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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 383

Part of Session 141: Taking over the squares (Other abstracts in this session)

Local Movement, Global Momentum: the geosemiotics of protest messages from Tahrir Square

Authors: Aboelezz, Mariam
Submitted by: Aboelezz, Mariam (Lancaster University, United Kingdom)

The year 2011 saw unprecedented waves of people occupying key locations around the world in a statement of public discontent. These movements were unprecedented not only in numbers, but also in the extensive media attention and documentation made possible by modern technology and globalisation. This was evident both in the role that technology played in mobilising protesters as well as in the protest messages that appeared to continue an overarching dialogue of anti-government protests. These messages reflect the bi-dimensional nature of the protests with “local” and “global” properties in interplay.

This paper presents the case of protest messages from Tahrir Square, exploring the extent to which the location of the protests played a part in shaping the protesters’ messages through a quantitative analysis of a corpus of approximately 2000 protest messages from Tahrir Square, extracted from 1000+ images captured between 25 January and 11 February 2011. The analysis draws from the field of geosemiotics which posits that all discourses are ‘situated’ both in space and time (cf. Scollon & Scollon 2003). It is argued that the protesters were aware of the place semiotics of Tahrir Square which had become the epicentre of anti-government protests. Elements of situatedness may be divided into a number of aspects: concrete geographical references, (intertextual) references to local culture and heritage, and language choice.

Geographical references to Tahrir Square could be found frequently in the protestor’s messages. There were also references to historical landmarks and aspects of ancient Egyptian history and heritage. The analysis also returns scores of intertextual references to local Egyptian culture as well as an abundance of religious references, locating the protests in the wider Egyptian community.

In terms of language choice, Arabic (not just Standard Arabic but also significantly Egyptian Arabic) made up the overwhelming majority of protest messages in the corpus. Languages other than Arabic could also be seen frequently, with English being the most common foreign language. However, messages in English were not necessarily directed at a foreign audience; many of them contained local references which could only be understood by someone who is bilingual and well-acquainted with Egyptian culture.

The points above capture the ‘local’ dimension of the protests, but the messages also reflect a clear “global” connection with much to suggest that the protesters were aware of the extensive attention from international media. This was seen in the numerous messages directed to the “outside world”, particularly to the US administration. On a different level, it could also be seen in the technological theme that many messages adopted.

A final aspect of the global dimension is explored by looking at how the Egyptian revolution was connected to other popular movements outside Egypt. This is achieved by studying intertextual references to the earlier Tunisian revolution, and the later recontextualisation of key slogans from the Egyptian revolution in antigovernment protests in other parts of the world, as demonstrated by other papers in this panel.

Reference:

Scollon, R. and Scollon, S.W. (2003) Discourses in Place: Language in the material world. London: Routledge.