos de transformaciones urbanas impulsadas por el capital. Intento demonstrar cómo las perspectivas de los lugares pueden ser estructuradas, y cómo los valores de los espacios urbanos son normalizados e incrustados en el neoliberalismo. Utilizo datos etnográficos y de espacios en línea para argumentar que la calle Loíza es un lugar de contestación ideológica y que los procesos de rematización y omisión son requeridos para la indicialidad entre Calle Loíza y el progreso, y para que la misma sea celebrada como un modelo de revitalización urbana. Los resultados demuestran que los espacios en línea también son materiales, y que el lenguaje es esencial en la producción y circulación de valores político-económicos de espacios urbanos.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework: Linguistic landscapes, linguistic materiality, and semiotic processes
  • 3.Data and methods
  • 4.Discussion and analysis
    • 4.1Calle Loíza’s liveliness: Creativity and musicality
    • 4.2Neoliberalism, hipsters, and progress
    • 4.3Calle Loíza’s deadliness: Drunks, violence, and danger
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
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