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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. 226–246

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Semiotics of a Covid landscape

Tactical urbanism in a pandemic

ORCiD logo with link | The Ohio State University
 | City College of New York
Published online: 17 August 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.22038.mod
Abstract
This paper brings together urban planning and linguistic perspectives to examine the semiotic landscape of a Washington, DC ‘streatery’ in the context of the intersecting public health- and place-based economic crises unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing from Garay-Huamán, A. N., & Irazábal-Zurita, C. (2021). Latinos in Kansas City: The political economy of placemaking. Journal of Planning Literature 36(2), 131–54. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar work on neoliberal Social Structures of Accumulation (SSA), we examine how different layers of Adams Morgan’s emergent Covid landscape are rooted in the dynamics of capitalist accumulation through urban placemaking strategies. We focus on signs put up by the Business Improvement District (BID) that explain the public health regulations applicable to the area through discourse that playfully encourages people to social distance and wear masks. These signs utilize three linguistic or semiotic discourses: hygiene, humor and play, and anti-Trump politics. The signs serve as a bona fide effort to both halt the spread of the coronavirus and take a political stance. At the same time as the signs promote public health, their commodified aestheticization of hygiene and politics also serves commercial interests.
Zusammenfassung
Dieser Artikel vereint linguistische mit städtebaulichen und stadtplanerischen Perspektiven, um im Sinne einer Diskurs-Semiotik basierten Untersuchung eine „Streatery“ Straßen- Landschaft in Adams Morgan, einer Nachbarschaft in Washington, DC, zu analysieren. Diese „Streatery“ entstand im Kontext, der sich überschneidenden öffentlichen Gesundheits- und Wirtschafts- Krisen, die durch die Corona Pandemie ausgelöst wurden. Wir stützen uns auf die Garay-Huamán, A. N., & Irazábal-Zurita, C. (2021). Latinos in Kansas City: The political economy of placemaking. Journal of Planning Literature 36(2), 131–54. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar über neoliberale soziale Strukturen der Akkumulation (SSA) und untersuchen, wie verschiedene semiotisch geprägte Schichten der Straßen-Landschaft, durch die Anwendung von genzielten Placemaking Strategien, in die Dynamik der kapitalistischen Akkumulation verwurzelt werden. Wir konzentrieren uns hier auf die Beschilderung, die von einem Business Improvement District (BID) - einer privaten urbane Governance-Institution - koordiniert wurden. Diese Schilder, welche die geltenden Corona-bedingten Gesundheitsvorschriften erläutern, bilden einen Diskurs, der die Menschen spielerisch dazu auffordert, soziale Distanz zu wahren und Masken zu tragen. Zusammen zeigen wir, wie diese Schilder die folgenden drei Deutungsmuster – Hygiene, Humor und Spiel, Anti-Trump-Politik — erstellen. Somit kommunizieren sie nicht nur einen ernsthaften Versuch die Ausbreitung des Coronavirus zu stoppen, sondern auch eine lokale politische Haltung. Letztlich, dient ihre kommerzialisierte Ästhetisierung von Hygiene und Politik auch kommerziellen Interessen.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.SSAs and the Political Economy of Placemaking
  • 3.The role of language and semiotics in urban planning initiatives
  • 4.Adams Morgan and its Streatery
  • 5.Methods and Data
  • 6.Constructing the Streatery
  • 7.Aesthetic and Public Health Functions of BID signs
    • 7.1Aesthetics of Play and Politics
  • 8.Promoting Public Health Playfully
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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