Multimodality and Social Semiosis

Gunther Kress, one of the founders of social semiotics and multimodality, has made lasting contributions to these fields through his work in semiotics and meaning-making; power and identity; agency, design, production; and pedagogy and learning; in varied sites of transformation. This book brings together leading scholars in a variety of disciplines, including social semiotics, pedagogy, linguistics, media and communication studies, new literacy studies, ethnography, academic literacy, literary criticism and, more recently, medical/clinical education, to examine and build upon his work. This disciplinary diversity is evidence of the ways in which Kress' work has influenced and been influenced by a wide range of academic work and intellectual endeavors and how it has been used to lay foundations for theory-building and concept development in a varied yet connected range of areas. The individual contributions to the book pick up the threads of the often collaborative work of the authors with Kress; they show how these approaches were subsequently developed and discuss what future trajectories the authors see for them.

Norbert Pachler is Pro-Director: Professional Education and Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK. Margit Böck is Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Department of Communication Studies, University of Salzburg, Austria.

Foreword Geoff Whitty Introduction Margit Böck, and Norbert Pachler Part I: Two personal views 1. Kress on Kress: Using a Method to Read a Life Bob Hodge 2. On Transformation: Reflections on the Work of, and Working with, Gunther Kress Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope Part II: Semiotics and Meaning-Making 3. Semiotic and Spatial Scope: Towards a Materialistic Semiotics Jan Blommaert 4. Proactive Design Theories of Sign Use: Reflections on Gunther Kress James Paul Gee 5. Making Meaning in Japanese: Orthographic Principles and Semiotic Meaning Potential Sean McGovern 6. Colour Schemes Theo van Leeuwen 7. On the Problematics of Visual Imagery jan jagodzinski 8. Mediated Frameworks for Participation Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt 9. The Search for Multimodality. Mimesis, Performativity, and Ritual Christoph Wulf 10. On Magical Language: Multimodality and the Power to Change Things Stephen Muecke 11. Multimodality and New Literacy Studies: Exploring Complimentarity Brian Street Part III: Shaping Knowledge: Agency in Learning and Design 12. Gunther Kress and Politics Ken Jones13. Transformation and Sign-Making: The Principles of Sketching in Designs for Learning Staffan Selander 14. Bildungssprache - A Case of Multiliteracies and Multimodalities Ingrid Gogolin 15. Kressian Moments in South African Classrooms: Multimodality, Representation, and Learning Denise Newfield 16. Voice as Design: Exploring Academic Voice in Multimodal Texts in Higher Education Arlene Archer 17. After Writing: Rethinking the Paths to Composition Jennifer Rowsell & Kate Pahl 18. Semiotic Work in the Apparently Mundane: Completing a Structured Worksheet Diane Mavers 19. Visual Communication in a Physics Course Jon Ogborn 20. From Error to Multimodal Semiosis: Reading Student Writing Differently Mary Scott 21. Encounters and (Missed) Opportunities - Rethinking Media and Communication Studies from a Multimodal Perspective Brigitte Hipfl Part IV: Knowing and Learning Beyond the Walls of the Traditional Education 22. Composition and Appropriation in a Culture Characterised by Provisionality Ben Bachmair and Norbert Pachler 23. Towards a Social and Ethical View of Semiosis: Examples from the Museum Eva Insulander and Fredrik Lindstrand 24. Multimodality and Digital Environments: An Illustrative Example of the Museum Visitor Experience Carey Jewitt 25. Making Meaning in the Operating Theatre Roger Kneebone 26. Learning, Design and Performance: Towards a Semiotic-Ethnographic Account of Surgical Simulation Jeff Bezemer