Abstract
Ferreira and Caldas (Biosemiotics 6 (2): 245–252, 2013) have proposed the modelling of what these authors call the semiosis of cognition. Placing the essential dialectical process comprehending the living form’s Innenwelt and its construed Umwelt (Uexkull, Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere, 1906) at the core of the model, it aims to capture the existential dynamics responsible for every semiotic process, highlighting the fundamental role played by meaning assignment in the production of behaviour. This chapter applies that initial model to the analysis and comprehension of social phenomena, taking the present Portuguese social situation as a case study, in the context of the economic crisis of the eurozone. The chapter focuses on the role played by the street as locus of political expression and interaction when political institutions fail to respond to the community’s incorporated beliefs and deep expectations.
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Notes
- 1.
According to Searle (1995, 2010), institutions have status functions, i.e., they incorporate deontic properties (rights and duties) and, therefore, deontic powers. Thus, a police officer is endowed with a set of deontic powers, including rights to stop, search, and arrest people under certain conditions. These deontic powers only exist because, though collectively imposed, they are viewed as meaningful and relevant to the members of a community that convenes in accepting them.
- 2.
Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992.
- 3.
Cf. Ferreira 2013.
- 4.
These include, in Bourdieu’s (1992) opinion, tastes in art, literature, food and music.
- 5.
This distinct construction of world views can range from a slight one in the case of individuals embedded in the same semiosphere to a strong one in the case of individuals belonging to distinct civilizational or cultural frameworks.
- 6.
Draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, adopted by consensus by the European Convention on 13 June and 10 July 2003.
- 7.
As the eurozone crisis deepens, media reports what are labeled “economic suicides More than 100 widows marched in Bologna to mark the “numerous deaths” of Italians driven to suicide because of the economic crisis. Now in its fifth year of recession, Greece has seen its suicide rate—once among the lowest in Europe—rise by more than 22 % from 2009 to 2011. Other reports discern the same deadly, despairing trend in Spain and Ireland. According to statistics, the average rate of suicide in Portugal is six people a day.
- 8.
Durkheim (1912).
- 9.
Grândola was by that time a small village in Alentejo.
- 10.
In fact, as political action was not allowed, potential political parties lived clandestinely.
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Aldinhas Ferreira, M. (2015). The Street: The Ultimate Locus of Political Intervention in Modern Democracy. In: Trifonas, P. (eds) International Handbook of Semiotics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9404-6_41
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