The image of the urban space. Social semiotics readings, data, and assumptions

Abstract

Contemporary urban space and contemporary urban life is rife with signs and markers with either collective or individual meaning, as the main symbolic regulator/leader in the socio-cultural presence and management of urban space. Urban city centres present a high degree of sign density that on the one hand express established conventional signs (in the strict sense of the term), which are accepted in a fairly, general way, and on the other hand define semantic symbolisms according to which the regulating modes and attitudes in our urban behavior are respectively indicated. This paper focuses on the ambiguity aspect of conceptual collective urban signs by examining important research variables such as: the degree of distinctiveness of the signs, the representation of the idea they ‘convey’, especially both as technical standards and as socio-environmental images of form.