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Article published In: Linguistic Landscape
Vol. 10:1 (2024) ► pp.1–21

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Staging a tomatoscape

A case study in place branding and/as semiotic reflexivity

ORCiD logo with link | University of Bern
Published online: 31 August 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.23019.thu
Abstract
A strategic, often spectacular intersection of semiosis and spatiality, place branding should be an obvious topic for linguistic landscape research. Isolated studies which do attend to branding seem insufficiently concerned with its conceptual and metasemiotic complexity. Part visual essay, my paper examines the small Spanish town of Miajadas which, in a performative act of scale-jumping, declares itself Tomato Capital of Europe. Drawing on fieldwork, and using a three-part analytic framework, I document the range of semiotic and sociomaterial tactics by which Miajadas stages itself as a ‘tomatoscape’. Through its mediatization, mediation, and remediation the town maximizes its location in the global economic order. This case study underscores how place branding is a highly contingent mode of semiotic reflexivity which is seldom discrete or unilateral, but which can be highly effective.
Resumen
La marca de lugar es una intersección estratégica y a menudo espectacular de semiosis y espacialidad; por eso, debería ser un tema obvio para Paisajes Lingüísticos. Los estudios aislados que se ocupan del branding no parecen preocuparse suficientemente por su complejidad conceptual y metasemiótica. En parte ensayo visual, mi artículo examina la pequeña ciudad española de Miajadas que, en un acto performativo de scale-jumping, se autoproclama Capital Europea del Tomate. Basándome en trabajo de campo, y utilizando un marco analítico de tres partes, documento el abanico de tácticas semióticas y sociomateriales las cuales Miajadas se escenifica a sí misma como un “tomatoscape”. A través de su mediatización, mediación y remediación, la ciudad maximiza su ubicación en el orden económico mundial. Este estudio de caso subraya cómo la marca de lugar es un modo muy contingente de reflexividad semiótica que es raramente discreto o unilateral, pero que puede ser muy eficaz.
Article outline
  •  
  • 1.Place branding and/as semiotic reflexivity
  • 2.Staging a tomatoscape in Miajadas
    • 2.1Mediatizing the brand
    • 2.2Mediating the brand
    • 2.3Remediating the brand
  • 3.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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