Discourse Of Competitiveness Research Articles

The limits to the urban within multi-scalar energy transitions: Agency, infrastructure and ownership in the UK and Germany

This article critically interrogates the over-emphasis upon urban solutions when considering complex and multi-scalar energy infrastructures that must transition to low-carbon intensity for a sustainable future. While urban actors can play an important role in energy transition, their interventions are riven with difficulties, and at times failure, as they encounter challenges of politics, capacity and agency in a broader and multi-scalar governance landscape. Drawing upon the comparative and variegated political economies of energy infrastructure governance in Germany and the UK, this article makes three critical arguments. Firstly, it contends that patterns of ownership of key infrastructures, particularly in the highly privatised context of the UK but also in Germany’s more diversified energy market, trouble urban-level interventions. Secondly, against a backdrop of post-financial crash austerity, we raise the issue of capacity at an urban level, principally concerning the financing and technical administration of urban infrastructural ‘solutions’. Thirdly, the entrenched politics of neoliberalisation, its multi-scalar articulations and in particular discourses of marketisation and competition, while distinct across the two contexts, shape the possibilities, imaginaries and support available for local-level change in complex infrastructures. The article points to differential urban capacities and governance conditions that require a greater degree of nuance in sustainability narratives, and a critical conversation around the need for multi-scalar coordination in energy transitions, in order to avert catastrophic climate breakdown.

Jostling Discourses of Competition: Women leaders self-positioning

This study addresses the lack of research into social processes of competition in organizations and explores women leaders self-positioning in relation to the discourses of gendered competition and neoliberal competition. The discourses carry contradictory obligations for women. While the gendered competition discourse socially punishes competitive women, the neoliberal competition discourse expects competition. Through a feminist approach and critical discourse analysis of narratives from 52 women leaders we make two central contributions. First, we outline how the two discourses jostle together, fighting for attention and contradicting each other, provoking social ambiguity. We demonstrate how the women leaders adopt paradoxical self-positioning as ‘competitive–not competitive’ using four interconnected strategies of ‘denying’, ‘masking and reframing’, ‘moving on’ from and ‘diverting’ competition. Second, we extend studies of liminality and theorize how the discourses create liminality for women leaders. We elucidate how the women take up and disrupt the discourses by continually oscillating between paradoxical positions of being competitive, perceived as competitive, not competitive, no longer competitive, and competitive for organizations. Competition is identified as a toxic, gendered process, which is both harmful and aspirational, and both a liminal challenge and an opportunity for women leaders. We extend understandings of those who experience liminality in organizations, to women leaders and demonstrate how their paradoxical self-positioning affords them opportunities to discursively present as competitive.

Memory dissonance and competitive discourses about the past on the example of the legacy of the “Gryf Pomorski” Secret Military Organisation

Memory dissonance and competitive discourses about the past on the example of the legacy of the “Gryf Pomorski” Secret Military Organisation

Комунікативні стратегії учасників літературних інтернет-конкурсів: особливості мовленнєвої поведінки у віртуальному дискурсі

The study deals with the problems of linguopragmatic description of virtual discourse. Particular focus is paid to the discursive activity of the participants of literary competitions who participate in discussions and evaluate each other's stories. Cooperative and confl ict interactionsof commentators and authors of literary stories are characterized. A typology of communicative strategies in the virtual discourse of a literary competition is proposed, with a breakdown of those used by senders and recipients. It has been proved that the strategies of commentators gravitate towards a cooperative type of communication, while the strategies of authors in response to criticism trend towards a conflict type of communication. The linguistic features of the the ways each group implements their respective strategies are traced, and the main tactics of their representation inthe discourse of the virtual discussion of literary stories are determined. The illustrative material was collected from the transcripts of discussions at the Ukrainian-language fantasy short story competitions Litavytsia and RBZh Azimut for 2021.

Nonsport narratives, fan production, and affective discourse in girls and women eSports fandom: An alternative construction of pro-gaming in China

This article discusses the cultural practices of girls and women eSports fans and their significance. The paper argues that the cultural performances of girls and women eSports fans challenge the hegemonic masculinity of the eSports sphere by allowing fans to enter the world of eSports affectively. Girls and women eSports fans oppose the patriarchal competitive discourse of “noob is an original sin” from traditional eSports fans and try to open new discourse spaces from the perspectives of romance, homosociality, and cuteness. Through actively participating in tournament spectatorship, social media discussions, and production of fan products, girls and women fans have developed an affective narrative of “generating power with love.” Thus, girls and women girls and women eSports fans have partially transformed the traditional male-dominant eSports fandom and opened new affective spaces for cultural practices for eSports fans.

