Dialogicality and imaginings of two 'community' notice boards in post-apartheid Observatory, Cape Town

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Date

2014

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Taylor & Francis
Unisa Press

Abstract

This article undertakes a poststructuralist multisemiotic analysis of posters and notices found on two 'community' notice boards in the trendy, multicultural neighbourhood of Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa. An analysis of the two notice boards endeavours to reveal different strategic uses of English as well as varying constructions of (transnational) place-making and community in Observatory. The two notice boards reveal voices of transient and permanent groups alike and index new imaginative constructions of this changing neighbourhood. Furthermore, this paper explores the implications of strategic linguistic processes in self-marketisation of transnational and 'local' community members in Observatory. We conclude by expounding on the new perspective of transcultural capital and what it means to the sociolinguistics of a super-diverse neighbourhood in the post-apartheid neighbourhood of Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Keywords

Dialogicality, Discursive formation, Postcolonial identities, Neighbourhood and community notice boards, Observatory, Place-making, Poststructuralism, Transnational cultural flows, Transcultural capitalism

Citation

Peck, A. & Banda, F. (2014). Dialogicality and imaginings of two 'community' notice boards in post-apartheid Observatory, Cape Town. Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa, 45(3): 360-377