Discursive Dynamics Research Articles

The discursive construction of discontent: varieties of populist anti-system ideas and discursive interactions in Europe

ABSTRACT This article builds on existing scholarship on populism while shifting the lens to focus on the ideational and discursive dynamics of populist power. It defines populism as, at its core, the discursive construction of discontent, as charismatic leaders claiming to speak for the people against the elites use post-truth language to give expression to peoples’ grievances, to mobilize them via real and virtual networks of support, and to disseminate their ideas via social and traditional media in order to win elections and then to govern differently. This article deploys the discursive institutionalist framework of analysis to consider the four main features of the discursive construction of populism – the message, the messenger, the medium, and the milieu. Throughout, the article illustrates by considering not only the rise of populist anti-system parties in European countries but also the special challenges this poses for the EU.

Re-articulating the Authoritarian on the Local Scale

The article discusses how new right-wing narratives are framed for local political issues and how these frames coincide with local interpretation schemes. We apply a scale frame analysis in four small-city case studies to examine scalar discursive dynamics. In contrast to a widespread assumption, our results show: New right-wing agitation on the local level is not just a discursive process of ‘downscaling’ of narratives, which basically address national issues. Instead, three types of scalar re-articulations on the part of new right-wing actors can be identified, each of which interacts in a specific way with local schemes of interpretation.

Challenges and Benefits of Using Toulmin’s Argumentation Model to Assess Mathematics Lesson Study Debriefing Sessions

ABSTRACT As lesson study becomes more prevalent, there is a need to continuously develop theoretical and methodological infrastructure to support and refine its use. In this article, we present a critical methodological analysis of the challenges and benefits of using Toulmin’s argumentation model in mathematics education to assess the debriefing phase of lesson study. During debriefing sessions, teachers offer arguments about how to improve teaching that are grounded in observations of students’ learning. Toulmin’s model provides a means to analyze the structure of such arguments. Using an empirical example, we illustrate challenges of using the model, such as determining appropriate grain sizes for data and claims, evaluating qualifiers, recognizing multiple categories of backing, identifying implicit warrants, and deciding between the individual or the group as a unit of analysis. We also discuss benefits such as being able to systematically compare mathematics teachers’ pedagogical arguments against one another, assess attainment of debriefing session goals, and characterize group discursive dynamics. Despite the challenges of using the Toulmin model, we conclude that it provides a useful framework for systematic analysis of lesson study debriefing sessions. The present article can help researchers anticipate and address challenges of conducting Toulmin-based qualitative analyses of debriefing session discourse.

Reaganite America and Its Mnemonic Menaces

During the 1980s the spectre of the Vietnam War haunted the sites of cinema and popular culture in various forms. Whereas a rich body of scholarly research exists on cinematic iterations of the Vietnam war as trauma, the discursive dynamics between memory, ideology and genre in relation to enemy image construction are somewhat underdeveloped. This article utilises genre studies, conflict studies and trauma theory in analysing how the representations of film villains interact with the construction of cultural trauma and national identity. Considering the American action thriller to be an important site for processes of commemoration and memorialisation, the discursive construction and formal articulation of national trauma are theorised within the genre. Additionally, a thematic and textual analysis was conducted of a sample of forty American action thriller films. The analysis illustrates how the genre operates through a structure of violent traumatisation and heroic vindication, offering a logic built on the necessity and legitimacy of revenge against a series of enemy-others.

Resisting political traditionalism: a rejoinder to Ho

ABSTRACT In her provocative essay ‘Connection at the Price of Collusion’, Sik-ying Ho argues that my works show ‘empathy’ towards right-wing nativism in Hong Kong by exonerating it from any political responsibilities. She further gives me the name of ‘Left in form, Right in essence’ and asserts that I suffer from ‘Left Melancholy’, in Wendy Brown term. However, I find Ho’s readings not founded on much evidence and arguments and begging the question. Rather than sticking with any given ‘left norms’, I see my works as a conjunctural analysis of the rise of right-wing nativism in Hong Kong. With the purpose of offering new practices of progressive values, my critique is an examination of the power mechanisms and discursive dynamics by which people live. I offer accounts of ‘empowerment fantasy’, existential struggles and the sense of disrupted time, which the recent political agitations featured. An effective project of progressive politics has to address the issues above, i.e. the experience of disempowerment, the ethics of conviction and responsibility, re-engaging people in an ‘interim’ political process. All these attempts are necessary for overcoming the problems caused by a form of ‘affective autonomy’ with which one affirms a set of values merely or primarily by intensifying affective commitment. Without understanding the contingency of the present, simply upholding the liberal-left ideas would render them reified categories and underpin a traditionalist sentiment.

Data constitution and engagement with the field of asylum and migration

The constitutive role of discourse in asylum determination procedures cannot be underestimated. Legal decision-making in the domain of asylum and international protection is essentially discourse-based: spoken and written discourse form the main input for the (re)production and the assessment of asylum applications. As these proceedings can have a direct bearing on the lives of individual applicants, critical reflection and analysis of these discursive dynamics can be considered a core task for researchers in this area. But not a straightforward one. Issues of voice—in the Hymesian sense as the freedom of having one's voice heard—and linguistic-narrative inequality, are central to much of the data that we analyze in this field, but also apply to the impact of language research at policy level, where language is not given priority. We draw from our own experiences as ethnographic fieldworkers in the Belgian asylum and migration context to examine the dynamics of research design, access and dissemination of research findings. We argue for the strength of grassroots initiatives and public engagement in local organizations as fruitful arenas for developing a voice that can be heard locally, and, potentially, also having an impact higher up the institutional hierarchy.

Fan activism as discursive action: Poaching foreign television series for political satire in China

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) has proved insightful theoretically to analysing discourses and discursive practices of digital activism, especially political activism online. However, few studies have developed CDA analytical framework to unpack fan activism. The unique feature of fan activism lies in the discursive dynamics of transferring discursive resources from entertainment products to construct political discourse. Drawing on CDA, this research explicates the question of how global political TV fictions such as the Netflix TV series House of Cards (HoC) are appropriated as discursive resources for emergent online fan activism in local political contexts. Constrained by the authoritarian context, China’s fan activism usually showcases as discursive action. Using the TV series HoC as a lens, Chinese HoC fans engage in online fan activism through the discursive practice of political satire, playfully criticising contemporary China’s authoritarian politics. Conceptualised within CDA, this research attempts to make explicit a three-pronged analytical framework to unpack such discursive action. To use Western TV series to satirise Chinese contemporary politics, firstly, these fans map the fictional world of HoC onto China’s real-life politics by adopting the lexical strategy of mixing specific Chinese political terms and those taken from televisual and real American politics. Secondly, analogies between the content-world of HoC and contemporary Chinese politics are used to criticise contemporary Chinese political figures and scandals. Thirdly, to avoid Internet censorship, various discursive strategies are used by HoC fans to express their criticism subtly. By focusing on fan activism’s discursive dynamics, this study also forms a dialogue with the scholarship on China’s online activism.

Advertising, avoiding, disrupting, and tabooing: The discursive construction of diversity subjects in the Turkish context

This study investigates organizational diversity discourses in Turkey – a non-Western, politically relevant, yet underrepresented context. Using a Foucauldian perspective on power and discourse, we scrutinize how power relations in the Turkish context are (re)produced. Based on our analysis of company websites and semi-structured interviews with various actors (e.g., HR managers), we propose a conceptual framework of the discursive construction of diversity subjects at work along the dimensions of (1) visibility of organizational diversity discourses and (2) contestation of meaning within organizational diversity discourses. The combination of these dimensions yields four discursive dynamics as illustrated in our data (Advertising, Avoiding, Disrupting, Tabooing). This framework may inspire future context- and power-sensitive investigations on diversity discourses at the workplace.

