Critical Discourse Theory Research Articles

The Right to Justification of Contract

AbstractThis paper defends a right to the justification of contract, with reciprocal and general reasons, and explores its main implications for the law of contract and its theory. It argues that the leading essentialist and other monist contract theories, offering blueprints for an ideal contract law based on the alleged ultimate value or essential characteristic of contract law, cannot justify the basic structure of contract law. Instead, it argues, a critical discourse theory of contract can contribute to the realisation of the right to justification of contract by exposing patterns of contractual injustice, in particular exploitation and domination by contract, that contract law can and should prevent.

Persuasive Strategies in the National-Syndicalist Discourse:Y(1938-1945)

The Francoist Regime aimed to impose a system of inviolable values and norms by carrying out activities of control and self-control with the goal of legitimising and maintaining its power beyond the dictator’s death. With this objective, the regime intended to modify the mental attitudes and the dynamic components of individual identity. During this process of “massive and systematic manipulation”, the press played a fundamental role, given its capacity to influence the beliefs and actions of all social agents. In this context, feminine identity was of special importance and the Sección Femenina intended to re-construct it in the journal Y (1938-1945), influencing the ideas and behaviour of Spanish women during the dictatorship’s early years. Using the theoretical framework of linguistic pragmatics, critical discourse analysis and theory of argumentation, this article investigates the persuasive strategies adopted by the journal’s institutional enunciator.

Persuasive Strategies in the National-Syndicalist Discourse: Y (1938-1945)

The Francoist Regime aimed to impose a system of inviolable values and norms by carrying out activities of control and self-control with the goal of legitimising and maintaining its power beyond the dictator’s death. With this objective, the regime intended to modify the mental attitudes and the dynamic components of individual identity. During this process of “massive and systematic manipulation”, the press played a fundamental role, given its capacity to influence the beliefs and actions of all social agents. In this context, feminine identity was of special importance and the Sección Femenina intended to re-construct it in the journal Y (1938-1945), influencing the ideas and behaviour of Spanish women during the dictatorship’s early years. Using the theoretical framework of linguistic pragmatics, critical discourse analysis and theory of argumentation, this article investigates the persuasive strategies adopted by the journal’s institutional enunciator.

A Review of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on Qualitative Research

This article discusses critical discourse theory as a qualitative research theory. Analytical frameworks include analysis of texts, communication and social practices in local, corporate and social levels. It has the goal of expressing and engaging in politics to discuss or deal with certain research methods, statements or values. It refers to the need to explain, understand, analyze, and criticize social life that reflects in text using critical discourse analysis. According to Lake (1996), “the authors use texts to understand their world and at the same time, the article admits to creating actions and social relationships in everyday life, while text positions and individual buildings provide different meanings, ideas, and world versions”.

‘I Believe that a Sofa can be of Great Help’: Materiality in a Kindergarten Room and the Impact on Social Practices

This research explores how the material environment in kindergarten frames social practices and everyday life and how change may affect pedagogy. Data were drawn from an ethnographic study conducted in a large, newly established kindergarten in Norway. The analyses focus on one conversation between two educators and the head of the kindergarten. Critical discourse theory informed data analyses through examination of dimensions of the text, discursive practice, and social practice. The conversation illustrated how the lack of a sofa in a room touched on educators’ central values about practice about caring and children’s wellbeing. The findings illustrate how a change in the material environment forced educators to articulate their beliefs about a taken-for-granted, social practice when traditional expectations were not met. The analyses illustrate how change in materiality in new physical environments may have affective consequences to impact on social practices in kindergarten.

The Right to Justification of Contract

This paper defends a right to the justification of contract, with reciprocal and general reasons, and explores its main implications for the law of contract and its theory. It argues that the leading essentialist and other monist contract theories, offering blueprints for an ideal contract law based on the alleged ultimate value or essential characteristic of contract law, cannot justify the basic structure of contract law. Instead, it argues, a critical discourse theory of contract can contribute to the realisation of the right to justification of contract by exposing patterns of contractual injustice, in particular exploitation and domination by contract, that contract law can and should prevent.

Uczenie się jako przestrzeń dyskursywnie konstruowana

The aim of this paper is to present the conception of learning as a discursive space. It presents the existing research in the field of critical discourse theory, cultural processes of learning as well as dialogic theory of learning. Different aspects of discourse of learning are discussed, including learning as a space for identity creation processes. Furthermore the issues of empty signifiers in a discourse of learning as well as cultural aspects of the discourse of learning and its consequences for identity creation processes are raised.

Lexical Structure as a Marker of Ideology in Ayi Kwei Armah’s Fragments and Two Thousand Seasons

Recent work in the field of Critical Discourse theory, such as that by Norman Fairclough and Teun van Dijk, suggests that it is possible to uncover ideologies inscribed in a text by focusing on elements of discourse. Drawing on the Bakhtinian theory that considers language as a field of ideological confrontation and insights from Critical Discourse Analysis, this article examines how vocabulary mediates ideologies in two novels by Ghanaian author Ayi Kwei Armah, namely Fragments and Two Thousand Seasons. Although critical linguistics has been concerned to widen the scope of stylistics, not just by including as its object of study a wide range of text types, literary and non-literary, but also by allowing insights from other disciplines of the social sciences to be used for a better understanding of the text to be analysed, this article limits its discussion to literary analysis underpinned by socio-cultural knowledge.

