Ponti, Anita

A Social-Semiotic Journey through the Working-Class Neighborhoods of Paris and Its Suburbs - 2011.


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The mechanisms of domination are formed out of space and the way space is designed, but also out of the way these mechanisms are conveyed through discourse, which can sometimes be stigmatizing. This paper attempts to define the dynamics that produce areas, territories, and the behaviors of people who live in working-class neighborhoods. It also examines the discourse of the city as it pertains to discrimination and debasement by looking at the meaning of places as conveyed through discourse. Expressions such as suburb or “ghetto” describe places, but do not describe the people who live in them from a social perspective. In this case, the city and the suburb appear as complex discursive matrices that must be deciphered. Analyzing speech requires going beyond the apparent facts and understanding that what is not said is an important feature of urban stereotypes.