Markets, ethnic cultures, and minority languages: constructing semiotic landscapes of diversity
Markets, ethnic cultures, and minority languages: constructing semiotic landscapes of diversity

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with minority and indigenous cultures (and their respective languages) as meaningful markers of diversity sustaining complex dynamics of identity and relationalities in different contexts of open-air markets or bazaars in multicultural spaces of the vast Southeast European area and Mexico. The research is based on extensive autoethnographic practices, autobiographical experiences, and fieldwork in the bazaars and markets in several Balkan cities (Belgrade, Sofia, Novi Sad, Gjirokastër), Turkey (Nusaybin), Armenia (Yerevan) and Mexico (Mexico City, Valle de Bravo, and Oaxaca). Following a sociolinguistic and anthropological approach, I will analyse the ‘ethnic’ elements in these social environments as part of a complex process that constructs ‘semiotic landscapes’ of diversity. I will also highlight their capacity to express models of resistance to the logic of the nation-state and patterns of cultural homogenisation and emphasise their value for research on multicultural societies and minority cultures.

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