Tiger Parenting Beyond Cultural Essentialism: Discourses of Class, Culture, and Competition in Hong Kong

Purpose This study explores a nuanced understanding of tiger parenting by moving beyond cultural essentialist perspectives and an East (Chinese)-versus-West binary framework. Design/Approach/Methods The study draws on data from 80 parents in Hong Kong SAR, an example of a culturally-hybrid East Asian metropolis. We applied maximum variation sampling to recruit participants with diverse school choices encompassing different education levels, occupations, social classes, and ethnicities. We used semi-structured interviews to investigate parental beliefs, practices, and understandings of tiger parenting. Findings The findings suggest that tiger parenting is a cross-class and cross-culture phenomenon that would be more fruitfully analyzed by considering parental mindsets, educational structures, peer pressure, generational influences, cultural roots, class preferences, and global aspirations. We posit that tiger parenting and similar parenting practices are increasingly necessitated by fiercely competitive education systems, and becoming globalized across ethnic groups and social class spectrums. Originality/Value This study contributes to the discussion on tiger parenting by highlighting previously understudied factors underpinning the concept. We argue that our analytical approach avoids the previous narrow and cultural essentialist understanding of tiger parenting, and advances the theoretical cogency of the concept.

DIY Music and Contemporary Art Spaces: Centre for Contemporary Arts, Transmission and the Art-Music Nexus in Glasgow

ABSTRACT This article examines the relationship between contemporary art spaces and ‘Do-It-Yourself’ (DIY) music in Glasgow. It demonstrates the continuity and interconnectedness of DIY music and art practices by considering the transition of galleries from ‘white cubes’ to music venues and spaces for social interaction. Following a brief overview of Glasgow’s urban renewal and cultural regeneration, it traces the emergence of the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) and Transmission and provides an outline of their organisational structure and policies. It then explores ethnographically how they have facilitated the cross-pollination between DIY music and contemporary art after the 2008 financial crisis. Approaching art galleries as social spaces that provide a platform for DIY musicians invites a holistic understanding of the reciprocal relationship between DIY music and contemporary art institutions in Glasgow. Therefore, the article considers in turn how these spaces were influenced by the ethics of DIY music. The malleability of contemporary art spaces and their relationship to the DIY ethos demonstrate that cultural policies should aim to strengthen the existing grassroots communities that form the bedrock of the city’s cultural scenes. This necessitates a move beyond the labels ‘post-industrial’ and ‘creative city’, thus decoupling cultural activities from the discourse of urban competition and Glasgow’s economic goals.

Capturing the Shark. White (Eco-)Masculinity and the Pursuit of Science in the Docuseries Expedition Great White

Expedition Great White is a docuseries that follows a crew composed of professional fishermen and scientists who conduct studies about great white sharks. This article explores three interrelated dimensions of the series. First, while the series repeatedly suggests that the actions performed in front of the cameras ultimately aim to study and protect great whites and that for both the fishermen and scientists, the well-being of sharks is of the highest priority, this masculine care is not only subjected to the pursuit of new scientific insights about sharks but also embedded in a discourse of competition. Second, this pursuit of new knowledge is coded in masculine terms, as traditional notions of masculinity (i.e., confronting and catching the dangerous animal as well as making scientific progress) become re-negotiated in view of the animals’ well-being and, ultimately, their protection. Finally, while the first two dimensions bespeak the desire for human control of the natural world, the digital lives of tagged sharks challenge this human control.

BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PATIENTS WITH DIHYDROLIPOAMIDE DEHYDROGENASE DEFICIENCY

In 2016 Wayde Van Niekerk, a South African athlete of mixed-race heritage won an Olympic gold medal. In South Africa, his win caused hashtags such as #proudlysouthafrican, #blackexcellence and #colouredexcellence to trend online. By and large, these hashtags index the ongoing competitive discourses regarding nationalism, race and culture in Cape Town (cf. Author, 2018).Amongst these hashtags, however, was #dalawhatyoumust, a Kaaps hashtag generally meaning to “do what needs to be done”. Unlike the aforementioned hashtags, this one seems to cross the linguistic and racial divide despite its strong associations with Coloured1 people on the Cape Flats. The seemingly effortless uptake of this hashtag by diverse South Africans suggest that it has somehow become unmoored of its ethnic and linguistic inception.We explore the use of this Kaaps hashtag as a form of translingual practice which is affect-laden and transportable across and between diverse users online and which promotes a particular “cool Capetonian” culture. Analyzing select posts from the #dalawhatyoumust thread on Facebook, we provide a nuanced look at #dalawhatyoumust as an uplifting genre which proleptically advises nameless viewers of the importance of self-actualization, determination and aspiration. Additionally, we include Goffman’s (1974) framing foundation to investigate how positivistic discourse has been rhizomatically taken up by a ‘realm’ of implicit collective users online. This research interrogates long-held ideological boundaries between Kaaps and legitimized Standard Afrikaans and standard English.We conclude with a focus on Kaaps hashtags as semiotic acts of Linguistic Citizenship (cf. Williams and Stroud, 2013) which allows for the conjoining of Kaaps with diverse audiences, complex trajectories, and an assortment of accompanying semiotics. Following Stroud (2018:3) we argue that this Kaaps hashtag has become a form of languaging that facilitates “…the building of broad affinities of speakers that cut across…divisions and borders, and that negotiate co-existence/co-habitation outside of common ground in recognition of equivocation”. In South Africa, division was the order of the day and when we explore contemporary ordinary moments posted by heterogenous users using #dalawhatyoumust (henceforth #dwym) we aim to explore the ordinariness of languaging which brings people together despite their race, linguistic background, and ethnicity, that is to say an affinity of ‘cool Capetonian’ style.

Dalawhatyoumust: Kaaps, translingualism and linguistic citizenship in Cape Town, South Africa

In 2016 Wayde Van Niekerk, a South African athlete of mixed-race heritage won an Olympic gold medal. In South Africa, his win caused hashtags such as #proudlysouthafrican, #blackexcellence and #colouredexcellence to trend online. By and large, these hashtags index the ongoing competitive discourses regarding nationalism, race and culture in Cape Town (cf. Author, 2018).Amongst these hashtags, however, was #dalawhatyoumust, a Kaaps hashtag generally meaning to “do what needs to be done”. Unlike the aforementioned hashtags, this one seems to cross the linguistic and racial divide despite its strong associations with Coloured11Coloured people are characterized as those of mixed descent and so was differentiated from Black and White during apartheid. This is a diverse group where heritage could stem from countries such as Britain, Netherlands, Malaysia, Madagascar, Ceylon, India, Java and other places in Africa. people on the Cape Flats. The seemingly effortless uptake of this hashtag by diverse South Africans suggest that it has somehow become unmoored of its ethnic and linguistic inception.We explore the use of this Kaaps hashtag as a form of translingual practice which is affect-laden and transportable across and between diverse users online and which promotes a particular “cool Capetonian” culture. Analyzing select posts from the #dalawhatyoumust thread on Facebook, we provide a nuanced look at #dalawhatyoumust as an uplifting genre which proleptically advises nameless viewers of the importance of self-actualization, determination and aspiration. Additionally, we include Goffman’s (1974) framing foundation to investigate how positivistic discourse has been rhizomatically taken up by a ‘realm’ of implicit collective users online. This research interrogates long-held ideological boundaries between Kaaps and legitimized Standard Afrikaans and standard English.We conclude with a focus on Kaaps hashtags as semiotic acts of Linguistic Citizenship (cf. Williams and Stroud, 2013) which allows for the conjoining of Kaaps with diverse audiences, complex trajectories, and an assortment of accompanying semiotics. Following Stroud (2018:3) we argue that this Kaaps hashtag has become a form of languaging that facilitates “…the building of broad affinities of speakers that cut across…divisions and borders, and that negotiate co-existence/co-habitation outside of common ground in recognition of equivocation”. In South Africa, division was the order of the day and when we explore contemporary ordinary moments posted by heterogenous users using #dalawhatyoumust (henceforth #dwym) we aim to explore the ordinariness of languaging which brings people together despite their race, linguistic background, and ethnicity, that is to say an affinity of ‘cool Capetonian’ style.

