An ethnographic study on the linguistic landscapes of the coffee shops in Songjiang university town in Shanghai from the perspective of “the third place”

Abstract

This paper examines how coffee shops, as important public places, convey the owners’ understandings of the socio-economic conditions by constructing meaning through linguistic landscapes. Coffee shops’ features are further explored through a survey of the interactions or dialogues happening in these places. Qualitative Data are collected through an ethnographic study on the coffee shops in Songjiang University Town in Shanghai. The results indicate that the linguistic landscapes of these coffee shops construct a business-first ideology, and interactions or dialogues beyond time and space based on new media have replaced “coffee talk” and thus changed the characteristics of communication practice in these places. The paper concludes that the attributes of coffee shops as “the third place” have gradually faded in this increasingly commercialized society.