Geosemiotic Collisions and Ethnic Placemaking: The Case of a Black Lives Matter Mural in Chinatown

• In Event: Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 5: Ethnic Enclaves

Abstract

Ethnic placemaking refers to how communities of color use artistic or design interventions in the urban environment to celebrate their identity and assert their claim to urban space (Hom 2022; Murphy 2022). Research on ethnic placemaking has often focused on how these practices constitute a form of resistance against exclusion and discrimination from the majority whites. Less attention has been paid to how ethnic placemaking mediates relations between different communities of color. To explore this issue, we present a case study of a single placemaking project. “The Guide and Protector” was a mural created in 2020 by Black Calgarian artist Jae Sterling and commissioned in response to the Black Lives Matter (BLM protests). The mural became controversial because it was located within Calgary’s Chinatown neighborhood. Community members were split on whether it detracted from the neighborhood’s existing identity (seen as being under threat by gentrification) or represented a common struggle among Black and Chinese Calgarians against racism. To analyze this case, we develop the concept of a “geosemiotic collision” to describe how distinct processes of meaning-making can converge within a single location, producing a situation in which new meanings are contested, synthesized and forged. We relate this concept to the larger literature on ethnic placemaking and draw on data from a five-year study of placemaking in Calgary’s Chinatown, which involved 50 interviews, archival research, and field observations.

Authors

• Sarah Bock, University of Calgary

• Matt Patterson, University of Calgary