Rhetorical uses of public space: the discursive organization of a space in conflict

Authors

  • Andrés Di Masso Tarditti Universitat de Barcelona

Abstract

In this paper I explore the discursive use of public space, understood as a rhetorical resource for localized social action. Analysing several extracts of written documents and in-depth interviews, I focus on the rhetorical use of space-formulations and constructions of people-in-place relations by social and institutional agents confronted by the physical definition of a space in conflict. The discursive work includes the rhetorical management of culturally and ideologically organized constructions of urban territoriality, argumentative uses of localized social categories and behaviour-scripts for the performance of normative patterns of coexistence in the public space, and rhetorical work on spatially rooted symbolic processes. The purpose is to contribute to a critical examination of conflictive sociospatial phenomena from a discursive approach, seeking to make visible the social tensions involved in the deliberate attempt to control and organize urban space.

Keywords

Rhetorical uses, Public space, Localized discourse, Conflict

References

Alonso, Luis Enrique (1998). La mirada cualitativa en Sociología. Una aproximación interpretativa. Madrid: Fundamentos

Altman, Irwin. (1975). The environment and social behaviour: privacy, personal space, territoriality and crowding. Monterey, Ca.: Brooks/Cole

Altman, Irwin y Low, Setha M. (1992). Place Attachment. New York: Plenum Press

Auburn, Timothy y Barnes, Rebecca (2006). Producing place: A neo-Shutzian perspective on the ‘psychology of place’. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 26 (1), 38-50

Augoustinos, Martha (1998). Social representations and ideology: towards the study of ideological representations. En Uwe Flick (Ed.), The psychology of the social (pp. 156-169). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Barrett, Michèle. (1994). Ideología, política, hegemonía: de Gramsci a Laclau y Mouffe. En Slavoj Žižek (Ed.) Ideología. Un mapa de la cuestión (pp. 263-294). Buenos Aires: Paidós

Billig, Michael (1991). Ideology and Opinions. Studies in Rhetorical Psychology. London: Sage

Burr, Vivien (1995). Introducció al construccionisme social. Barcelona: UOC. 1996

Davies, Bronwyn y Harré, Rom (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20 (1), 43-63

Deconchy, Jean-Pierre (1984). Sistemas de creencias y representaciones ideológicas. En Serge Moscovici (Ed.), Psicología Social (II). Pensamiento y vida social. Psicología social y problemas sociales (pp. 439-468). Barcelona: Paidós

Dickerson, Paul (2000). ‘But I’m different to them’: Constructing contrasts between self and others in talk-in-interaction. British Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 381-398

Dixon, John y Durrheim, Kevin (2000). Displacing place-identity: A discursive approach to locating self and other. British Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 27-44

Dixon, John y Durrheim, Kevin (2004). Dislocating identity: Desegregation and the transformation of place. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24, 455-473

Edwards, Derek (1994). Script Formulations. An analysis of Event Descriptions in Conversation. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 13 (3), 211-247

Gergen, Kenneth J. (1989). Warranting voice and the elaboration of the self. En John Shotter y Kenneth J. Gergen (Eds.), Texts of identity (pp. 70-81). London: Sage

Gibson, James J. (1977). The theory of affordances. En Robert E. Shaw y John Bransford (Eds.), Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing (pp. 67-82). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Gifford, Robert. (1987). Environmental Psychology: Principles and Practice. Boston: Allyn and Bacon

Gustafson, Per (2001). Meanings of place: everyday experience and theoretical conceptualisations. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21 (1), 5-16

Hidalgo, Maricarmen (1998). Apego al lugar: ámbitos, dimensiones y estilos. Tesis doctoral no publicada. Universidad de La Laguna

Knez, Igor (2005). Attachment and identity as related to a place and its perceived climate. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25, 207-218

Korosec-Serfaty, Perla. (Ed.)(1976). Appropriation of space. Proceedings of the Strasbourg Conference. Louvain-la-Neuve: CIACO

