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Bringing the world into the world’

The material semiotics of contemporary culture

Bibliographic Data

ID12848321
AuthorsCelia Lury (0000-0001-7630-5597, University of Warwick, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume13
Issue3
Pages247-260
Publication date2012-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDistinktion Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1600-910X • E-ISSN: 2159-9149
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1600910x.2012.728144
OpenAlexW2074537371
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited18

This article puts forward the claim that culture is becoming topological. Rather than using topological concepts to analyze and interpret contemporary culture, it is suggested that the distinctively topological ‘abstractions’ of ordering and continuity of transformation now organize the movement of forms of social life such that constant change is normalized. This claim is supported by a discussion of the material semiotics of contemporary culture, which makes use of the Peircian framework of signs as icons, indices, and symbols to explore the changing qualities of live(li)ness as they are produced in processes of practical abstraction. The effect of these processes is to expand modes of relating, and in particular to intensify the importance of comparison as a social relation. Topological culture is thus presented as the introduction of new continuities into a discontinuous world and the making and marking of discontinuities through repeated contrasts; both are shown to emerge in the contemporary proliferation of modes of relating made possible by changes in the composition of a mixed sign-system

Abstraction · Aesthetics · Art · Composition (language · Constant (computer programming · Epistemology · Linguistics · Relation (database · Semiotics · Semiotics of culture · Sign (mathematics · Sociology · Topology (electrical circuits · Computer Science · Mathematics · Media, Communication, and Education · Philosophy · Semiotics and Representation Studies · Social and Cultural Dynamics

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Unique citing works9
Citations per year0,69
Citation span2013 - 2021 (9)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 8
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