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In the era of visual media, cities, and society are represented, experienced, and interpreted through images. The need for interdisciplinary visual approaches, therefore, is indisputable. By focusing on cinema, this paper aims to develop a conceptual, methodological framework through which theory helps a broad range of researchers in social sciences, humanities, and arts interpret the represented phenomenon. Based on Peirce's model of signs, the framework provides the basis for a dynamic interpretation of the city and society. This paper shows that Peircean cinesemiotics takes advantage of theory in three ways: First, as the basis that provides scholars with clues necessary for identifying eligible "image-signs"; second, as the guiding framework that helps them reach a final interpretation; third, as ideas are being criticized from visual perspectives. As an example of its application, using Jane Jacobs' "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," the final part of the paper applies Peircean cinesemiotics to an image-sign from Death Wish (2018) and interprets it as the representation of safety/crime in a neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the cinematic representation of city crime transactions in Chicago in the 1980s. The narrative nature of cinema provides an imaginative context for interpreting the physical and nonphysical dimensions of urban crimes. From a critical interpretive position, based on Peirce's semiotics, this study uses "urban cinesemiotics" as the method to select image signs, identify their associated Chicagoan objects, and interpret their design-oriented meaning. The theoretical roots of crime prevention through environmental design constitute the basis for the interpretation of movies. A total of 27 crime-related scenes from 9 Chicagoan movies made in the 1980s illustrate that most urban settings suffer from the lack of crime-preventive environmental design. In particular, natural surveillance (eyes on the street), encounter and enclosure, and border vacuums are major environmental factors that affect urban crimes in Chicago. Some crime scenes also depict why environmental design cannot influence individuals' criminal intentions necessarily nor can they solve urban safety single-handedly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]