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Localising cosmopolitanism in place talk: Semiotic landscape as stance object

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2023

Fengzhi Zhao Open the ORCID record for Fengzhi Zhao [Opens in a new window]  and
Jackie Jia Lou
Fengzhi Zhao*
Affiliation:
Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, P. R. China
Jackie Jia Lou
Affiliation:
Birkbeck, University of London, UK
*
Address for correspondence: Fengzhi Zhao Department of Applied Linguistics Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University 111 Ren'ai Road, Suzhou Industrial Park Suzhou, P. R. China fengzhi.zhao@xjtlu.edu.cn
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Abstract

Sociolinguistic research has begun to critique the generalised view of cosmopolitanism as indexed by the use of global and non-local languages and urge us to explore its variety and complexity as situated and dialogical practices. This article answers this call by examining how cosmopolitanism is localised in place talk. Drawing from a larger ethnographic study of language, space, and cosmopolitanism in Shanghai, the analysis focuses on how participants evoke, compare, and evaluate the semiotic landscapes of this Chinese megalopolis. While competing notions of cosmopolitanism emerge during the research interviews, stances taken towards them also perform divergent relationships to the city. This article thus demonstrates how, instead of being a binary opposition, cosmopolitan landscape is discursively reappropriated for the construction of local identities. It contributes to our understanding of how cosmopolitanism is reterritorialised in urban space. (Cosmopolitanism, semiotic landscape, stance, place talk, place-identity, Shanghai)*

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Article
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Language in Society , First View , pp. 1 - 21
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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