Graffiti and Urban transformation: the ideological discourse in the semiotic landscape of the Asturian Mining Valley

In language contact situations, linguistic landscapes are places where minority languages fight for visibility and survival. This study focuses on Asturies, a region of Spain where Spanish is the hegemonic language, while Asturian, a minoritized language, confronts numerous obstacles in administrative and educational contexts. This research examines graffiti in the Asturian Mining Valley, an area undergoing urban revitalization after the decline of the mining industry. By adopting a qualitative approach, the goal is to analyze how symbols, written discourse, and spatial arrangements in graffiti are used to build meaning and display identities, ideologies, and power relations related to the Mining Valley’s urban transformation. Results show diverse frames of meaning tied to identity negotiation, representation, and socio-political identities within the region’s linguistic landscape. Those include responses to mining reconversion, workers’ rights, anti-fascism, global movements, and feminist advocacy. This research enhances the understanding of linguistic landscapes in communities experiencing ideological conflict and social change.