Memory and Ideology in the Linguistic Landscape

Commemorative (re)naming in East Germany and Poland 1916-2018

About the project

Whereas memory studies and research in linguistic landscape (LL) have documented street (re)naming in Eastern Europe as a result of multiple waves of ideological reorientations, most of this research rarely transgresses disciplinary and geopolitical boundaries. To date, systematic comparative research is scarce and cross-fertilisation between Western and Eastern European countries is almost non-existent. The MILL project aims to take a comprehensive approach to commemorative (re)naming by investigating ideologically-driven changes in the urban landscape of two countries throughout the past century. The project will focus on three pairs of cities in Poland and Eastern Germany:

(1) two large regional centres, Leipzig and Poznań;

(2) two towns of local importance Annaberg-Buchholz and Zbąszyń;

(3) Frankfurt (Oder) / Słubice, which since WWII have been divided by the Oder river.

The choice of the cities contrasts the processes underpinning street-naming along three dimensions (1) nation/state (across country), (2) size (within country) and (3) time: 1916-2016. The MILL project capitalizes on the research strength of an interdisciplinary team, which includes LL research, social geography, collective memory and urban ethnology. The unifying element of the project is the empirically-driven quantitative and qualitative modelling of the ideological processes that continue to shape Eastern European linguistic landscapes. The triangulation of research methods will give us important insights about the role of public discourse in influencing transformation of the commemorative cityscape. By integrating the insights from linguistic landscape research and collective memory studies we propose the concept of the commemorative cityscape, understood as a constantly negotiated and renegotiated spatial expression of the collective memory of the city inhabitants that is influenced by the socio-political and ideological factors at the national level. More specifically, the results of the MILL project promise to open new horizons in LL studies by examining the complex processes underlying ideologically-driven changes in commemorative street naming including “relations of power, language ideologies and [users’] views of their own and other’s identities” (Pavlenko & Blackledge 2004:1-2).

Pavlenko, A. & A. Blackledge (eds.). 2004. Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Publications (selection)

Buchstaller, Isabelle – Fabiszak, Małgorzata. 2021. "Editorial: ideology and commemoration in the urban space: " Linguistics Vanguard 7(s5): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2021-0010 

Fabiszak, Małgorzata  – Rubdy, Rani. 2021. "Media debates over the renaming of the cityscape: " Linguistics Vanguard 7(s5): 1-10.  https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2020-0089

Buchstaller, Isabelle. 2021. "Community cityscape: modes of engagement and co-construction of the streetscape: " Linguistics Vanguard 7(s5): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2020-0150 

Fabiszak, Małgorzata – Isabelle Buchstaller – Anna Weronika Brzezińska  – Seraphim Alvanides – Frauke Griese – Carolin Schneider. 2021. "Ideology in the linguistic landscape: Towards a quantitative approach.” Discourse and Society 32(4): 405-425. DOI: doi.org/10.1177/0957926521992149 

Buchstaller, Isabelle - Seraphim Alvanides - Frauke Griese - Carolin Schneider. 2020.   “Competing ideologies, competing semiotics: A critical perspective on politically-driven renaming practices in Annaberg-Buchholz, Eastern Germany”. In: Evelyn Zigeler and Heiko Marten (eds.),  Linguistic Landscapes im deutschsprachigen Kontext. Frankfurt: Lang.

For a complete list of publications, please visit the official project website.

Lesson plans / Unterrichtsimpulse

Die folgenden didaktischen Materialien in deutscher Sprache wurden im Laufe des Projektes erstellt und können gern von Lehrenden an Schulen und Mitarbeitenden an anderen Bildungseinrichtungen genutzt werden.

The following lesson plans were created during the project and may be used by school teachers and other educational institutions.

​Generelle Unterrichtsimpulse

Unterrichtsimpulse Annaberg-Buchholz

Unterrichtsimpulse Leipzig

Unterrichtsimpulse Frankfurt (Oder)​​