How are peoples' ideas about languages, ways of speaking and expressive styles shaped by their social positions and values? How is difference, in language and in social life, made - and unmade? How and why are some differences persuasive as the basis for action, while other differences are ignored or erased? Written by two recognised authorities on language and culture, this book argues that ideological work of all kinds is fundamentally communicative, and that social positions, projects and historical moments influence, and are influenced by, people's ideas about communicative practices. Neither true nor false, ideologies are positioned and partial visions of the world, relying on comparison and perspective; they exploit differences in expressive features - linguistic and otherwise - to construct convincing stereotypes of people, spaces and activities. Using detailed ethnographic, historical and contemporary examples, this outstanding book shows readers how to analyse ideological work semiotically.

An important study of how signs and sign relations create social and linguistic differences - and unities.

Inhalt: Birgit TAUTZ: Introduction: Color and Ethnic Difference or Ways of Seeing Part I: 1800 Gudrun HENTGES: Die Erfindung der 'Rasse' um 1800 - Klima, Säfte und Phlogiston in de Rassentheorie Immanuel Kants Wendy SUTHERLAND: Black Skin, White Skin and the Aesthetics of the Female Body in: Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ziegler's Die Mohrinn Daniel PURDY: The Whiteness of Beauty: Weimar Neo-Classicism and the Sculptural Transcendence of Color Assenka OKSILOFF: The Eye of the Ethnographer: Adalbert von Chamisso's Voyage Around the World Part II: 1900 Thomas R. MILLER: Seeing Eyes, Reading Bodies: Visuality, Race and Color Perception or a Threshold in the History of Human Sciences Andreas MICHEL: "Our European Arrogance": Wilhelm Worringer and Carl Einstein on Non-European Art Nana BADENBERG: Mohrenwäschen, Völkerschauen: Der Konsum des Schwarzen um 1900 Fatima EL-TAYEB: "We are Germans, We are Whites, and We Want to Stay White!" African Germans and Citizenship in the early 20th Century Part III: 2000 Uli LINKE: Shame on the Skin: Post-Holocaust Memory and the German Aesthetics of Whiteness Christine ACHINGER: Colouring the invisible: The figure of the 'black drug dealer' as a projection of socially produced fears Helen CAFFERTY: Orfeo and Sam: Racial, Sexual, and Ethnic Otherness in Dörrie's Keiner liebt mich (1994) and Sanoussi-Bliss' Zurück auf los (1999) Birgit TAUTZ: Epilog: Farblose Räume

Political yard signs are one of the most ubiquitous and conspicuous features of American political campaigns, yet they have received relatively little attention as a form of political communication or participation. In Politics on Display, Todd Makse, Scott L. Minkoff, and Anand E. Sokhey tackle this phenomenon to craft a larger argument about the politics of identity and space in contemporary America. Documenting political life in two suburban communities and a major metropolitan area, they use an unprecedented research design that leverages street-level observation of the placement of yard signs and neighborhood-specific survey research that delves into the attitudes, behavior, and social networks of residents. The authors then integrate these data into a geo-database that also includes demographic and election data. Supplemented by nationally-representative data sources, the book brings together insights from political communication, political psychology, and political geography. Against a backdrop of conflict and division, this book advances a new understanding of how citizens experience campaigns, why many still insist on airing their views in public, and what happens when social spaces become political spaces.

The aim of this study is to present, as far as possible, a general description of the theory of the sign and signification in Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), with a view to its evaluation and implications for the study of semiotics. Accurate studies for subject, discipline, and significance have not yet given an organic and systematic vision of Augustine’s theory of the sign. The underlying aspiration is that such an endeavour will prove to be beneficial to the scholars of Augustine’s thought as well as to those with a keen interest in the history of semiotics. The study uses Augustine’s own accounts to investigate and interpret the philosophical problem of the sign. The focus lies on the first decade of Augustine’s literary production. The De dialectica, is taken as the terminus ad quo of the study, and the De doctrina christiana is the terminus ad quem. The selected texts show an explicit engagement with poignant discussion on the nature and structure of the sign, the variety of signs and their uses. Although Augustine’s intention never was to establish a theory of meaning as an independent field of study, he largely employed a theory of signs. Thus, Augustine’s approach to signs is intrinsically meaningful.

Although we may not think we notice them, storefronts and their signage are meaningful, and the impact they have on people is significant. What the Signs Say argues that the public language of storefronts is a key component to the creation of the place known as Brooklyn, New York. Using a sample of more than two thousand storefronts and over a decade of ethnographic observation and interviews, the study charts two very different types of local Brooklyn retail signage. The unique and consistent features of many words, large lettering, and repetition that make up Old School signage both mark and produce an inclusive and open place. In contrast, the linguistic elements of New School signage, such as brevity and wordplay, signal not only the arrival of gentrification, but also the remaking of Brooklyn as distinctive and exclusive. Shonna Trinch and Edward Snajdr, a sociolinguist and an anthropologist respectively, show how the beliefs and ideas that people take as truths about language and its speakers are deployed in these different sign types. They also present in-depth ethnographic case studies that reveal how gentrification and corporate redevelopment in Brooklyn are intimately connected to public communication, literacy practices, the transformation of motherhood and gender roles, notions of historical preservation, urban planning, and systems of privilege. Far from peripheral or irrelevant, shop signs say loud and clear that language displayed in public always matters.

Synthesizing rhetorical and cultural theory, Signs of Struggle generates innovative approaches to current critical theories of difference, culture, gender, and race, sheds new light on multicultural issues, and suggests productive avenues for further exploration. Through a critical examination of the more cherished ideals of liberalism—governance through negotiated consensus, tolerance, and civility—West calls for the expansion of the ground rules for risky interaction that involves attention to the "emotional politics" of cultural difference. In an engaging and pointedly straightforward style, West encourages a more productive engagement with difference, rather than an approach that merely celebrates diversity.

These three volumes assemble the most important essays written on Jacques Derrida's philosophy since he became established in 1967. These volumes make well-known essays easily available and also present many essays never translated in English.