Disciplinary Power Lying Behind the Requisite of English Language Mastery in International Scholarships

This article reports a study about how the discourse of standard English exercises disciplinary power in five international scholarships programs. This research interest arises from problematizing the discourse of standard English present in the requisite of proficiency certification through so-called valid tests. Adapting Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis model, we analyzed a corpus of five scholarship calls for applications open from 2011 to 2014. Findings reveal that the discourse of standard English entangles with the discourses of globalization, education quality, and competitiveness and qualifications to serve as the path to the construction of the subjects’ scholarship applicants. In this entanglement, school is set as a breeding ground whose disciplinary techniques (e.g., test training) objectivize people to satisfy multinational corporations’ hiring processes.

Between global collaboration and national competition: Unraveling the many faces of Arctic science diplomacy

Abstract It has been argued that science diplomacy (SD) helps avoid or mitigate conflicts among stakeholders in the Arctic. Yet underlying some of these well-intended and sometimes successful initiatives is a one-sided understanding of SD. The most recent literature takes a more differentiated approach towards the means and ends of SD. It shows that international scientific interaction is shaped by the twofold logic of competition and collaboration. Instruments of SD can be meant to serve national interests, collective regional goals or global agendas. The present paper disentangles these confounding discourses of collaboration and competition based on a conceptually enhanced SD framework. It analyses Arctic strategies and two cases of Arctic SD, the Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation and research activities on Svalbard, to reveal the mechanisms of collaboration and competition in the sphere of international science in relation to security, environment and economy. By pointing out where and how science is currently being used in the Arctic, this article provides (a) a systematic overview of the state of SD in the region and (b) a tool for policy-makers and scientists to assess what impact different facets of SD have in Arctic politics.

Indian textile sector, competitiveness, gender and the digital circular economy: A critical perspective

<abstract> <p>This perspective is an attempt at describing the complex liaison between the Indian textile sector and the factors determining its export competitiveness. These dynamics range from logistics to the digital circular economy. In still greater detail, these could be listed as the geographical spread and the dynamism of exports, product combination and the level of specialization of exports, technical and skill levels across the industry as also efficiency, which in turn is influenced by the cost of production, delivery timetables, dependability of producers; and the image of the product brand and the exporter nation. Use of tools such as review of studies and Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) have been made so as to explain the theory of competitiveness in the Indian textile exports relative to its major competitors such as China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The study addresses several important issues as to the competitiveness and challenges before the Indian textile sector as far as its export performance is concerned. It suggests some alternatives to the current logistics- centric competitiveness discourse, chiefly, sustainable and gendered aspects of trade. The main contention of this perspective is that if understood sincerely, a gender -friendly Digital Circular Economy could work wonders for one and all.</p> </abstract>

Women in Culture. Introduction to the Issue

The late 1960s and early 1970s development of liberation discourses (postcolonial, racial, ethnic, gender, environmental, etc.) resulted in them turning not only and not so much into an intellectual strategy, but instead, in their entering culture as social practices, and becoming the main patterns of behavior and models of thinking. 1 In this context, the feminist discourse, 2 which initially developed as a political and legal narrative of the struggle for women’s rights, unfortunately became a world view and even an ideological discourse of opposition and competition between the sexes as it spread. In view of the above, the current cultural situation pursued by feminist activists in terms of gender can be described as a struggle for alpha leadership between an antagonist and a protagonist in the course of a liberation discourse (Gaag, 2014; Carrigan, Connell & Lee, 1985, pp. 551–604; Wood, 2011). Such a struggle is also often described in the terminology of Darwinian natural selection and, therefore, it is realized in social practices as an all-out war between the “oppressors” and the “oppressed,” justified by the criteria of biological (non)utility in nature or society.

Governing the Discourse of Internationalization in the USA: The Influence of Higher Education Professional Associations.

Higher education professional associations (HEPAs) are well-established agents of knowledge production and have been influential in shaping higher education policies and practices. In the context of US international higher education, HEPAs have contributed to the rise of ‘internationalization’ as a discursive practice. Proposing an analytical framework that takes up Foucauldian analysis of discourse and studies in governmentality, this paper examines a corpus of ACE and NAFSA reports in order to trace the emergence of internationalization and its lines of transformation as both a regime of truth and a regime of practice in the context of US higher education over the last 30 or so years. The findings of this study illustrate that since its emergence in the 1980s, HEPAs have participated in the transformation of internationalization from a discourse of exchange to a discourse of competition.

