Making sense of linguistic diversity in Helsinki, Finland : the timespace of affects in the linguistic landscape

Abstract

This article explores the spatiotemporal and affective qualities of linguistic landscapes at three linguistically diverse neighborhoods in Helsinki, Finland. The three sites were selected for qualitative fieldwork using a method that combines social media and population registry data with quantitative measures of diversity and spatial analytics. The article demonstrates how each site is characterized by its own distinct affective atmosphere, which is discursively construed and made sense of through references to other places and times. The timespace analysis of affects provides conceptual and methodological tools that allow analyzing the change and circulation of social meanings in the landscape, as well as differences in these aspects across settings.