Articulations of feminine voices in Ghana’s parliament: a study of the Hansard from 2010-2011

Women have both a right and an obligation to active participation in political deliberation. Yet, their participation in formal political processes, where decisions regarding the use of societal resources generated by both men and women are made, remains insignificant. Now researchers are looking beyond the number of women in parliament to focus on what they can do in terms of their contributions. This study, therefore investigates female parliamentarians’ contributions during parliamentary proceedings, evaluates how gendered these issues were. To accomplish this task, a textual analysis of the Hansard was done using critical discourse analysis and theory of gender and power. The analysis revealed that although female MPs contribute to a range of issues, they are ardent promoters of pro-women legislations such as issues on women, children and youth, health and education. Again, the study found out that a greater percentage of issues women contribute to are gendered and so reinforces the stereotypical roles given to women by society. Keywords: hansard, Ghana, linguistic, parliament, text, women

The Construction of Modernity in Pre-independent Indonesia and its Ensuing Manifestation in Critical Discourse and Literary Theory

The Construction of Modernity in Pre-independent Indonesia and its Ensuing Manifestation in Critical Discourse and Literary Theory

Traditions and Intellectual Discourse of the Minangkabau Community in Kaba Si Ali Amat

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The virtuous circle of ephemeralization and the vicious circle of stress: A systemic perspective on ICT worker burnout

Ephemeralization, that is, an accelerating increase in the efficiency of achieving the same or more output while requiring less input, may give us ever-increasing standards of living. However, it may also result in mental health problems such as stress and burnout. The acceleration discourses and dispositifs such as ICT systems have resulted in automatized and accelerated work processes making work more intensified and stressful. The pace of internal and external communication in organizations has also increased, resulting in information overload. The enablers of this acceleration, namely the ICT workers, experience also acceleration. The subjective experience of acceleration as a source of stress for ICT workers has been overlooked in the burnout research. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and mobilizing concepts from critical theory, cybernetics, and discourse theory, this paper presents a systemic perspective on acceleration and ICT worker burnout. The participants have experienced acceleration as a constant time pressure, work intensification, hyperconnectivity, frequent organizational changes, short-termism, and rapid pace of technological change. Consequences were stress, burnout, and work-family conflicts. They felt alienated and dehumanized at work. There were some significant differences between French and Norwegian groups’ experiences, revealing the intimate link between temporality and culture.

The "Decriminalisation" of the #FeesMustFall Movement in South Africa: An Asantean Perspective

During the struggle against colonialism and apartheid in South Africa and Africa, the liberation pioneers promised all citizens access to decent education. The premise was that the education the colonial authorities made available to Africans was poor compared to that of white people. What was more, only some middle-class Africans were given access to higher education. The initiation of the protest movement #FeesMustFall in 2015 seemed to mark a crossroads in South Africa in terms of opening the doors of learning to all. However, some scholars and politicians argue that the country’s higher education sector is still untransformed and inaccessible to most people. Still others argue that the #FeesMustFall movement’s call for aggressive transformation of higher education has been hijacked by a “third force” to undermine the Government. In this article we critique the competing perspectives of the ongoing public discourse on the #FeesMustFall movement based on interdisciplinary critical discourse and Afrocentric theory in order to gain a nuanced but critical understanding of this movement and its implications for the future. Notwithstanding the reservations about some of the bad elements of the modus operandi of the fallist movement, our major finding, as reported on in this article, was that the demand for quality and free higher education in South Africa was reasonable. Nevertheless, a decision to meet this demand might not be economically sound in respect of the immediate future.

Othering in Chinese official media narratives\xa0during diplomatic standoffs with the US and Japan

Based on two critical discourse analyses of Chinese media narratives on international incidents between China and the foreign ‘Other’ with an interval of nine years, this paper demonstrates continuity and consistency in Chinese official media discourse over the last decade when it concerns sensitive matters, such as sovereignty. The two case studies offered are: the 2001 diplomatic standoff with the US following the spy plane collision; and the 2010 conflict with Japan over the Chinese fishing boat collision with the Japanese coastal guard in the disputed waters of the Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islets. Using theoretical insights and methodological tools from Language Pragmatics, Critical Discourse Theory and Analysis, and Positioning Theory, these studies find identical official Chinese media practices of Othering and self-glorification. The article presents concrete examples of categorizing processes that position the actors as antagonists within a victim/aggressor framework, discursive ideological mechanisms of reification, legitimation, dramatization and generalization, and linguistic power games through the employment of assertive speech acts.