Laclau, Ernesto (2005). La razón populista. Buenos Aires: FCE

Laclau, Ernesto y Mouffe, Chantal (1985). Hegemony and socialist strategy. Towards a radical democratic politics. London: Verso

Lalli, Marco (1988). Urban Identity. En David Canter (Ed.), Environmental Social Psychology. NATO ASI Series, Behavioral and Social Sciences, vol. 45 (pp. 303-311). Dordrech, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academia Publishers

Manzo, Lynne (2005). For better or worse: Exploring multiple dimensions of place meaning. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25 (1), 67-86

McAndrew, Francis (1998). The measurement of ‘rootedness’ and the prediction of attachment to home-towns in college students. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 18 (4), 409-417

Pailhous, Jean (1984). The representation of urban space: its development and its role in the organization of journeys. En Serge Moscovici y Robert Farr (Eds.). Social Representations (pp.311-327). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Perelman, Chaïm y Olbrechts-Tyteca, Lucie (1976). Tratado de la argumentación. Madrid: Gredos. 1989

Pol, Enric. (1996). La apropiación del espacio. En Íñiguez, Lupicinio y Pol, Enric (Comps.), Cognición, representación y apropiación del espacio (pp.45-62). Col.lecció Monografies Psico/Socio/Ambientals, 9. Barcelona: P.U.B.

Potter, Johnatan y Wetherell, Margaret (1987). Discourse and social psychology: beyond attitudes and behavior. London: Sage

Proshansky, Harold M.; Fabian, Abbe K. y Kaminoff, Robert (1983). Place-identity: physical world socialization of the self. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 3 (1), 57-83

Stokoe, Elisabeth y Wallwork, Jodi (2003). Space invaders: The moral-spatial order in neighbour dispute discourse. British Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 551-569

Stokols, Daniel y Shumaker, Sally Ann (1981). People in Places: A Transactional View of Settings. En John H. Harvey (Ed.), Cognition, Social Behavior and the Environment (pp. 441-488). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Thibaut, John W. y Kelley, Harold H. (1959). The social Psychology of Groups. New York: Wiley

Twigger-Ross, Clare L. y Uzzell, David L. (1996). Place and identity processes. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 16, 205-220

Valera, Sergi (1996). Análisis de los aspectos simbólicos del espacio urbano. Perspectivas desde la psicología ambiental. Revista de Psicología (Universitas Tarraconensis), 1 (XVIII), 63-83

Valera, Sergi y Pol, Enric (1994). El concepto de identidad social urbana: una aproximación entre la Psicología Social y la Psicología Ambiental. Anuario de Psicología, 62, 5-24

Vidal, Tomeu y Pol, Enric (2006). La apropiación del espacio: una propuesta teórica para comprender la vinculación entre las personas y los lugares. Anuario de Psicología, 3 (36), 281-297

Wetherell, Margaret y Potter, Johnatan (1988). El análisis del discurso y la identificación de los repertorios interpretativos. En Ángel Juan Gordo y José Luis Linaza (Comps.), Psicologías, Discursos y Poder (pp. 63-76). Madrid: Visor. 1996

Žižek, Slavoj (1989). El sublime objeto de la ideología. Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI

Author Biography

Andrés Di Masso Tarditti, Universitat de Barcelona

Licenciado en Psicología por la Universidad de Barcelona en junio 2004. Becario FPU en el departamento de Psicología Social. Docente en las asignaturas de psicología social aplicada y comportamiento colectivo, psicología ambiental y psicología general, ésta última en la licenciatura de Criminología. Actualmente mis intereses investigadores se centran, a nivel teórico, en la psicología social del lugar, el análisis del discurso y la epistemología, y a nivel aplicado en la intervención social en procesos conflictivos en torno al espacio público.

Published

2007-05-05

How to Cite

Di Masso Tarditti, A. (2007). Rhetorical uses of public space: the discursive organization of a space in conflict. Athenea Digital. Revista De Pensamiento E investigación Social, (11), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/athenead/v0n11.335

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.