Social Representations of Marseilles and Naples’ Linguistic Landscapes

Abstract

The comparing of cities in LL research has been undertaken since Cenoz and Gorter contrasted San Sebastian and Leeuwarden in the 2006 landmark edited volume on multilingualism in the LL, and this approach has proved fruitful for highlighting trends in the management of the public space.¹ Here, we pair two Mediterranean cities with the intention of evaluating the potential for the LL to play a part in the social representations of Marseilles and Naples. We approach the LL of these ancient places with a view to assessing the extent to which written language use in urban centres echoes the social representations constructed around each city. We take this opportunity to differentiate further between the creation of LL in France and Italy, whilst exploring the scope for the LL to serve as a prism through which social representations can be examined critically. This chapter opens with a brief presentation of social representations of Marseilles and Naples, and then uses LL data to investigate whether the public space as lived and experienced by both cities’ residents and visitors confirms the discourses that circulate in wider society regarding language behaviour.