• The Conference
  • Home
  • Programme
  • Venue & directions
  • Organizing Committee
  • Scientific Committee
  • Exhibitors & sponsors
  • Satellite events
  • Conference Party
• Past & future
  • Previous symposia
  • Finland 2014
  • Spain 2016
• About FU Berlin
  • University homepage
  • Humanities at FU

Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 944

Part of Session 132: Re-writing and Engaging with Urban Spaces via Linguistic Landscape (Other abstracts in this session)

Dismantling the city via LL: Interpreting neighborhoods of Tel Aviv as new city spaces

Authors: Shohamy, Elana (1); Waksman, Shoshi (2)
Submitted by: Shohamy, Elana (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

While the theme of this conference addresses the concept of cities, our main claim here is that cities are mostly institutionalized entities driven by bureaucratic ideologies and instrumental considerations similar to those of nation-states with their defined and closed borders. “For me Tel Aviv is just an address”, claims Effi Banai in the process of describing his affiliation with his  neighborhood of Kfar Shalem (considered part of the municipality of Tel Aviv) as he dissociates himself from its municipal borders. The idea that there is a stark difference between the authoritative voice of Tel Aviv and other voices of  neighbourhoods was discussed in an earlier study (Shohamy and Waksman, in press) pointing to the diversed  LL (linguistic landscape) devices which were used by excluded groups to call attention to ‘the others’. In this paper we argue from the perspective of urban and spatial theories (Portugali, 2000) that the bureaucratic entities stand in contradiction to other criteria such as vitality, identity, and dynamics of other spaces (Shohamy and Abu Ghazaleh-Mahajneh, 2012), in line with the linguistic enclaves as described by Creese and Blackledge (2009). Thus, this research challenges the municipal notion of the the city and focuses on neighborhood as other spaces.

Our research focused on five central neigborhoods in the city of Tel Aviv. We documented the LL of all items in a number of streets that included building and street names as well as notes and other language displays. Our findings pointed to the uniqueness of these areas in terms of their multilingualism and diversity as the neighbohood not only differed from one another but also stood in stark difference to those claimed by the official documents of the municipality and its homogenous ideology. The LL data was accompanied by interviews with residents of the neigborhoods as well as city officials  respondping to a set of questions regarding the meaning of ‘a Tel Aviv identity’. The study reveals the unique patterns of the neighborhoods in relation to their collective identities as well as to a tense relationship and contradictions with the city’s vision which overlooks diversity for  the sake of  homogenous ideology.The paper calls for new types of  language policies of neighborhoods of which one manifestation is the display of LL so it can be on par with the needs and practices of people and their practices. The data in this study provides support for the need to dismantle cities as authoritative entities for the sake of self governence within the realm of LL and other devices in order to create more just local spaces.