Cover not available

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. 268–285

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

Geographies of inequalities

Bourdieusian intersubjectivity in people-in-place-centered Linguistic Landscape Studies

ORCiD logo with link | Dalarna University
Published online: 7 August 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.22043.rei
Abstract
Theoretically positioned at the intersections between human geography, ethnography of space and place, and Linguistic Landscape Studies (LLS), this ethnographically grounded study mediates a dialogue between LLS and Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology and shows how the intersubjective dimension of the habitus provides a powerful lens with which to explore the people-place relation, central to disentangling the political economy of language and place. Inspired by existing ethnographically and people-centered LLS, the study is set in Maputo city, well-known for its enduring social and spatial division from colonial to postcolonial times. The analyses foreground the people-place relation in different sites across the material and non-material urban geographies. By relocating LLS, the study challenges modernist notions of divides, foregrounding the often-neglected invisible embodied dynamics of conflicting schemata – fundamental to the understanding of the reciprocal people-in-place relationship and the spatialization of inequalities, thus offering a rich and thick LLS.
Resumo
Teoricamente posicionado entre a geografia humana, a etnografia do espaço e paisagens linguísticas, este estudo, etnograficamente fundamentado, medeia um diálogo entre paisagens linguísticas e a sociologia de Pierre Bourdieu enfatizando a dimensão intersubjetiva do habitus. Essa abordagem fornece uma ótica poderosa para investigar a relação entre pessoa e lugar, considerada chave no entendimento da dinâmica da economia política das linguagens em lugar(es). Inspirado em estudos de paisagens linguísticas etnográficos e centrados nas pessoas, o estudo apresenta a cidade de Maputo, conhecida pela sua divisão social e spatial prevalecente, desde os tempos coloniais aos pós-coloniais. As análises destacam a relação pessoa(s)-lugar(es) em diferentes sítios e abrangem as geografias urbanas materiais e imateriais. O estudo desafia noções modernistas de divisões e investiga dinâmicas de corporização de esquemas conflituantes frequentemente ignoradas, mas consideradas fundamentais para a compreensão da relação recíproca entre pessoa(s)-lugar(es) e a espacialização das desigualdades oferecendo paisagens linguísticas ricas e profundas.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical stances
  • 3.Multidisciplinary datasets and methodological approaches
  • 4.Geographies of inequalities
  • 5.Discussion and concluding remarks
  • References
References (32)
References
Barros, C. P., Chivangue, A., & Samagaio, A. (2014). Urban dynamics in Maputo, Mozambique. Cities, 361, 74–82. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Block, D. (2017). Political economy in applied linguistics research. Language Teaching, 50(1), 32–64. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). Political economy and sociolinguistics. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, J. (2013). Ethnography, superdiversity and linguistic landscapes: chronicles of complexity. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015). Pierre Bourdieu and Language in Society. Tilburg Paper 1261.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P., Wacquant, L. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chimbutane, F. (2018). Language and citizenship education in postcolonial Mozambique. Journal of Social Science Education, 17(4), 8–25.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cumbe, C. (2016). Formal and informal toponymic inscriptions in Maputo: Towards sociolinguistics and anthropology of street naming. In L. Bigon (Ed.), Place names in Africa colonial urban legacies, entangled histories (pp. 195–205). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deng, S. (2021). An Ethnographic Study on the Linguistic Landscapes of the Coffee Shops in Songjiang University Town in Shanghai From the Perspective of ‘The Third Place’ Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 11(6), 652–660. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gal, S., & Irvine, J. (2019). Signs of difference: Language and ideology in social life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geffray, C. (1990). La cause des armes au Mozambique: Anthropologie d’une guerre civile. CREDU Karthala éditions. London-New York: Verso. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heller, M. (2010). The commodification of language. Annual Review of Anthropology, 391, 101–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heller, M., & McElhinny, B. (2017). Language, capitalism, colonialism: Toward a critical history. Toronto: Toronto University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Instituto Nacional de Estátistica. (2000). Situação Linguística de Moçambique, Censo Geral de 1997. Maputo: Instituto Nacional de Estatística.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2009). Sinopse dos Resultados Definitivos do 3º Recenseamento Geral da População e Habitação, Cidade de Maputo, Censo Geral de 2007. Maputo: Instituto Nacional de Estátistica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2012a). Estatísticas do Distrito de KaMpfumu Cidade de Maputo. Maputo: Instituto Nacional de Estátistica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2012b). Estatísticas do Distrito de KaMubukwana Cidade de Maputo. Maputo: Instituto Nacional de Estatística.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2019). Apresentação dos Resultados Definitivos do Censo 2017. [URL]
Jenkins, P. (2000). City profile: Maputo. Cities, 17(3), 207–218. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malpas, J. (1999). Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mazula, Brazão. (1995). Educação, Cultura e Ideologia e, Mozambique 1975–1985,. Porto: Edições Afrontamento.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Muiane, Armando Pedro. (2006). Datas e documentos da história da FRELIMO. Maputo: Armando Pedro Muiane Junior.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Newitt, M. (1995). History of Mozambique. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peck, Amiena, Christopher Stroud, & Quentin Williams. (2018) (Eds.) Making sense of people and place in linguistic landscapes. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raimundo, I., Crush, J. & Pendleton, W. (2014). The State of Food Insecurity in Maputo, Mozambique. Urban Food Security Series No. 20. Cape Town: AFSUN.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raposo, I. S., Jorge, S., Viegas, S., & Melo, V. (2012). Luanda e Maputo: Inflexões suburbanísticas da cidade so- cialista à cidade-metrópole neoliberal. URBE – Revista Brasileira De Gestão Urbana, 4(2), 189–205. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reite, T. (2020). Language and Spatiality in Urban Mozambique: Ex-Colonial Language Spread ‘From Below’. Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics, 21, 46–66.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021). From racial to linguistic social division. Coloniality in contemporary Maputo. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 25 (2), 198–216. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roque, S., Mucavele, M., & Noronha, N. (2016). Subúrbios and cityness: Exploring imbrications and urbanity in Maputo, Mozambique. Journal of Southern African Studies, 42(4), 643–658. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stroud, Christopher & Sibonile, Mpendukana. (2009). Towards a material ethnography of linguistic landscape: Multilingualism, mobility and space in a South African township. Journal of Sociolinguistics: 13(3), 363–386. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stroud, C. (1999). Portuguese as ideology and politics in Mozambique: Semiotic (re)constructions of a postcolony. In Blommaert, Jan (Ed.) (1999). Language Ideological Debates (pp. 343–380). Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

[no author supplied]
2025. Theorizing Space. In The Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes and Multilingualism, ► pp. 29 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