Discursive Sovereignty: How China Constructs Hong Kong as an “Internal Affair”

- India has one of the world’s youngest populations, with youth representing a critical driver of economic growth and social change. Political leaders frequently emphasize youth empowerment in their public addresses. This study explores the relationship between political rhetoric and policy implementation in India by analyzing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches on youth empowerment, skilling, and education. The aim of the research is to assess whether the promises and narratives presented in political speeches align with the actual progress of youth-focused policies such as the National Education Policy (NEP 2020), the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), and emerging initiatives in artificial intelligence and innovation. The methodology follows Van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) model, which examines discourse at textual, cognitive, and social levels. Four key speeches delivered between 2021 and 2023 were analyzed, and the narratives were compared with official policy documents, government press releases, and secondary research to identify overlaps and gaps. The main findings indicate that while speeches consistently highlight inclusive, future-oriented themes of skill development, education reform, and technological advancement, the pace of implementation is uneven. Many initiatives mentioned remain in pilot or early stages, with limited rural reach and disparities across states. This reflects a recurring gap between political ambition and policy reality. The study implies that political discourse often amplifies successes while underplaying challenges. Future research should include youth perspectives and quantitative evaluation of policy outcomes to strengthen accountability in political communication. Keywords- Youth Empowerment, Political Rhetoric, Critical Discourse Analysis, Policy Implementation, India

The article is dedicated to the study of the concept, principles, and system of public management in the administrative-political sphere. It has been clarified that the concept of public management is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, and there are several approaches to its definition in scientific literature. At the same time, these approaches allow for the examination of the phenomenon of public management through the analysis of the activities it encompasses. It is stated that public management in the administrative-political sphere is the organizational-regulatory influence of the state on various spheres of public life, including defense and national security, internal affairs, justice, and the implementation of state policy in international relations. The importance of the role of civil society institutions in public management through various forms of interaction with state bodies is emphasized. This includes public control, participation in the development of normative legal acts, as well as joint projects and initiatives in the social and charitable spheres. It is emphasized that public management in the administrative-political sphere is characterized by the centralization of the administrative vertical and a strict approach to the implementation of management decisions. The article summarizes the list of principles inherent in public management in the sphere of administrative-political social relations. The importance of orientation towards European standards of public management is emphasized, including the principles of good governance, openness, transparency, efficiency, and the rule of law. This will help increase the effectiveness of public management and ensure democratic development in the context of European integration processes. The article analyzes the system of public management in the administrative-political sphere, its structure, and components. The main components of the system are identified – subjects, objects of management, and their interconnections, as well as the features of public management in different areas – defense, national security, internal and external affairs, and justice. Keywords: public management, administrative-political sphere, civil society, system, principles, social relations.

The Role of Social Movements in the Governance of ICT Commons in Times of Crisis

The Vatican and the Chinese Party-State: Where Do the Parallels End?

The University Campus has often been seen as an important site for the publication of school-related political ideas of young people (Loader, Vromen, Xenor, Steel and Bungum (2015). Against the background that critical discourse analysis seeks to uncover the ideological assumptions that are hidden in the words of written text or oral speech, this study sets out to deconstruct the language of ‘welcome’ encoded in posters and banners by would-be student leaders on the campus of some universities in Ghana in order to reveal the ideological elements contained in these posters and banners. Using Critical Discourse Analysis and genre analysis as the analytical framework, the study showed a typical move pattern of engagement used by the aspiring student leaders on the posters. This involves names and images of the participants on the posters, welcome messages, advertised student-leader positions as well as provision of contacts (mobile phone and social media) to further extend the discourse. Also, the study, through critical discourse analysis, deconstructed the language of welcome used by the aspiring student-leaders by indicating how they used the language of welcome as a cover to establish their own ideological and political ambitions. These findings have implications for students who wish to vie for positions in future campus politics and by extension national politics.

RESISTING THROUGH CITIZEN JOURNALISM: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ON THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT ON TWITTER

ABSTRACTThe article discusses the link between religious and civic participation in Riga based on the data obtained from a social survey in 2014. Religious and civic participation is a prerequisite for building social capital within a local community. Four types of relationships between civic and religious engagement have been identified: (1) individuals with no religious or civic activity; (2) religiously active individuals with no civic activity; (3) individuals involved in civic activities but who are religiously inactive; and (4) individuals involved in both religious and civic activities. Although the survey data indicate a weak correlation between civic and religious activities, religiously active individuals are more likely to be involved in civic activities.

Critical Policy Discourse Analysis bridges the literature on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and critical policy analysis to provide a practical guide on how to combine these major approaches to critical social science. The volume gives a clear introduction to concepts and analytical procedures for critical policy discourse analysis. Utilising ten international case studies, the authors explain and critically reflect upon the methods and theories that they have used to successfully integrate CDA with critical policy studies across a diverse range of policy issues. Case studies are used to explore issues in economics, health, education, crisis management, the environment, language and energy policy. Analysing these through discursive methodological approaches in the traditions of CDA, social semiotics and discourse theory, this book connects this discursive methodology systematically to the field of critical policy studies. This is an essential read for researchers wishing to practically combine methods of CDA with critical policy studies. It provides key insights for politics scholars looking to gain a more in-depth understanding of the impact and analysis of discourse.

