Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a unique global experience, arousing both exclusionary nationalistic and inclusionary responses of solidarity. This article aims to explore the discursive and linguistic means by which the COVID-19 pandemic, as a macro-event, has been translated into local micro-events. The analysis studies the global pandemic through the initial statements of 29 leading political actors across four continents. The aim is to examine discursive constructions of solidarity and nationalism through the social representation of inclusion/exclusion of in-, out-, and affiliated groups. The comparative analysis is based on the theoretical and methodological framework of the socio-cognitive approach to critical discourse analysis and is informed by argumentation theory and nationalism studies. The results of our analysis suggest that leaders have constructed the virus as the main outgroup through the metaphors of the pandemic-as-war and the pandemic-as-movement which have entered the national space. Faced with this threat, these speeches have discursively constructed the nation-as-a-team as the main in-group and prioritized (1) a vertical type of solidarity based on nationhood and according to governmental plans; (2) exclusionary solidarity against rule-breakers; (3) horizontal solidarity that is both intergenerational and among family members, and (4) transnational solidarity. It is not by chance that the world stands as a relevant affiliated group that needs to forcibly collaborate in order to face the main outgroup, the virus itself. A major consensus has been found in constructing the out-group. In contrast, the linguistic and discursive constructions of in-groups and their affiliates display a greater variation, depending upon the prevalent discursive practices and social context within different countries.
Highlights
Epidemics and pandemics are perennial transnational phenomena, as they had always spread through the increasingly interconnected world along with the networks of trade and travel (Malm, 2020; Huber, 2020)
Sontag (1989) observed vividly how war metaphors proliferate in such discourses, and they are widespread in the discourses of COVID-19 after the pandemic was declared
The discursive construction of collective identities and solidarity in the crisis speeches by the premiers of 29 countries presented a complex picture, one that can best be described with Wittgenstein’s idea of family resemblance: And the upshot of these considerations is: we see a complicated network of similarities overlapping and crisscrossing: similarities in the large and in the small
Summary
Epidemics and pandemics are perennial transnational phenomena, as they had always spread through the increasingly interconnected world along with the networks of trade and travel (Malm, 2020; Huber, 2020). One of the most salient features common to most countries in the very first phase of the outbreak was the nation-oriented reactions (e.g., closure of borders, restrictions of medical and social aid within state borders), which challenged the concept of global solidarity. These circumstances have made nationalism, in all its nuances, an important concept in the discourse of the pandemic. The concept of solidarity itself has become prominent, both as opposed and linked to nationalism, and/or as a feature of renewed global interrelations Given this experiential uniformity, the question arises of how such a general social phenomenon has been localized by discursive means. To test how this macro-event has been translated into local micro-events and to highlight similarities and differences, we have performed a comparative analysis of 29 countries across four continents, grounded in Koller’s (2012, 2014) notions of in-, out-, and affiliated groups
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