Linguistic landscaping and the assertion of twenty-first century Māori identity

Abstract The Base, one of New Zealand’s largest retail and commercial centres, is situated approximately 7 km north-west of the central business district of Hamilton, New Zealand’s fourth largest city. It is built on a block of land which was requisitioned by the New Zealand government prior to World War II and used as an Air Force Base during the war. The land was returned to the Waikato-Tainui Māori tribal confederation in 1995 as part of a package of reparations relating to the Crown’s mistreatment of the tribe, including its misappropriation of tribal lands. The research reported here, located theoretically within the domain of critical discourse theory, suggests that the semiotoscape of The Base, including, in particular, its linguistic landscape, plays a role in the formation and assertion of contemporary Māori indigenous identity.

Theorizing Critical Discourse Theory and Analysis for Investigating Mathematics Classrooms

Critical Discourse Theory and its elements, discourse, language, power, ideology, subject positioning, struggle and discursive practice, allow a critical understanding of the issues of the working of power and its contestation, and the processes of inclusion and exclusion from social contexts such as mathematics classrooms. Critical Discourse Analysis as a method brings together the theoretical understandings of critical discourse theory to analyse social contexts as well as the language of research participants’ accounts. It enables an understanding of how power, discourse, and ideology are realised in accounts about mathematics learning in middle years secondary classrooms and in a Youth Reconnected Program at one Technical and Further Education Institute.

Challenges to the fraud triangle: Questions on its usefulness

Fraud is increasing with frequency and severity. In this paper, I explore the assertion of the fraud triangle as a useful practitioner framework employed to combat fraud. This paper is anchored through Fairclough's critical discourse theory, and is supported with evidence from three accounting fraud cases. The findings indicate that the Association of Certified Fraud Examiner's (ACFE) perpetuates a discourse that presents a restricted version of fraud. Fraud is a multifaceted phenomenon, whose contextual factors may not fit into a particular framework. Consequently, the fraud triangle should not be seen as a sufficiently reliable model for antifraud professionals.

The Forest Kingdom – with what values for the world? Climate change and gender equality in a contested forest policy context

In this paper we explore the Swedish Government's vision for the forest sector: The Forest Kingdom – with values for the world, launched in 2011. We use the issues of climate change and gender equality to demonstrate implicit “values” that underpin this recent forest policy initiative. Drawing on new institutionalism, critical discourse theory and gender as an analytical category, we conceptualise values as important governance mechanisms mediated through discourse. We analyse key documents of the Forest Kingdom, along with press releases, governmental bills and reports and direct attention to problem representations and subject positions (identity offerings) produced. Our findings demonstrate how climate change is turned into a business opportunity and a means to secure growth and employment throughout Sweden. Women are represented as potential employees and active forest owners connected to the needs of the industry, rather than as active citizens involved in forest policy-making. Climate change and gender inequality are thereby displaced from the political to an economic sphere, linked to industrial needs, private forest ownership and profit rather than to public and collective decision-making. Values underpinning these representations are economic growth, individualism and faith in markets. The emphasis on production is not dissimilar from previous forest policies, which until 1993 primarily were oriented towards timber production.

The power of environmental indifference. A critical discourse analysis of a collaboration of tourism firms

International attempts have not succeeded in addressing climate change, leaving an even heavier responsibility on countries, firms and people. As tourism is an expanding branch in the world economy, it is crucial to focus on how climate change issues are addressed in this industry as well. This paper analyses a group of tourism firms in Norway that join together to promote growth and profitability in winter tourism. The span in how these firms deal with environmental issues ranges from ecotourism till not addressing the subject at all. Although the majority of the firms have environmental issues on the agenda, environmental issues are not included in the cooperation. We use critical discourse theory to explore how this stance on environmental issues within a cooperation has come about, and categorize the firms into three discourses: neoclassical economics, environmental economics and ecological economics. Our data indicate that the hegemonic power of neoclassical economics hampers an environmental focus in the network. This power is exerted through the position of being environmentally indifferent. The paper adds knowledge to economic discourses on firm level.

Older Adults' Risk Practices From Hospital to Home: A Discourse Analysis.

To understand risk-related practices of older adults returning home posthospitalization. Qualitative methods informed by critical discourse theory, designed to uncover linkages between broader social practices and peoples' talk and stories, were used. Eight older adults, screened as high-risk from an inpatient cardiology unit, and six partners were interviewed face-to-face within three weeks of discharge. A discourse analysis of participants' accounts of risk was conducted: the cultural and social understandings or conceptual frameworks used to understand risk were identified. Ableism, a discourse in our society that privileges abledness, was found to permeate the data. Participants underscored that being abled was normal and being disabled was abnormal. Ableism, as a discourse or conceptual framework, compelled participants to appear and act abled, or to perform "compulsory abledness." That, in turn, produced their responses to risk: a pressure to preserve ableist identities created internal and external tensions related to objects and situations of risk and forced participants to use strategies to diminish and minimize risk. Participants created a new response-a position of "liminality" or in-between-where their accounts portrayed them as neither abled nor disabled. This discourse of liminality allowed them to reconcile tensions associated with risk. Critical discourse analysis sheds new light on older adults' risk practices. This approach challenges accepted ways of acting and thinking about what constitutes risk and produces possibilities for alternate ways of representing the same reality.