Flags, society and space: Towards a research agenda for vexillgeography

Abstract

This paper proposes that flags are an important but under‐theorised aspect of geographical inquiry and seeks to outline a new field of “vexillgeography,” which critically embraces the spatiality and performativity of flags. We start by outlining the potential of semiotics (and geosemiotics) to further our understanding of flags, focusing on iconic, indexical and symbolic modes of representation in relation to flag design and the marking of territories and boundaries. In so doing, we highlight the importance of flags in the ordering of both Cartesian and relational space. We then examine flags from a performativity perspective, emphasising their role as actants within wider assemblages, and the everyday affective and emotional responses to flying (and viewing) flags. We conclude by outlining an agenda for critical research into vexillgeographies, to explore the multiplicity of ways in which flags (or flag assemblages) can contribute to the construction of spatial meaning.

Dismissals for Social Media Hate Speech in South Africa: Animalistic Dehumanisation and the Circulation of Racist Words and Images

“…Therefore, when interpreting the semiotics and ‘social life’ of objects [ 37 : 528], the ‘meaning’ of a sign must consider both the signifier that ‘produces’ or ‘encodes it,’ [ 169 : 211, 37 : 519] but also the individual that ‘consumes,’ ‘decodes,’ ‘views’ or ‘interprets it’ in the specific context [ 169 : 211, 37 : 519, 209 : 45]. Accordingly, the ‘spatial’ and ‘temporal’ contexts in which a flag is both presented and perceived is essential to the symbolic power the object occasions [ 128 : 689, 694].…”

Stitching together the nation's fabric during the Chile uprisings: towards an alter-geopolitics of flags and everyday nationalism

“…National flags have long been a mainstay of the scholarship on nationalism (e.g. Billig, 1995;Elgenius, 2011;Eriksen, 2007;Kolstø, 2014), although human geographers have more recently identified a disciplinary myopia in relation to these symbols of the nation (see Medway et al, 2018). In response, Medway et al (2018) set out an agenda for geographers, what they frame as 'vexillgeographies', to more critically explore the spatiality and performativity of flags through an examination of 'their symbolic power and the affective responses they may engender' (Medway et al, 2018: 689).…”

“…Billig, 1995;Elgenius, 2011;Eriksen, 2007;Kolstø, 2014), although human geographers have more recently identified a disciplinary myopia in relation to these symbols of the nation (see Medway et al, 2018). In response, Medway et al (2018) set out an agenda for geographers, what they frame as 'vexillgeographies', to more critically explore the spatiality and performativity of flags through an examination of 'their symbolic power and the affective responses they may engender' (Medway et al, 2018: 689). Benwell et al (2019) in the context of protests in Chilean Patagonia in 2012 emphasise 'the materialities of flags as lively, active objects [that can] reinvigorate an examination of intersections between geopolitics, agency and everyday nationalism'.…”

“…These incorporated the protests of students and pensioners, amongst others, against a political class that was considered to be increasingly out-of-touch and blind to their concerns (conflicts that While scholars of nationalist symbols have consistently pointed to their multivocal and multivalent characteristics that can generate diverse emotional reactions and affective atmospheres (e.g. Elgenius, 2011;Fox and Miller-Idriss, 2008;Kolstø, 2014;Medway et al 2018), these different interpretations across time and space still caused considerable anxiety for the artist: There was, then, a growing discrepancy between the intended affective atmospheres of the black flag in the artist's work and its association with protests that were becoming increasingly violent, marred by lootings and numerous deaths. For instance, Gubbins recounted emailing the original versions of the flag to some young artists who created a giant black flag that was hung from their four storey building in Valparaíso.…”

Texture and Flag Color Extraction in Backpropagation Neural Network Architecture

“…A flag is an object that can have various messages and meanings attached to it. The existence of a flag can also be related to the symbolic aspect of sovereignty (Medway et al, 2019;Zhuk, 2023).…”