In collaboration with Payame Noor University and Iranian Geography and Urban Planning Association

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Professor, Department of Geography, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

2 Ph.D. student in Geography and Urban Planning, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

10.30473/psp.2024.68409.2686

Abstract

In the present study, we have investigated the socio-semiotic discourse of the Holy defense in the entrance landscape of Dezful city and the role of local governance in creating a designed and purposeful entrance landscape. The purpose of the research is to investigate and analyze how to use the landscape of the entrance to present discourses, narratives and imagery of national and local governance. The research uses a combination of descriptive-analytical and field methods, and its foundation is based on qualitative research method. We examine all the squares, toponyms, entrance and memorial billboards located at the entrances, and categorize them in terms of different discourse and imagery patterns. The findings show that the discourse of sacred defense, religious and historical are 3 major discourses and cross-border resistance is an emerging discourse in the landscape of Dezful entrances. The discourse of holy defense has decisively dominated the landscape of Dezful's entrance and in a contextual way, it is engaged in a kind of illustration of the role and position of Dezful in one of the most important events of Iran's contemporary history, namely the 8-year war. In this imagery, all the signs related to the legacy of the sacred defense are presented in the context of a mythological narrative of Dezful's role during the war. Indeed, many heritage initiatives are designed by local authorities to match national discourses and strategies. As a result, the existing entrance landscape is a represented landscape in which the dominant groups use their desired discourses, myths and ideologies in writing and illustrating the entrances of the city and encode them in the framework of the ruling values of their mental world. The political authority and cultural hegemony of some groups is the result of this process.

Keywords

Azaryahu, M. (1986). “Street Names and Political Identity.” Journal of Contemporary History, 21(4): 581–604, https://doi.org/10.1177/002200948602100405
Azaryahu, M. (1990). “Renaming the Past: Changes in ‘City Text’ in Germany and Austria, 1945–1947.” History and Memory, 2(2): 32–53.
Azaryahu, M. (1996) “The Power of Commemorative Street Names” Environment and Planning, 14(3): 311–330, https://doi.org/10.1068/d140311
Azaryahu, M. (1997). “German Reunification and the Politics of Street Names: The Case of East Berlin.” Political Geography, 16(6): 479–493, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0962-6298(96)00053-4
Azaryahu, M. (2009). “Street Names and Iconography.” In R. Kitchin and N. Thrift (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (pp. 460–466). Oxford: Elsevier, DOI:10.1016/B978-008044910-4.00393-X
Azaryahu, M. and Kook, R. (2002). “Mapping the Nation: Street Names and Arab-Palestinian Identity: Three Case Studies.” Nations and Nationalism, 8(2): 195–213. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8219.00046
Cosgrove, D. (1984) Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape. Beckenham, Kent: Croom Helm.
Czepczyński, M (2008), Cultural Landscapes of Post-Socialist Cities: Representation of Powers and Needs, London, Ashgate, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315575315
Domosh, Mona. (1992) URBAN IMAGERY, Urban Geography, 13,5, pp. 475-480. https://doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.13.5.475
Donnan, H. and McFarland, G. (eds) (1997), Culture and Policy in Northern Ireland (Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University Belfast). DOI:10.1525/aa.1999.101.2.449
Duncan, J. (1987), Review of urban imagery: urban semiotics, Urban Geography, 8:5, 473-483
Duncan, J. (2000) ‘Representation’, in R.J. Johnston, D. Gregory, G. Pratt and M.Watts (eds) (2000) The Dictionary of Human Geography, Blackwell: Oxford, 703–5.
Entrikin, J.N. (1991). The Betweenness of Place: Towards a Geography of Modernity. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Ferguson, P. (1988). “Reading City Streets.” The French Review, 61(3): 386–397.
Gibson, C. Waitt, G. (2009). Cultural turn. In: Kitchin, R, Thrift, N. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Elsevier, pp. 411–424. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008044910-4.00932-9
Gottdiener M, (1986), "Culture, Ideology, and the Sign of the City, in The City and the Sign Eds. M. Gottdiener, A. Lagopoulos, (Columbia University Press, New York)
Gottdiener,M. Lagopoulos, A (1986), Introduction to Urban Socio-Semiotics, In The City and the Sign Eds. M. Gottdiener, A. Lagopoulos, Columbia University Press, New York
Hoelscher, S. (2020). Landscape Iconography. In: Kitchin, R., Thrift, N. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2nd edition, Elsevier, pp. 113–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10198-2
Imna news agency (1400), unusual appearance of a statue in Dezful, https://www.imna.ir/news/544385/ (In Persian)
Ismail, Alice Sabrina and Erna Nuralia Zhaharin. (2017), Built Form Properties as Sign and Symbols of Patron Political Ideology, Jurnal Kejuruteraan 29(2), Pages 87-96
Light, D., Nicolae, I., and Suditu, B. (2002). “Toponymy and the Communist City: Street Names in Bucharest, 1948–1965.” GeoJournal, 56(2): 135–144. DOI:10.1023/A:1022469601470
Longhurst, D, Smith, G, Bagnall, G, Crawford, G, Ogborn, M, (eds) (2008), Introducing CULTURAL STUDIES, Second edition, London, Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315690070
Mahdipour, Manouchehr (2013), Dezful Martyrs' Guide: Comprehensive Encyclopaedia of Martyrs Buried in Dezful, Tehran, Nilofran. (In Persian)
Meethan, K. (2001), Tourism in Global Society, Place, Culture,Consumption (Basingstoke: Palgrave) DOI:10.1016/S0160-7383(01)00097-4
Mehr news agency (2018), Dezful from the city of Hazar Moshet to Baladal al-Sawarikh, https://www.mehrnews.com/news/4625160 (In Persian)
Millington, Nate (2020) Urban Representation. In: Kitchin, R., Thrift, N. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Second edition, Elsevier, pp. 111–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10351-8
Mitchell, D. (2008) “California: The Beautiful and the Damned” In Oakes, T and Price. P, The Cultural Geography, Reader, London: Routledge. pp 160-164, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203931950
Mitchell, W.J.T (2008), Imperial Landscape, In Oakes, T and Price. P, The Cultural Geography, Reader, London: Routledge. pp 165-170, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203931950
Philo, C., (2009). Cultural turn. In: Kitchin, R., Thrift, N. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Elsevier, pp. 442–450. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008044910-4.00147-4
Rose-Redwood, R.and Kim, S (2020). Street Naming and Power. In: Kitchin, R., Thrift, N. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Second edition, Elsevier, pp. 55–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10868-6
Šakaja, L. and Stanić, J (2011) “Other(ing) Self(portraying)Negotiating: The Spatial Codification of Values in Zagreb’s City-Text.” Cultural Geographies,18(4):495–516, https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474011414636
Sarai, Mohammad Hossein, Reza Ahmadi and Yaqub Moradi (2016), Imagine citizens' perceptions of the city of Dezful with an emphasis on the semiotic and social factors governing the city, Journal: Cultural society research, Volume: 7, Number: 1, Pages 97-124, (In Persian)
Till, K. (2003). “Places of Memory.” In J. Agnew, K. Mitchell, and G. Toal (Eds.), A Companion to Political Geography (pp. 289–301). Oxford: Blackwell, https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470998946.ch19
Till, K. (2004). “Political Landscapes.” In A Companion to Cultural Geography by James Duncan, Nuala Johnson, Richard Schein, Blackwell Publishing, DOI:10.1002/9780470996515