Natural hazards as political events: framing and politicisation of floods in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT This study explores how disasters are framed and politicised in the media to provide a systematic assessment of discursive dynamics and external political contexts of natural hazards. Utilising an actor-focused approach, it contributes with knowledge on how politicisation of disaster discourses unfolds. Two similar natural hazard events, the United Kingdom floods of 2005 and 2015, are investigated by means of a content analysis and a political claims analysis. The study finds that a tension between the national government and its contestants following the 2015 floods led to a framing contest which was heavily affected by the external political context at the time. The opposition and journalists constructed a narrative of government failure, not least by intertwining the event with the politically tense situation in the United Kingdom to further populist claims about government spending and EU policies. In 2005, the lack of a comparable external context and polarisation between actors in the media prevented a politicisation of the floods in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. These results illustrate the importance of broader political contexts, even those essentially unrelated to the natural hazard, for the politicisation of a disaster.

The Russian-Ukrainian War in Ukrainian Political Discourse

The proposed article aims to explore the discursive dynamics of Ukraine caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war. The semantic and pragmatic dominants of relevant political texts were revealed by the method of discursive and content analysis. The article considers the peculiarities of the political discourse of Ukraine after the beginning of the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in 2014. Discursive changes in wartime are analyzed through comparisons with the pre-war state, the leading feature of which was the mode of „brotherhood” with Russia. In the course of the analysis it was established that there was no logical immediate change to a „hostile” discourse with the beginning of the Russian aggression. Ukraine was unprepared for an adequate response to Russia's military aggression not only in real but also in discursive terms. Instead, a euphemistic complex was formed in Ukrainian political discourse to present Russia's aggressive actions as something else, something different. In this regard, an attempt is made to analyze the reasons for the belated response of Ukrainian society, especially the leading echelon of Ukrainian politics, to external aggression. Particular attention as a reason for this state of affairs is paid to post-totalitarian influences, which remain relevant to the socio-political dynamics of Ukraine. Among the key ones is the lack of a full-fledged historical and political narrative and the reproduction of mental schemes of the totalitarian past. Along with this, positive changes in the representation of the Russian-Ukrainian military confrontation as such were identified and studied. The discursive mechanisms of creating a narrative adequate to the military situation and discursive means that oppose Russian aggression are analyzed. At the same time, it was found that in the process of forming a specific discursive order, certain canons and standards of the former metropoly remain relevant in the Ukrainian context. First of all, it concerns the inclusion of substandard elements in the official communicative repertoire as a tool of information confrontation in hybrid aggression. The article concludes that a holistic historical and political narrative is the cornerstone for the formation of national and state identity. Without this, the establishment of a full-blooded state subjectivity of Ukraine appears to be an extremely difficult task. In modern Ukrainian realities, we have not a uniquely specific political discourse as part of a detailed historical and political narrative, but a post-totalitarian discursive surrogate, in the mirror of which even the contrasting notions of war and peace lose the necessary clarity. Key words: Russian-Ukrainian war, political discourse, historical and political narrative, post-totalitarian consciousness.

A critical feminist discursive analysis of dynamics shaping abortion in Canada: Implications for nursing.

The advent of “the abortion pill” (Mifegymiso) in 2015 has shaped the contemporary context of access to abortion in Canada. In this paper, we highlight findings of a literature review that uses a gender and intersectional lens and critical discourse analysis to explore contemporary abortion access and implications for nursing. The discursive dynamics influencing nurses’ understandings of abortion, that is, the contexts in which some discourses are privileged over others yet often operate at the unconscious level to influence everyday knowledge and practices, are important to discern to work towards social justice goals. Findings suggest that normative and contradictory features of discourses such as women’s health, motherhood, and abortion access are relevant. Given the relative silence of abortion in nursing literature and prevailing gender normativity in nursing, there are compelling reasons to apply a critical feminist lens to deepen nurses’ understandings and critical reflection about abortion. There are implications for current education, research, and nursing practice.

“They’re Really Family!”: Discursive Dynamics of Municipal Twinnings Between Louisiana and Acadian Communities of the Maritime Provinces

Whether considered as a form of “diplomacy by cities,” as a strategy for small and mid-sized communities to assert their role amidst globalization, or as a means of territorial cooperation, twinnings between municipalities of different countries represent a common and oft celebrated facet of contemporary transnationalization. Sister cities in Louisiana and Canada’s Maritime Provinces play an important part in the transnational networks among populations of the Acadian diaspora, a people “scattered to the wind” in the eighteenth century after mass deportation by British authorities. There are currently 12 such twinnings, and partnerships with the French-speaking world figure prominently in external subnational relations across the Maritimes, especially in New Brunswick. This article examines emerging discourses of diasporic Acadian identity through municipal twinnings between Louisiana and l’Acadie des Maritimes. After a general profile of twinnings in the Maritimes, I analyze the evolution of language used in sister-city agreements before offering examples of sister cities’ unique contribution to a sense of diasporic belonging.