Hyper-performativity and early career teachers: interrogating teacher subjectivities in neoliberal educational assemblages

ABSTRACT This paper explores the hyper-performative expectations of early career teachers (ECTs) in the context of neoliberal education assemblages. The need to support and retain beginning teachers is a salient issue in the context of troubling rates of teacher attrition. The study explores how ECTs perceive teacher identities in response to national standards. Our research revealed that ECTs held concerning conceptions of ‘quality teaching’ that are largely constructed through discourses of competition and job insecurity. ECT subjectivities were heavily influenced excessive extra-curricular hours, high-stress environments, and performative school cultures. This paper concludes that hyper-performative expectations of ECTs and insecure patterns of employment contribute to teacher attrition.

On the Issue of the Interactions of Competitive Discourses in Sectarian Studies of the Russian Orthodox Church

On the Issue of the Interactions of Competitive Discourses in Sectarian Studies of the Russian Orthodox Church

Competitive Discourses among the Valencian Right Wing: Communication and strategy in the 2019 regional elections

The 2019 regional government election in The Valencian Country led to a new panorama on the Right. For the first time, there were three political parties competing for votes. In addition, the notoriety gained by the Far Right created a new political scene, posing a challenge to other parties. This paper analyses how the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos and Vox managed a campaign in which they were both electoral opponents but also potentially future parliamentary allies. The research examines the performance and campaign discourse of these three parties based on content analysis of the coverage of two newspapers’ (Levante-EMV and Las Provincias). The study examines the preferred frames of reference, the main topics, the cultural resonances and the ideological frameworks chosen by these parties. The results showed that news on these parties stressed leadership style and strategy — issues that were highlighted in the parties’ discourses given that they resonate strongly with Conservative voters. The issues chosen by the Far Right had little impact on the messages put over by the majority parties. The presence of three rightwing parties meant each tried to differentiate itself from the others. Vox [the farthest on the right, reminiscent of France’s Front National] tried to distinguish itself from the more mainstream Partido Popular (PP), which in turn was forced to defend its position as the ‘institutional’ party of the right. Ciudadanos (Cs) was the right-wing party that spoke most often of potential co-operation among the three forces.

GOVERNANCE, URBAN COMPETITIVENESS AND CRISIS IN SPAIN

This article describes the rise of the term governance from its beginnings in the business world and the neoliberal economic thought through its application in urban renewal actions in the world’s major cities. Over the analysis, we argue that it was the theoretical discourse of urban governance and competitiveness that for decades enabled the private property sector to direct the urban regeneration processes of greatest added value. Changes in transport infrastructures and the abandonment of old industrial facilities left large central segments of the city available for redevelopment in line with the theories of post-Fordist capitalism. The global economic crisis has paralysed many of these projects, which had entailed the investment of large sums of public money and yielded low social returns. At the same time, criticism has been levelled against governance and strategic planning. Here, I examine the processes of governance and competitiveness as an urban objective and recent examples of urban renewal in Spanish cities.

К вопросу о герменевтических механизмах функционирования конспирологического мифа

This article studies the hermeneutic and semiotic specifics of modern conspiracy theories. The conspiracy myth is a collection of mythological narratives that interpret socio-historical processes andphenomena as the result of a deliberate action by powerful forces carefully concealing their existence or any relation to these phenomena and processes. Today, conspiracy theories are turning into one of the mass ideologies, gaining supporters among various social, age, professional, and religious communities. The golden age of conspiracy myths is the postmodern era. The postmodern ideologeme of the plurality of truths and the equivalence of discourses turned out to be the paradigmatic basis for conspiracy theories. The analysis of the discursive conspiracy environment allows us to distinguish the following types of conspiracy theories: parascientific, religious, political, medical, technogenic, and fantastic. The agents and actors of a conspiracy and their opponents form hierarchical strata in terms of power, initiation into secret knowledge, and influence on social processes. Hierarchical models in conspiracy theories reinforce the illocutionary potential of discourse. The research concludes that the conspiracy myth is a special hermeneutic system that allows one to form competitive discourses claiming the ability to fulfil an etiological function and at the same time introduce sacredness into everyday life, interpreting it as a space of “sacred struggle” with powerful enemies. Being largely a product of archaic culture, the conspiracy myth preserves a special type of rationality inherent in the archaic, which is easily compatible with the epistemological ideas of contemporary mass culture.