Signs of the Times
Discourse Ecologies and Street Life on Oxford St., Accra
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2280654 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ato Quayson (University of Toronto, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 72-96 |
| Publication date | 2010-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | City & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0893-0465 • E-ISSN: 1548-744X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1548-744x.2010.01031.x |
| OpenAlex | W2126490267 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 7 |
What happens when we stop seeing streets merely as geographical locations and rather interpret them as archives? What if, in focusing on an African street such as Oxford Street in Accra, we interpret this archive not as static, but as providing a transcript of dynamic transformations of discourse ecologies? The elaboration of a method for understanding the African street as an archive of discourse ecologies will be the main subject of this paper, with a particular focus on cell phone advertising on the street from 2006-2007. I do not stop at an examination of cell phone advertizing billboards but relate these to the veritable galaxy of other cultural inscriptions to be seen in mottoes and slogans on lorries, cars, pushcarts and other mobile surfaces that can be encountered on the street. Such mobile slogans are a distinctive feature of Accra and of many African urban environments. The central mark of these mottoes and slogans is an improvisational character that is specifically tied to the local cultural mediations that have historically been drawn upon for them. Taken together the two dimensions of inscription-billboard and slogans-hint at the arc of urban social histories, while also invoking a rich and intricate relationship between tradition and modernity, religion and secularity as well as local and transnational circuits of images and ideas
Aesthetics · Art · Character (mathematics · Focus (optics · Media studies · Mobile phone · Modernity · Political science · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History
Nairobi as an Archive of Literary Imagination
Introduction
The Nairobi Castaways
‘Time is Money’
From Virtual Exile to Digital Futures
‘These KMA People are also our Customers’
Stuck in Ruins, or Up and Coming? The Shifting Geography of Urban Public Health Research in Kisumu, Kenya
Becoming a “Society of the Spectacle”
Kòbòlò Poetics
The Invention of Traditional Music in the City
Rush and Relax
Driving together
Contentious connections
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,81 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2025 (16) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |