Page 84 - Žagar, Igor Ž. 2021. Four Critical Essays on Argumentation. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 84
four critical essays on argumentation
Centralized Decentralized Distributed
Figure 10. Rhizome, abstract.
Rhizome and rhizomatic structures become conceptually especial-
ly interesting if coupled and integrated with a (rather) new sociological
concept that is rapidly gaining importance, the concept of superdiversity.
Superdiversity is a concept coined by sociologist Steven Vertovec, and he
describes it as:
[...] a dynamic interplay of variables among an increased num-
ber of new, small and scattered, multiple-origin, transnational-
ly connected, socio-economically differentiated and legally strat-
ified immigrants who have arrived over the last decade (Vertovec
2007: 1025).
And what could be the significance of this new concept, referring to
immigrants (among others), for the analysis and interpretation of visuals?
Exactly the possibility that increasingly different ethnic, cultural, educa-
tional, and ideological background of potential readers/interpreters (not
necessarily immigrants, of course) in a more and more globalized, multi-
ethnic and multicultural word, may imply even more different access points
and interpretational paths in reading and interpreting visuals. In other
words, the allegedly unidirectional and unproblematic arrow connecting
P and C in Leo Groarke’s interpretation of the UvA poster may not just be
84
Centralized Decentralized Distributed
Figure 10. Rhizome, abstract.
Rhizome and rhizomatic structures become conceptually especial-
ly interesting if coupled and integrated with a (rather) new sociological
concept that is rapidly gaining importance, the concept of superdiversity.
Superdiversity is a concept coined by sociologist Steven Vertovec, and he
describes it as:
[...] a dynamic interplay of variables among an increased num-
ber of new, small and scattered, multiple-origin, transnational-
ly connected, socio-economically differentiated and legally strat-
ified immigrants who have arrived over the last decade (Vertovec
2007: 1025).
And what could be the significance of this new concept, referring to
immigrants (among others), for the analysis and interpretation of visuals?
Exactly the possibility that increasingly different ethnic, cultural, educa-
tional, and ideological background of potential readers/interpreters (not
necessarily immigrants, of course) in a more and more globalized, multi-
ethnic and multicultural word, may imply even more different access points
and interpretational paths in reading and interpreting visuals. In other
words, the allegedly unidirectional and unproblematic arrow connecting
P and C in Leo Groarke’s interpretation of the UvA poster may not just be
84