‘There's something about sustainability’: The discursive dynamics of policy reform

AbstractSustainability is now among the hegemonic discourses used by government to construct problems and policy beyond the environmental domain. Detached from its origins, it functions as an ‘empty signifier’ whose flexibility and ambiguity can be harnessed in policy‐making and political debate. This article uses an Australian case study to show how sustainability discourse was mobilized to justify reversing a previous decision and raise the age at which the publicly funded aged pension could be accessed. Overall, it contributes to understanding how hegemonic intervention is accomplished by tracing discursive processes over time and amongst different texts, helping to identify shifts and turning points in trajectories of policy reform and political debate. I conclude by arguing that the use of sustainability discourse warrants particular critical attention because it signals broader difficulties in imagining alternative collective futures and considering the costs and consequences arising from current arrangements.

Indie Gaming Meets the Nordic Scene: A Dramatistic Analysis

This paper examines video recordings of a panel presentation by game designers Ron Edwards of the United States and Tobias Wrigstad of Sweden at an Italian gaming convention in May 2010. The paper uses a dramatistic perspective to explore the discursive dynamics of their encounter, which represented contact between role-playing game designers from different traditions that were driven by similar imperatives and goals. It establishes the context of their encounter, summarizes the video recordings that document it, and uses the “dramatistic pentad” developed by rhetorician Kenneth Burke as a tool for reading the multiple levels of narrative and interaction that emerge as each speaker presents their perspective on the development of the different communities of play for whom they speak. It identifies an important dynamic within their speech as being how orientations toward differentiation or toward integration manifest in different ways. Ultimately, the encounter between Ron Edwards and Tobias Wrigstad provides access to different ways of thinking about the relationships between role-playing communities over time and in space: as instances of differentiation or as parts of a larger dialogue.

Blame Game Theory: Scapegoating, Whistleblowing and Discursive Struggles following Accusations of Organizational Misconduct

Research on organizational misconduct has examined how audiences generate discourses to make sense of behaviour that may transgress the line between right and wrong. However, when organizations are accused of misconduct, the resulting ambiguity also opens opportunities for organizations and their members to generate discourses aimed at deflecting blame. Little is known about how actors who are at risk of being held responsible actively respond to misconduct accusations by engaging in discursive strategies. To address this question, we build on crisis communication and discourse theory to integrate processes of scapegoating and whistleblowing into a holistic model. We develop a blame game theory – conceptualizing the sequence of discursive strategies employed by an organization and its members to strategically shift blame by attributing responsibility to others or denying misconduct. Our model identifies four blame game pathways as a function of two types of ambiguity: moral ambiguity and attributional ambiguity. We highlight accusations of misconduct as pivotal triggering events in the social construction of misconduct. By conceptualizing the discursive dynamics of strategic reactions to accusations of misconduct, our blame game theory contributes to the literature on organizational misconduct and has implications for research on social evaluations.

Board level (in)visibility and critical mass in South African companies

Purpose Women still face barriers that delay their upward mobility in organisations. This study aims to examine whether women experience critical mass as sufficient to shift deep level discursive dynamics, theorised as an (in)visibility Vortex. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative method was used to collect and analyse data on the lived experiences of 16 board-level female leaders who have been appointed to male-dominated boardrooms in South Africa. Findings The findings confirm that numeric representation is too simplistic to resolve deep level gendered dynamics. At a personal level: self-confidence, a bigger purpose and competence-experience were found to be counter-forces to Vortex. The role of the chairperson was also crucial. Practical implications Organisations must be reminded that even where the number of women on a board has reached beyond a critical mass, hidden barriers still exist. When developing women leaders, practitioners need to penetrate below the surface to appreciate the undercurrents and address them at that level. Organisations need to nurture the personal attributes that counter the forces of the Vortex. Mentorship, sponsorship and coaching may be beneficial. The role of the chairperson is especially important in disrupting deep level dynamics. Chairpersons need to be more deliberate and proactive to refute behaviours that exclude and undermine women’s full participation. Originality/value Contrary to the (in)visibility perspectives, the women in this study did not “withdraw” or “conceal” their gender when “exposed” in male-dominated boardroom dynamics. Reasons for this are explored including the potential for further research on the construction of a “trailblazing” identity.

