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DTSTART:20180101T000000
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20190926
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20190927
DTSTAMP:20200130T101742Z
CREATED:20200130T101742Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200130T101742Z
UID:2758-1569456000-1569542399@hku-english.visibleone.dev
SUMMARY:Semiotic Emblems\, Indexicality and Eliteness in Hong Kong
DESCRIPTION:Jackie Militello – The University of Hong Kong \nAbstract\nScholars in sociolinguistics tend to study inequality by focusing on people at the lower end of the power and economic spectrum\, rather than those at the higher end\, but by attending to those who are the most privileged and powerful\, the so-called ‘elites’\, we can better understand the reproduction of the macro social and economic order (Thurlow & Jaworski\, 2017). Beyond the economic and political capital wielded by elites\, their impact winds its way down through society by establishing and maintaining standards and norms that generate an aspirational ideology against which everyone [else] is persuaded to position (Thurlow & Jaworski\, 2017). Past Social Sciences research has demonstrated how being ‘elite’ in cosmopolitan societies is associated with certain educational institutions (Khan\, 2011\, 2012; Kenway & Lazarus\, 2018)\, pastimes\, (Rivera & Tilcsik\, 2016; Silverstein\, 2004)\, or business affiliations (Alvesson & Robertson\, 2006). Many of these studies are based in Anglo-western contexts comprised of interactants ‘with highly dependably shared intersubjective cultural understandings and values\, and impressively fluent and even efficient ways of articulating them’ (Silverstein\, 1998\, p. 300). However\, in the context of Hong Kong\, where not everyone shares the Anglo ‘indexical order’ (i.e. the conventional hierarchy of social meaning) (Silverstein\, 2003)\, there may be a discrepancy between the globally dominant signifiers of eliteness and locally cultivated values and ways of expressing them. Drawing on data from early stages of interactions in networking situations among (business) elite professionals in Hong Kong\, this presentation explores some of the resulting tensions in the choice\, salience and deployment of emblems of eliteness across differently scaled business contexts. \n ||  \nBiography
URL:https://hku-english.visibleone.dev/event/semiotic-emblems-indexicality-and-eliteness-in-hong-kong/
LOCATION:Room CRT-7.45\, 7/F\, Run Run Shaw Tower\, Centennial Campus\, HKU
CATEGORIES:Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20190926
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20190927
DTSTAMP:20200130T101834Z
CREATED:20200130T101834Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200130T101834Z
UID:2769-1569456000-1569542399@hku-english.visibleone.dev
SUMMARY:Eliteness Strategies: Recognising Eliteness and the Semiotics of ‘Artisanal’ Coffee
DESCRIPTION:Andre Joseph Theng – The University of Hong Kong \nAbstract\nIn recent years\, sociolinguistic research has been increasingly concerned with the notion of the discursive construction of eliteness. ‘Elite discourse’ can refer to the ways in which ‘superior’ class identities are represented\, stylized and performed in different domains with the effect of reinforcing social\, political and economic hierarchies. One area of social life increasingly dominated by eliteness is commerce\, with traditionally mundane commodities\, such as coffee\, being marketed as luxuries – specialty products requiring connoisseurship. In this paper\, I discuss ways in which eliteness is enregistered in the design choices of ‘artisanal’ coffee shops through examining multimodal signage in three contexts: the shops’ exterior\, interior\, and online. Café facades (the exterior) are characterized by a coalescence of semiotic features which become enregistered as ‘elite’. I elaborate upon four categories of features\, namely\, (1) orthography and typography\, (2) visual images and colour\, (3) materiality and layout\, and (4) emplacement. Café interiors often feature a type of spectacular ‘language objects’ (Jaworski\, 2015)\, namely neon signage as a form of text art. Finally\, I discuss ways in which eliteness is performed online\, where a discursive display of the tension between ‘egalitarian’ and ‘elite’ stances can be observed on the social networking site Instagram. This is played out by the businesses juxtaposing differently scaled (Blommaert\, 2007) images referencing their ‘local communities’ and images referencing ‘aesthetic connoisseurship’ (Silverstein\, 2016) required for the appreciation of speciality coffee. In sum\, I argue that the enregisterment of elitism in these coffee shops is indicative of broader urban processes of growing inequality and social exclusion.  As a global semiotic of gentrification (Lyons\, 2018; Trinch & Snajdr\, 2017) begins to emerge\, the proliferation of high-end coffee shops is a site where the relationship between semiotic forms and privileged positions can be observed in large metropolitan areas. \n ||  \nBiography
URL:https://hku-english.visibleone.dev/event/eliteness-strategies-recognising-eliteness-and-the-semiotics-of-artisanal-coffee/
LOCATION:Room CRT-7.45\, 7/F\, Run Run Shaw Tower\, Centennial Campus\, HKU
CATEGORIES:Events
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