Discourse, War and Terrorism – Edited by Adam Hodges and Chad Nilep

Published research in English is reviewed on the Nonprofit Sector (nps) in China since Mao’s death in 1976. A large, diverse, and rapidly growingnpsexists, but openly political Nonprofit Organizations (npos) outside the Communist Party and its control are prohibited. China has civil society in thenarrowersense that a substantial civil society sector ornpsexists. However, the party-state in China continues to play a dominating role in regard to thenps, especially for registerednpos. Freedom of association is still limited in China, especially for national associations, which are nearly all Government Organized Non-Governmental Organizations (gongos), not genuinengos/npos. Genuine associational freedom at lower territorial levels, especially the neighborhood level, is widespread though incomplete, but present far more significantly than under Mao. A 1989 law madenpos legal for the first time after Mao, butonlyif they are registered with the government (Article 7 of 1989 law states that nationalnpos can only be registered with Ministry of Civil Affairs, and localnpos can only be registered with the local Bureau of Civil Affairs).Millions of small, largely unregulated, Unofficial orUnregistered Social Organizations(orusos), as grassroots organizations (grassroots associations/gas) are important evidence for some significant associational freedom at the local level. Technically, all theseusos are illegal under Chinese law, but they have substantial social legitimacy and relative freedom of action nonetheless. Mostnpos, even registerednpos, can freely structure their internal governance, although nearly all the national associations are clearly controlled by the party-state. For the vast majority ofnpos, especially small and usually localusos, membership and levels of individual participation are now essentially voluntary. There is also a surprising range of volunteering, voluntary citizen participation, andorderly activism(restrained advocacy) throughnpos, especially at the local level.All the above facts constitute substantial progress for thenpsandnpos in China since Mao. Thebroaderscope definition of civil society focuses on the general autonomy of thenpsin relation to the government, with functioning civil liberties, and on the ability ofnpos in general to influence significantly the government on various policy issues. In these terms, China has a comparatively weak but perhaps slowly emerging civil society. The party-state in China does not have either full associational freedom and civil liberties nor participatory or strong democracy as current, stated or operative goals. Indeed, the government has an ambivalent attitude and policies toward thenpsandnpos. But such ambivalence is at least a huge improvement over Mao’s totalitarian repression of thenpsandnpos.

This study aims to analyse power, dominance, racial discrimination, and power exercise that is narratively established through a subtle network of metaphors in a fiction work, The Kite Runner. The Kite Runner exposes the socioeconomic conditions in the borderlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan, revealing the differences between power manipulation and the domestic performance of powerful social groups. The work also explores how religious and status dichotomies circumvent the progress of minority groups and align their physical features with their receding power and financial features. An adopted model of critical discourse analysis (CDA) indicates power, economic, and racial dichotomies in the book while revealing the shades of metaphors through conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) in a post-colonial text. Dogmatic ideographs are perpetuated in every public sphere through language and established gradually through unprovoking tools of metaphors. The metaphors are uncovered through CMT, providing a helpful understanding of different conceptual domains. Rhetorically, CDA helped reveal the racial discrimination, human rights violations, and hatred against minorities embedded in the selected metaphors. This investigation is very significant in connection with the current scenario of cross-cultural studies, as it mainly depicts the prevailing social trends regarding two different settings. The study may benefit intelligentsia interested in post-colonial and decolonial discourse and diaspora literature. Keywords: Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Critical Discourse Analysis, Metaphor, Power Expansion, Racial Discrimination Agbo, I. I., Kadiri, G. C., & Ijem, B. U. (2018). Critical metaphor analysis of political discourse in Nigeria. English Language Teaching, 11(5), 95–105. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v11n5p95 Burke, K. (2017). A rhetoric of motives. In Routledge eBooks (pp. 154–164). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315080925-15 Chouliaraki, L., & Fairclough, N. (1999). Discourse in late modernity: Rethinking critical discourse analysis. Edinburgh University Press. Fairclough, N. (2000). Discourse, social theory and social research: The case of welfare reform. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 4(2), 163–195. Fairclough, N. (2012). Critical discourse analysis. International Advances in Engineering and Technology, 7, 452–487. Foucault, M. (1976). The history of sexuality (Vol. 1). https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/special/endsandbeginnings/foucaultrepressiveen278.pdf Foucault, M., & Sheridan, A. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge and the discourse on language. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA21964742 Gill, S. (1998). European governance and new constitutionalism: Economic and monetary union and alternatives to disciplinary neoliberalism in Europe. New Political Economy, 3(1), 5–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563469808406330 Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks. London: Lawrence & Wishart. Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Hosseini, K. (2003). The kite runner. New York, NY: Riverhead Books. Jawaid, A., Batool, M., Arshad, W., Kaur, P., & ul Haq, M. I. (2024). English language pronunciation challenges faced by tertiary students. Contemporary Journal of Social Science Review, 2(04), 2104-2111. https://contemporaryjournal.com/index.php/14/article/view/361 Jawaid, A. (2014). Benchmarking in TESOL: A Study of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013. English Language Teaching, 7(8), 23-38. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v7n8p23 Jensen, D. F. N. (2006, April). Metaphors as a bridge to understanding educational and social contexts. International Institute for Qualitative Methodology. https://sites.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/backissues/5_1/HTML/jensen.htm Kövecses, Z. (2002). Metaphor: A practical introduction. Oxford University Press. Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (2nd ed., pp. 202–251). Cambridge University Press. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press. Reddy, M. (1979). The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 284–324). Cambridge University Press. Talib, N., & Fitzgerald, R. (2016). Micro–meso–macro movements: A multi-level critical discourse analysis framework to examine metaphors and the value of truth in policy texts. Critical Discourse Studies, 13(5), 531–547. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2016.1182932 Van Dijk, T. A. (1988). News analysis: Case studies of international and national news in the press. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Van Dijk, T. A. (1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society, 4(2), 249–283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926593004002006 Van Dijk, T. A. (2001). Critical discourse analysis. Discourse and Society, 4(2), 249–283. Van Dijk, T. A. (2005). Discourse and racism in Spain and Latin America. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Van Dijk, T. A. (2009). Critical discourse studies: A sociocognitive approach. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (2nd ed., pp. 62–86). London: Sage Publications. Wodak, R. (2001). What CDA is about: A summary of its history, important concepts and developments. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 1–13). London: Sage Publications. Wodak, R. (2007). Pragmatics and discourse analysis. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

