Reframing Public Discourses for Peace and Justice

Abstract

Adiscourse can be conceptualized as an evolving way that people think and talk about a given aspect of reality, which influences their perceptions and social practices in relation to that aspect of reality. Thus, we can conceive of discourses on governance, on the economy, on human rights, or on the environment, each of which can influence perceptions and practices in their respective domains. Discourses contain structural properties, such as interpretive frames, that partially determine their influence on our perceptions and practices. With this in mind, struggles for peace and justice can be understood, in part, as struggles to reframe significant public discourses. Toward this end, the discussion that follows begins with an overview of contemporary efforts to conceptualize discourse. It then examines the concept of an interpretive frame as a key structural property of discourses. In turn, three overarching ways of framing public discourses, each based on a different understanding of human nature and social reality, are posited. The first two, the social command frame and the social contest frame, can be understood as hegemonic frames that perpetuate social conflict and injustice. The third frame, the social body frame, is offered as a normative alternative that derives from recognition of humanity’s increasing global interdependence.KeywordsHuman NatureSocial MovementPublic DiscourseBody PoliticCritical Discourse AnalysisThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.