Digital Spatial Practices and Linguistic Landscaping in Beirut

Abstract

This article describes research done on language and script variation in the linguistic landscape (LL) of Beirut, Lebanon. It discusses how the cityscape itself became an archive for researchers and how digital humanities’ (DH) methods were used to capture and analyze patterns in written language found in public space. It also discusses the DH project, Linguistic Landscapes of Beirut (LLB) at the heart of this research and the benefits and challenges of its two core methods: mobile data collection for documentation of linguistic diversity and geospatial visualization. The article argues that knowledge production in non-Western locations such as Beirut is both impacted and enriched by the complex political and social environment. This research, carried out with under-resourced infrastructures and at the frontiers of DH practice in the Arab world, blended theory, practice and pedagogy, ultimately illustrates that context profoundly changes computational research.