[CESERH] Enregistrement de la quatrième séance du SaISie

[CESERH] Enregistrement de la quatrième séance du SaISie

[CESERH] Recording of the fourth session of SaISie

🎙 François Provenzano 👥 178 📅 March 6, 2022 ⏱ 191 min 👁 45 📄 original study 🧭 2026-10-09
Available in: English (current) Français

Keywords

urban spacerhetoricsemioticsstreet artpublic discourse

Summary

This video is a recording of the fourth session of the SaISie seminar, organized by the Centre de Sémiotique et Rhétorique of ULiège. The session is devoted to the theme of space and features two interventions. The first, by François Provenzano, is a dense academic talk on urban space as a site of inscription and discourse conflict. Provenzano explores the notion of ‘rhetorical culture’ to analyze how the city becomes a macro-syntax organizing signs and values. He presents a digital platform that maps over 4,000 street inscriptions in Liège, developed with a doctoral student, and discusses two case studies: an activist graffiti action with legal consequences and a cinema festival that event-izes a street. The theoretical framework draws on urban sociolinguistics, semiotics (Certeau), and critical theory (Walter Benjamin), emphasizing the political dimension of urban enunciation. The second intervention, mentioned but not described in the transcript, concerns virtual immersion for international students. Overall, the video offers a rich, interdisciplinary perspective on linguistics and urban studies.

164 words

Critical Evaluation

Value of the Information & Strength of the Argument

The value of the information is high: the presentation synthesizes a broad intellectual corpus (from Angenot to Benjamin) and anchors it in concrete empirical data. The argumentation is solid, moving from a general framework to specific territorial examples, and demonstrates how street signs and inscriptions are not neutral but participate in the construction of public space and social hierarchies. The speaker critically challenges dominant ‘city branding’ narratives and suggests that documenting ordinary urban semiotics can restore deliberative potential. The argument is well structured and persuasive, although it remains at an exploratory rather than conclusive stage.

Scientific Rigor, Source Quality, Title Accuracy

The rigor is high: the speaker explicitly cites numerous authors and works (e.g., Benjamin’s ‘Arcades Project’, Certeau’s ‘The Practice of Everyday Life’, Angenot’s ‘interdiscursivity’, Bertrand’s ’topic of the sensible’), and the empirical mapping project is methodologically detailed. However, since no external links are provided in the description, the only verifiable source is the video itself. The title matches the content perfectly: it is indeed a recorded seminar session. The audience, though small, gives no comments, so no public feedback is available.

191 words

Title / Content Match

The title accurately describes a recorded seminar session; the content is a full academic session on urban semiotics and rhetoric, matching the title.

Quality & Reliability

8/10

The presentation is grounded in established semiotic and rhetorical theory, draws on original empirical data (a digital mapping of 4000 street inscriptions in Liège), and engages critically with major thinkers (Benjamin, Certeau, Angenot). The university seminar context ensures academic expertise, though the content is not peer-reviewed.

Key Moments

Cited Sources

Contribution & Novelties

The principal contribution of this talk is the articulation of a ‘rhetorical culture’ concept applied to urban space, combined with an original empirical tool (the Liège street-inscription mapping) that provides a counterpoint to dominant city-branding simplifications. The theoretical integration of Benjamin’s critical thinking with semiotic and sociolinguistic traditions offers a fresh lens for studying urban discourse.

Pour aller plus loin :

  • Semiotics — Foundational for understanding urban signs and their configurations.
  • Rhetoric — Classical and modern perspectives on persuasion, relevant to the idea of ‘rhetorical cultures’.
  • Walter Benjamin — His urban essays (e.g., ‘Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century’) directly inspired the critical analysis of urban modernity.
  • Michel de Certeau — His concepts of ‘pedestrian enunciation’ and everyday practices are central to the speaker’s approach.

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Radar Profile

The radar shows a balanced profile with scores all around 8, indicating a dense, technically advanced presentation of high academic quality. The strengths lie in the quantity of information and its reliability, while the technical level is correspondingly high, making the content suitable for advanced audiences.

Reliability 8/10