Racialization and the national body: (Re)defining selves and others in changing contexts of liberal democratic governance

Abstract

Abstract This introduction argues that understanding the co-construction of race, language, and nation is essential to understanding liberal democratic governance in today's world. Using the theories and methods of raciolinguistics, we argue that voicing and resemiotization are important discursive processes that people use to reconstitute selves and Others in relation to liberal democratic ideas about national belonging. Specifically, we examine how racialized redefinitions of “the body” are central to how right and left-leaning groups alike (re)define nationhood, albeit for different ends. We foreground an intersectional, international approach to understanding the role of language in constructing race and vice versa as well as the role of social media in how differently positioned groups seek empowerment.