Spaces and places

A semiotic analysis of potential and actualized meaning in a vocational secondary school

Abstract

From the perspective of social semiotics, this article analyses how affective meaning potentials of places are realised in the interplay between different modes at a vocational upper secondary school in Sweden. The article draws on Lefebvre's (1991) theory of place-making and distinguishes between a geographically delimited space and a socio-culturally constructed place with an affective core. The aim of the article is to show how the affective meaning potentials of different places are realised in the interplay between different modes and semiotic resources, and which of these resources are actualised when students talk about the same places. The study is based on two separate analyses which employ different methods: firstly, a spatial discourse analysis (see Ravelli & McMurtrie, 2016) of three different places in the school; secondly, a content analysis of two focus group discussions in which students discuss the same places. The analyses examine how the interplay between different resources and modes form places with different affective potentials for different groups of students at the school (cf. Wetherell 2012, 2013). While a spatially more enclosed group room is described by students as a 'cosy' and 'calm' place, the spatially more open canteen is described as a ‘vulnerable’ place. Such perceptions of different places in the school have significance for how students talk about, but also react to and act in, these places. The results contribute to a semiotic understanding of how the affective potential of places is realised in the interaction between different modes, as well as which of these potentials are actualised by the actors involved in the creation of different places.