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Article published In: Broken: Towards a vulnerability approach to Semiotic Landscape research
Edited by Máiréad Moriarty and Maida Kosatica
[Linguistic Landscape 11:2] 2025
► pp. 118–134

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Unsettling vulnerability in the wake of violence

ORCiD logo with link | Stockholm University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Stockholm University.

Published online: 16 December 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.24024.vol
Abstract
In this essay, I write about the multifaceted dimensions and reverberations of violence (Navaro, Y., Biner, Zerrin Ozlem, von Bieberstein, Alice, & Altuğ, Seda (Eds.) (2021b). Reverberations: Violence across time and space. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) of Russia’s war against Ukraine, spanning from 2014 to the present day. Drawing on previous studies of semiotic landscapes, which emphasize a relational approach to people and places (Peck, Amiena, Christopher Stroud & Quentin Williams (Eds.) (2019). Making Sense of People and Place in Linguistic Landscapes. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), I analyze ethnographic materials in the form of field notes collected during research in Crimea in 2019. This is done to reflect on the character of the violence to which people and landscapes become exposed. Three analytical vignettes describe the remnants of violence, which take on various guises of Russia’s war and highlight the vulnerability of both people and landscapes. At the end of the essay, I propose approaching these processes poetically, and viewing them through the lens of mutual vulnerability — a concept that considers the relationality of vulnerability as a phenomenon, encompassing the vulnerability of both people and landscapes.
Pезюме
У цьому есеї я пишу про багатогранні виміри та відголоски насильства (Navaro, Y., Biner, Zerrin Ozlem, von Bieberstein, Alice, & Altuğ, Seda (Eds.) (2021b). Reverberations: Violence across time and space. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) російської війни проти України, починаючи з 2014 року і до сьогодні. Спираючись на попередні дослідження семіотичних ландшафтів, які підкреслюють реляційний підхід до людей і культурних просторів (Peck, Amiena, Christopher Stroud & Quentin Williams (Eds.) (2019). Making Sense of People and Place in Linguistic Landscapes. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), у цій статті я аналізую етнографічні матеріали у формі нотаток, зібраних під час польових досліджень у Криму у 2019 році. Це робиться з метою рефлексії над сутністю та характером насильства, якого зазнають як люди, так і ландшафти. Три аналітичні віньєтки описують залишки насильства, що набувають різних оманливих форм російської війни та підкреслюють вразливість людей і ландшафтів. Наприкінці есею я пропоную поетичний підхід до цих процесів і закликаю розглядати їх через призму взаємної вразливості — концепту, який враховує реляційність вразливості як феномену, охоплюючи вразливість як людей, так і ландшафтів.
Article outline
  • 1.The soil is suffering
  • 2.Violent reverberations
  • 3.Mutual vulnerability
  • 4.Instead of an analysis
    • 4.1Entering Crimea: Violence residing in absences
    • 4.2Navigating the city: Exploring joyful violence
    • 4.3Ghosts outliving violence
  • 5.Concluding discussion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Francis, Athanasia
2025. Unpacking vulnerability, agency, and resistance. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 11:2 ► pp. 198 ff. DOI logo

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