Temporality and the discursive dynamics of the Rwandan National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security from 2009 and 2018

ABSTRACT The African Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is supported by a well-developed architecture. However, the problem-solving language of the Continental Results Framework to monitor state implementation may impede critical gender discourses and practices. This article therefore examines the discursive repetitions and ruptures across Rwanda’s National Action Plans (NAPs) of 2009 and 2018, with specific attention to the dynamics of discursive relations between the two NAPs, and examining whether the language offers openings for alternative interpretations of dominant Rwandan WPS discourses. Our temporal reading of the NAP discourses is grounded in the idea that time as well as learning over time is non-linear, multiple/fluid, connected to a particular space, linked to processes rather than products of repetition and rupture, and representative of an interlocking of pasts, presents, and futures. Three categories of change – namely, “dominant,” “residual,” and “emergent” – are used to structure the analysis. The empirical evidence shows that the categories are not mutually exclusive: the new NAP reflects more of the same dominant discourses, but with some minor qualitative and critical shifts, as well as isolated opportunities for creating a new perspective on WPS.

Rebelión en Chile

En este artículo me propongo reflexionar acerca de los efectos subjetivos del neoliberalismo en Chile, específicamente en su capacidad de construir hegemonía por medio de la institución de una subjetividad que demarca campos de posibilidad y horizontes de sentido en la disputa social. Tomando en cuenta esa “configuración sociocultural” que posibilita y resulta de la forma político-económica neoliberal, se problematizará acerca de las dinámicas discursivas críticas de la revuelta popular chilena, para analizar su capacidad de resistir/tensionar la discursividad política y mediática hegemónica.

Times are changing: the role of heritage identity on employee identification in a Danish family-owned company

PurposeThe aim of this article is to explore how the employees of a Danish family-owned company identify with the heritage identity of their company. More specifically, the purpose is to study how the employees interpret certain historical events and values in their efforts to make sense of which heritage identity traits have remained meaningful for them over the passage of time and what these historical events and traits mean to their identification with the company.Design/methodology/approachThe investigation is based on 19 in-depth interviews with employees. A critical discourse analysis approach is adopted to uncover the discursive dynamics appearing across the employees' interpretations of historical events and values.FindingsThe study indicates that heritage identity represent a complex and dynamic resource for employees' organizational identification. Therefore, this article argues that it could be a challenge for management to maintain a stable and enduring heritage identity, because the employees' interpretations and consequently their organizational identification is subject to continual revision and under influence by a dynamic and constantly changing social context.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study is limited to the specific context of one company. Further research could investigate the same topics when interviewing employees across the national borders of a global family company in times of change.Practical implicationsManagement need to identify whether different generations of employees develop a strong or weak identification with certain heritage identity traits and whether there are competing or compatible targets of heritage identification among these generations.Originality/valueThis study illuminates the potential challenges related to the maintenance and preservation of heritage identity in a company with roots to a strong founding family, which operates in a constantly changing environment.

The discursive framework of sustainability in UK food policy: the marginalised environmental dimension

ABSTRACT In the context of food policy, sustainability functions as a normative principle but also constitutes a highly contested arena. The study presented in this paper establishes how discursive dynamics amongst professionals involved in matters of food distribution, retail, consumption and waste lead to food policy themes being framed as issues of sustainability. Analysing varied UK-based data (trade magazine articles, policy documents and interviews with retail, non-profit and consultancy representatives), three interpretative frames of sustainability are identified: consumer sovereignty, economic rationality and stewardship. Focusing on three themes of food sustainability – organic consumption, protein diversity and waste reduction – it is shown how these interpretative frames constitute the discursive framework relevant to food policy. