Cover not available
Article published In:
Linguistic Landscape
Vol. 5:1 (2019) ► pp.52–79

Cosmopolitanism in ethnic foodscapes

A geosemiotic, social literacies view of restaurants in Bloomington, Indiana

| Indiana University

This paper opens up a perspective for viewing the effect of globalization on ethnic restaurants in a college town, Bloomington, at Indiana, in the US. While existing scholarship on shop signs were focused on interpreting signages that are mostly visible from the exterior (e.g. Collins & Slembrouck, 2007; Malinowski, 2009; Ong, Ghesquière, & Serwe, 2013), this study examines publicly displayed material artefacts, and the dialogical relationship between customers and waiters, taking into account one aspect of Scollon and Scollon’s (2003) perceptual space which is highly visible in a restaurant: tastes. Through interviews, participant observations and geosemiotic analysis of signs inside and on the exterior of restaurants, I evinced a configuration of semiotic aggregates (Scollon & Scollon, 2003) drawing from my ethnographic work on ethnic foodscapes. Findings from the study suggest that multiple social actors contributed to shaping cosmopolitanism in a college town.

Keywords: cosmopolitanism, cosmopolitan literacies, ethnic foodscapes, ethnography, geosemiotics, globalization, sense of tastes
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Ethnic foodscapes and geosemiotics
  • 3.Connotations of “ethnic” in restaurants
  • 4.Shop signs in the linguistic landscape
  • 5.Cosmopolitanism and situating cosmopolitan literacies in the current study
  • 6.Research methodology
  • 7.Findings and discussions
    • 7.1Interaction orders and preference for cuisines
    • 7.2Restaurant menus and names of cuisines
    • 7.3Restaurant names and shop signs
    • 7.4Displays of artefacts
    • 7.5Hybridization of cuisines
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • References
Published online: 7 March 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.17019.aba
References
Alba, R. D.
(1990) Ethnic Identity. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Appadurai, A.
(1996) Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Backhaus, P.
(Ed.) (2007) Linguistic landscapes: A comparative study of urban multilingualism in Tokyo. (pp. 136). Multilingual matters.Google Scholar
Barton, D., & Hamilton, M.
(1998) Local literacies. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Barton, D. & Hamilton, M.
(2000) Literacy practices. In D. Barton, M. Hamilton, & R. Ivanič (Eds.), Situated literacies: Reading and writing in context (pp. 7–15). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., & Barni, M.
(2010) Introduction: An approach to an “ordered disorder.” In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp. xi–xxviii). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Collins, J., & Slembrouck, S.
(2007) Reading shop windows in globalized neighborhoods: Multilingual literacy practices and indexicality. Journal of Literacy Research, 39(3), 335–356. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ebster, C., Guist, I.
(2004) The role of authenticity in ethnic theme restaurants. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 7 (2), pp. 41–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Featherstone, M.
(1996) Localism, Globalism, and Cultural Identity. In Rob, W. & Wimal, D. (Eds.). Global/ Local: Cultural Production & the Transnational Imaginary (pp. 46–77). Durham: Duke University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gee, J.
(1996) Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. London: Routledge Falmer.Google Scholar
(2000) Discourse and sociocultural studies in reading. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook on reading research, volume III 1 (pp. 195–208). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hall, M.
(2013) Residential Integration on the New Frontier: Immigrant Segregation in Established and New Destinations. Demography, 50 (5), 1873–1896. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hull, G. A. & Stornaiuolo, A.
(2014) Cosmopolitan literacies, social networks, and proper distance”: Striving to understand in a global world. Curriculum Inquiry, 44(1), 15–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jaworski, A., & Thurlow, C.
(Eds.) (2010) Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space. London, UK: Continuum.Google Scholar
Jeffrey, B., & Troman, G.
(2004) Time for Ethnography. British Educational Research Journal, 301, 535–548. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jewitt, C. & Kress, G.
(eds.) (2003) Multimodal literacy. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Kalčik, S.
(1984) Ethnic foodways in America: symbol and the performance of identity. In L. K. Brown and K. Mussell (eds.), Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the United States (pp. 37–65). Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Kandinsky, W.
(1977) Concerning the Spiritual in Art. New York: Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T.
(1996/2006) Reading Images: The grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kelly-Holmes, H.
(2014) Linguistic Fetish: The Sociolinguistics of Visual Multilingualism. Visual Communication, 135–151.Google Scholar
Landry, R. & Bourhis, R. Y.
(1997) Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: An Empirical Study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16 (1), 23–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leung, G.
(2010) Ethnic foods in the UK. Nutrition Bulletin, 351, 226–234. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lu, S., and Fine, G. A.
(1995) The Presentation of Ethnic Authenticity: Chinese Food as a Social Accomplishment. The Sociological Quarterly, 36 (3). pp. 535–553. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Malinowski, D.
(2009) Authorship in the linguistic landscape: A performative-multimodal view. In Elana, S. & Durk, G. (eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 107–125). New York & London: Routledge.Google Scholar
McArthur, T.
(2000) Interanto: the global language of signs. English Today, 611, 33–43. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Neal, Z. P.
(2006) Culinary Deserts, Gastronomic Oases: A Classification of US Cities. Urban Studies. 43(1), 1–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ong, K., Ghesquière, J., & Serwe, S.
(2013) Frenglish shop signs in Singapore: Creative and novel blending of French and English in the shop fronts of beauty and food businesses in Singapore. English Today, 29(3), 19–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papen, U.
(2005) Adult literacy as social practice: More than skills. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rowe, W. & Schelling, V.
(1991) Memory and Modernity: Popular Culture in Latin America. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Rosenbaum, Y., Nadel, E., Cooper, R. L. & Fishman, J.
(1977) English on Keren Kayemet Street. In J. A. Fishman, R. L. Cooper and A. W. Conrad (eds.). The Spread of English (pp. 179–196). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. B. K.
(2003) Discourses in place: Language in the material world. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shohamy, E.
(2006) Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. London & New York, NY: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shohamy, E. & Gorter, D.
(2009) Introduction. In Elana, S. & Durk, G. (eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 1–10). New York & London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Spolsky, B., & Cooper, R.
(1991) The Languages of Jerusalem. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Street, B. V.
(2001) The new literacy studies. In E. Cushman, G. R. Kintgen, B. M. Kroll, & M. Rose (Eds.), Literacy: A critical sourcebook (pp. 430–442). Boston: St. Martin’s Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tomlinson, G.
(1986) Thought for food: A Study of written instructions. Symbolic Interaction, 9(2), 201–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Urry, J.
(2005) The ‘consuming’ of place. In A. Jaworski & A. Pritchard (Eds.), Discourse, communication and tourism (pp. 19–27). Clevedon: Channel View Publications. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vasudevan, L., Kerr, R. K., Hibbert, M., Fernandez, E., & Park, A.
(2014) Cosmopolitan literacies of belonging in an after-school program with court-involved youths. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(7), 538–548. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Woods, P.
(1986) Inside Schools: Ethnography in Educational Research. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Zelinsky, W.
(1985) The Roving Palate: North America’s Ethnic Restaurant Cuisines. Geoforum, 161. pp. 51–72. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 9 other publications

Androutsopoulos, Jannis & Akra Chowchong
2021. Sign-genres, authentication, and emplacement. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 7:2 ► pp. 204 ff. DOI logo
Angouri, Jo & Kristina Humonen
2023. “I just sit, drink and go back to work.” Topographies of language practice at work. Multilingua 42:1 ► pp. 55 ff. DOI logo
Arias Álvarez, Alba
2024. Asturian cider in Madrid? Linguistic identity and the multilingual signage of Asturian restaurants in Madrid, Spain. International Journal of Multilingualism ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Feddersen, Richard, Grit Liebscher & Jennifer Dailey-O’Cain
2024. Turn-taking in the interactive Linguistic Landscape. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 10:1 ► pp. 22 ff. DOI logo
Im, Jae-hyun
2020. The discursive construction of East Asian identities in an era of globalization and internationalization: the linguistic landscape of East Asian departments at a U.S. university. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 15:1 ► pp. 80 ff. DOI logo
Im, Jae-hyun
2023. The Linguistic Landscape as an Identity Construction Site of a United States’ Higher Educational Institution in the Time of COVID-19. Education as Change 27 DOI logo
Liao, Jian, Xiaofei Lu, Katherine A. Masters & Zhi Zhou
2024. Meaning-focused foreign language instruction via telepresence robots: A geosemiotic analysis. ReCALL ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Phan, Nhan
2021. Memories and semiotic resources in place-making. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 7:1 ► pp. 86 ff. DOI logo
Zhao, Fengzhi & Jackie Jia Lou
2023. Localising cosmopolitanism in place talk: Semiotic landscape as stance object. Language in Society ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.