Procedimiento para la expropiación por vía judicial

Methodologically, contemporary semiotic analysis does not need to follow a certain prescribed procedure, similar to other non-positivist, qualitative research approaches (Echtner, 1999; Hannam and Knox, 2005). However, Echtner (1999) suggests a helpful six step approach to semiotic analysis which can be adapted to the needs of particular research projects. Echtner (1999) developed this approach in the context of tourism marketing material and follows a Saussurian structuralist approach. Nonetheless, because of the scarcity of similarly detailed frameworks for semiotic analyses, this six step process was chosen, and adapted to suit the context and sources of data.

The adapted semiotic process is as outlined in Table 2.

Step 1 Choose relevant sources of data for each event Step 2 Specify and segment the relevant elements of analysis

Step 3 Examine the significance and dominance of elements within each event Step 4 Decode the meaning of the elements within each event

Step 5 Examine the combinations of elements within the events and develop common themes

Step 6 Penetrate surface meanings and extract underlying meanings based on combination of elements and themes across the events

Table 2: A six step approach to semiotic analysis (adapted from Echtner, 1999)

As a first step, as suggested by Echtner (1999), the researcher should choose a data set which is ‘a static, distinct and self-sufficient system’ (p. 50), such as all current tourism brochures for a particular destination. The data for this analysis consists of the commemorative events themselves in the anniversary years 2009 and 2014. However, the analysis of these events

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was conducted with a variety of supporting material which is listed in Appendix B.

The second step as outlined by Echtner (1999) is guided by the aims of the research as well as the theoretical background. A framework needs to be developed which consists of the elements that are investigated within the data. These elements may be words and phrases or actions and objects portrayed in images. The important question to be answered here is: what are the most important signifiers (and what do they signify) (Berger, 2012;

Chandler, 2014a)? The author identified elements for this semiotic analysis which describe what she looked out for in the data set, but this framework was refined throughout the familiarisation and analysis process. Importantly, all the events had to be seen separately at this stage, as they are of different nature and may communicate separate narratives. For each event, the initial elements for analysis were identified as follows:

 Event title

 Dominant visual sign

 Dominant space

 Dominant elements in the event programming

As a third step, Echtner (1999) proposes a quantitative step which documents the frequency of occurrence of the elements identified in step two, similar to a content analysis. This step helps in identifying the most important signifiers in the texts. As the data for this research is different from Echtner’s (1999) printed marketing material, counting of elements is not always appropriate. However, in terms of the events, frequency, length of time or visual dominance of elements may be an indicator of significance. For instance, for the programming of the ‘Festival of Freedom’, frequency and length of speeches may be an indicator of their significance as opposed to potential less frequent and shorter elements, whereas fireworks may be particularly dominant visually and thus be of significance.

Although the fourth step proposed by Echtner (1999) aims at understanding the relationships between elements, the author adapted this step to be concerned with the underlying meanings of individual elements in terms of

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what they signify. This includes, for example, an application of Peirce’s typology of signs or the consideration of rhetorical tropes such as synecdoche⁷, metonymy⁸, antonym⁹ and metaphor¹⁰. However, this step also includes the analysis of the relationships in terms of Saussure’s syntagmatic and paradigmatic axes (Chandler, 2007). The syntagmatic structures refer to

‘creation of meaning through combination’ (Echtner, 1999, p. 51). It is ‘the various ways in which elements within the same text may be related to each other’ (Chandler, 2007, p. 85). Contrary to that, paradigmatic structures are concerned with ‘the creation of meaning through selection’ (Echtner, 1999, p.

51), i.e. what other elements may have been possible in the same context.

An analysis of paradigmatic structures is based on contrast and comparison of the signifiers present in a text with absent signifiers that could have been chosen in the same context, as well as a consideration of the significance and implications of the choices made (Chandler, 2007). For the paradigmatic analysis it is important to consider which type of text medium is used to convey meaning as it results in different paradigms one has to consider (Chandler, 2014a). For example, in the case of written language, one has to consider word choice, but when analysing photographs the paradigms consist of shot size and angle, among others.

The fifth step is concerned with the development of themes based on the analysis of individual elements as well as the combination of elements within events. Once this step was conducted for the individual events, the analysis also considered how these themes are apparent not just within the chosen data set but across cases (Echtner, 1999). This step acknowledges that it is important not to see semiotic texts as self-contained systems but to see them in the wider context in which they were produced. This step is also likely to include parts of the analysis of deeper meanings as in the next step (Echtner, 1999). For this research project it means that the themes identified in the

7 A figure of speech where the whole is referred to by a part of that whole, or vice versa, e.g.

‘We need to hire some more hands’ or ‘Scotland played Wales in the World Cup’ (Chandler, 2014d).

8 A figure of speech that is very similar to a synecdoche, but where the substituting element is only associated with the whole rather than being a part of it, e.g. saying ‘No. 10’ to refer to the British Prime Minister (Chandler, 2014d).

9 A word that is the opposite of another, such as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ (Chandler, 2014c).

10 A figure of speech that emphasises similarities between two different concepts, e.g.

‘Experience is a good school’ (Chandler, 2014d).

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separate events are compared with each other to reveal an overall commemorative narrative. Furthermore, themes need to be seen in the wider context of Berlin Wall commemoration as discussed in the literature review.

According to Echtner (1999), the sixth and final step involves uncovering the connotative meanings as indicated by Barthes in his denotative/connotative sign system, where one has to penetrate the various layers of meanings. As with all qualitative research, this step ‘is not an exact science’ (Echtner, 1999, p. 51), and is highly dependent on the researcher’s subjective interpretation.

It is furthermore important to consider that this step cannot be completely separate from the previous steps. In identifying elements and their relationships, deeper meanings are already considered. This final step involves the deconstruction and discussion of the commemorative narrative that emerges from the combination of elements and themes across the events. In this final step, it is furthermore important to ask what a purely structural analysis of the text might downplay or ignore (Chandler, 2014a).

For example, particularly drawing on social semiotics, one should ask whose realities the signs represent, whose views are excluded and who the intended audience may be.

It should be said that the semiotic analysis was deliberately conducted prior to the thematic analysis to avoid bias through the interviews with organisers.

In order to authentically represent this process, findings from the semiotic analysis are presented first in this thesis. More specifically, the findings of the semiotic analysis are structured as follows. Due to the scope of this thesis, the first four steps can be found in Appendix E. Steps 5 and 6, however, which directly address key themes and the deconstruction of the commemorative narrative are presented in Chapters 6 and 8 within the main body of this thesis while occasionally drawing on findings from the previous steps