Identity as space

Abstract

The paper studies the textual, discursive and social practices of the Greek “aganaktismeni” (indignados) movements, which mainly took place in the public gathering of tens of thousands of Greeks in Syntagma Square, outside the Greek parliament from May to August 2011. Data come from multiple sources, including the General Assembly proceedings and resolutions, while a linguistically-informed approach is followed, which combines Critical Discourse Analysis concepts with corpus linguistic methods. It is argued that the Syntagma protests generated a new context in Greek politics, by introducing new genres and the innovative articulation of already existing discourses. It was also found that social/political identities and social/public space were co-articulated, since the identity of the movement was crucially constructed in terms of space.

From public to digital spaces: Spatial and media practices of the 2017 ‘Unite Cyprus Now’ peace protests

“…According to Martín Rojo (2014b), the protest site, its organisation, size, shape and location in the city, as well as the architecture and institutions around it can contribute to the protest's meaning. To date researchers explored protests in main squares (Aboelezz, 2014;Goutsos & Polymeneas, 2014;Hanauer, 2015), commercial areas (Seals, 2015;Shiri, 2015) and major parks (Chun, 2014;Martín Rojo, 2014b;Morva, 2016;Seloni & Sarfati, 2017). Jaworski (2014) draws attention to the inherently mobile nature of protest signs.…”

“…Sociolinguists investigated language choice on signage (Barni & Bagna, 2016;Shiri, 2015), types of protest signs and their functions (Goutsos & Polymeneas, 2014;Hanauer, 2015), appropriation of space (Aboelezz, 2014;Ben-Said & Kasanga, 2016;Martín Rojo, 2014b;Seals, 2015) and graffiti (Morva, 2016;Seloni & Sarfati, 2017). Other scholars focused on how activists use the affordances of social media to propagate their viewpoints and mobilise protests (Anduiza et al, 2014;DeLuca et al, 2012;Feltwell, et al 2017;Poell & Borra, 2012;Tonkin et al, 2012).…”

Spatializing Radical Political Imaginaries

“…This spatially manifested cleavage was expressed by my interlocutors' talk of the demarcation between the "upper" and the "lower" parts of square. Ever since May 2011, the upper part has been associated with nationalist and even fascist discourses (Bakola 2017;Goutsos and Polymenas 2014), while the lower square has been associated with discourses of political vision, organization, and assembly-discourses grounded in ecological, radical leftist, and antiauthoritarian ideas broadly conceived. Building on these narratives, I claim that this division is due to the "upper" part of the square being marked by a "regressive" signification of crisis-where the imagination of what is possible is reduced to what is necessary-and the "lower part" being marked by a "progressive" signification of crisis.…”

Bringing metaphors back to the streets: a corpus-based study for the identification and interpretation of rhetorical figures in street art

“…), consisted of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Union (EU) and the European Central Bank (ECB), who agreed on bailout packages for Greece. Afterwards, the reduction of incomes was unexpectedly announced, and thousands of Greek citizens came out on the streets in order to share their collective frustration (Goutsos and Polymeneas, 2014; Matsaganis, 2013).…”