This paper contributes to the development of a critical realist approach to discourse analysis by combining aspects of ‘critical discourse analysis’ (CDA) and ‘the morphogenetic/morphostatic approach’ (M/M). Unlike poststructuralist discourse theory, CDA insists on the maintenance of two distinctions: (i) between discourse and other aspects of social reality; (ii) between structure and agency. However, CDA lacks clarity on these distinctions. M/M, on the other hand, offers a coherent modelling of these distinctions that can underpin the application of CDA. The paper begins by introducing CDA, M/M and the existing literature on critical realist discourse analysis. It then establishes the M/M model of social change within CDA’s existing social theory by focusing on ‘analytical dualism’ and ‘social practice’. Finally, the paper locates the concept of discourse within M/M’s model of social change by theorizing discourse as one of four objective structures of meaning.

Based on representative survey-data, this chapter is concerned with analyzing the potential democratic effects of social media on civic engagement and collective action. We investigate to what degree and how social differences with regard to age, gender, educational background and geographical centrality are expressed in digital forms of civic action: information consumption and triggering of political interest, membership in political Facebook-groups, digital expression of opinions, and digital voluntary work. Previous research and theories are inconclusive with regard to increasing or decreasing social divides in digital participation, depending on the particular personal characteristic and type of digital civic action. Our analyses show that younger persons are more active than older persons in many of the participatory forms. Like many previous studies, we find a certain reproduction of classical gender differences in which men are more active than women. Education is also found to reproduce the classical differences in which more education is connected to higher levels of participation. We also find that centrality of residence differentiates activity levels in certain forms of digital civic action. On the basis of our analyses we claim that the democratic effects of digitalization on civic participation, in the form of reducing classical divides in which groups are active and which groups are passive, are limited. While digital technologies have created many new possibilities for civic action, participation and engagement is still structured by resources, personal traits and social position.

The purpose of this study was to investigate community-oriented and political civic engagement activities and intentions among youth in Italy and the United States. Adolescents (N = 566) from academically rigorous schools in both countries completed surveys assessing frequency of civic activity participation, motivation for activity, evaluations of activity, and intentions for future civic engagement. Results suggest that youth in both countries were more likely to participate in community-oriented than political civic activities and that youth in both countries found their civic experiences to be meaningful. American youth reported more past civic activities of both types and higher intentions for future community-oriented civic engagement compared to Italian youth. Finally, a model was tested to examine links between peer and school contexts and civic activities and intentions. Findings highlighted that, in both countries, peer and school contexts had a stronger impact on community-oriented than on political civic activity.

This research aims to investigate the relationship between critical reading abilities and critical discourse analysis (CDA) competencies among future 21st century educators, emphasizing the critical necessity for these educators to possess such skills in today's demanding educational landscape. A sample of 70 prospective teachers was analyzed to determine the interconnection between their abilities in critical reading abilities and CDA, with an exploration into how one skill may influence the other. Additionally, the study examines the role of cognitive style—specifically, field-independent and field-dependent thinking—as a moderating factor in this relationship. Findings indicate a significant positive impact of CDA capabilities on critical reading abilities, suggesting that proficiency in analyzing discourse critically enhances one's ability to read with a critical eye. Furthermore, the study reveals no significant difference in CDA and critical reading abilities between participants categorized as field-independent thinkers versus those identified as field-dependent thinkers. These outcomes highlight the need for further research to explore additional factors that may affect the development of critical reading and discourse analysis skills. The study concludes with a call for educational strategies that integrate both critical reading and CDA competencies, considering the varied cognitive styles of learners.