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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 201

Part of Session 162: Urban linguistic practice and performance in the Greek-speaking city (Other abstracts in this session)

Sociolinguistics of ʻthe right to the cityʼ: the case of contemporary Athens

Authors: Theodoropoulou, Irene
Submitted by: Theodoropoulou, Irene (Qatar University, Qatar)

Big cities have been traditionally seen as focal points for radical movements (e.g. London in 2011, to mention just one recent example). This is the case also in Athens, Greece, where the December 2008 uprising after the murder of a young pupil, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, by a policeman has become a reference point for both state authorities and reactionary non-state actors (Vradis & Dalakoglou 2011: 78). More specifically, the aforementioned murder has triggered a series of urban riots with participants claiming the right to occupy and use certain urban spaces to their benefit, mostly as the organizational base for their revolts. Such behavior can be seen as identical to what Lefebvre has labelled ʻright to the cityʼ, namely a ʻradical restructuring of social, political, and economic relations, both in the city and beyondʼ (1996:34). This translates into a right for physical access, occupation and use of the urban space. A key dimension of this process is language and the ways it is employed by people to claim their right to a specific space - it can include the linguistic landscape of the area, inhabitantsʼ everyday discourse pertinent to the space and even sociolinguistic representations of the urban space on mass media and popular culture. Against this backdrop, the aim of my presentation is to discuss how language constructs this ʻright to the cityʼ in the case of Navarinou Park, a space in Exarcheia, a central Athens neighborhood, where radical, anarchist and far-left spaces and political activity are concentrated. Navarinou Park makes an interesting case study, because as a former parking lot turned into a lived space, organically integrated into the life of Exarcheia, it can be seen as reflecting and affecting political developments in the country. Through a sociolinguistic stylistic (Coupland 2007) and multimodal (Kress & Leeuwen 2001) analysis of the linguistic landscape of the area, informed by ethnographic participant observation, it is argued that this urban space operates as a symbol of the struggle for the control over meanings produced by the city space.

REFERENCES

Coupland, Nikolas (2007). Style. Language Variation and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kress, Gunther and Theo van Leeuwen (2001). Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. London: Arnold.

Lefebvre, Henri (1996). Writings on Cities. Oxford: Blackwell.

Vradis, Antonis & Dimitris Dalakoglou (2011). Spatial legacies of December and the right to the city. In: Vradis, Antonis & DImitris Dalakoglou (eds.) Revolt and Crisis in Greece. Oakland, Baltimore, Edinburgh, London and Athens: AK Press and Occupied London.