Abstract
The best way to conceive semiotical spaces that are not identical to single buildings, such as a cityscape, is to define the place in terms of the activities occurring there. This conception originated in the proxemics of E. T. Hall and was later generalized in the spatial semiotics of Manar Hammad. It can be given a more secure grounding in terms of time geography, which is involved with trajectories in space and time. We add to this a qualitative dimension which is properly semiotic, and which derives from the notion of border, itself a result of the primary semiotic operation of segmentation. Borders, in this sense, are more or less permeable to different kinds of activities, such as gaze, touch, and movement, where the latter are often not physically defined, but characterized in terms of norms. Norms must be understood along the lines of the Prague school, which delineates as scale going from laws in the legal sense to simple rules of thumb. Such considerations have permitted us to define a number of semio-spatial objects as, most notably, the boulevard, considered as an intermediate level of public space, located between the village square and the coffee house presiding over what Habermas called the public sphere. Urbanity originates as a scene on which the gaze, well before the word, mediates between the sexes, the classes, the cultures, and other avatars of otherness. However, this scenario is seriously upset but the emergence of the cell phone and other technical devices, as well as by the movement of populations.
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Notes
This is of course not true in many particular cases, when the bridge extends between enemy territories. But it is not the bridge as such which determines this qualitative difference.
It should be noted that awareness and/or purpose have not been included in the characterization of communication given above. Messages of the sender’s body are of course often not intended.
Again, intentions are only relevant here to the extent that they are embodied in the perceived readiness of the pedestrian to cross.
The pedestrian who, after been run over, is asked whether he did not really see the car approaching, knows all about this.
This could be because driver’s licenses from other countries, which may not have this law, are simply exchanged for Swedish driver’s licenses, without any further requirement. Or it may be because Swedes has become more disobedient.
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Acknowledgments
This article was written while I was head of the Centre for cognitive semiotics at Lund University, financed by the Tercentenary Foundation of the Swedish National Bank.
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Sonesson, G. New Rules for the Spaces of Urbanity. Int J Semiot Law 27, 7–26 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-013-9312-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-013-9312-2