Metaphors of globalization Lesson 5 SIGN something that

Metaphors of globalization Lesson 5

• SIGN: something that stands for something else (De Sassure, inventor of “semiologie”) • Unity of signifier (word, object, image. . ) and signified (cultural content or meaning) • • Denotation: literal meanings (front-stage) • Connotation: cultural meanings (back-stage) Signs

• Signs are embedded in social relations and in a natural world. • Baudrillard: Real, Imaginary, Symbolic. • Durkheim: “We all live in a state of hallucination” (collective consciousness). • • C. S. Peirce (inventor of semiotics): sign-object relation Icons: resemblance (see) Indexes: connection with the real thing (figure out) Symbols: conventions and habits (learn) Reality and Imagination

• Example: blondness • In America: coldness, lack of emotion but also fun lovers. • In Italy ? • U. Eco: you can lie with signs (people who dye hair). ambivalence • Signifier/signified: arbitrary, conventional relation (lost in translation) • Symbols (sub-category of signs): tied to nature and experience Symbols and fakes

• Power of metaphors: • Gerard Zaltman (Harvard Businness School): marketers use metaphors to discover what motivates people. • Metaphors reflect unconscious beliefs and attitudes: when consumers are invited to use metaphors as they talk about a product, researchers can reveal hidden cognitive processes and shed light on codes, rules and values. • Advertisement can adapt to those rules and codes. Power of metaphors

• What metaphors of Globalization are discussed in the articles? (Favell, Urry & Sheller) • What are the symbols of Globalization? • What are the problems with these metaphors? Metaphors of Globalization