Sustainability and the Construction of Space in Urban Discourse

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Nina Janich
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2012 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 216382446

The aim of the project is to investigate how urban sustainability discourse is constructed and publically mediated as urban identification markers/proposals. The focus therefore lies on city-specific differences in discourse on the principle of sustainability and sustainable development, using the regional capitals of Mainz and Wiesbaden as examples. This information will be obtained using the following two-part question, which at the same time illustrates the dual theoretical approach (i.e. research on sustainability discourse and the urban composition/constitution of space):1) What kind of city-specific understanding of sustainability can be demonstrated on the basis of semantic-conceptual and argumentative-rhetorical analyses? How and with what degree of emphasis are the three dimensions of sustainability (i.e. economy, ecology and society) semiotically and argumentatively generated in particular?2) How are urban spaces constituted in the framework of municipal sustainability discourse? How can these sustainably-constituted spaces, including their interconnectedness or interweaving with each other, be linguistically identified and analyzed? To what degree can they be classified as identification markers? And, in addition, do these markers serve at the same time to pinpoint "Places of Sustainability" within the city in a descriptively effective manner?

• DFG Programme: Research Grants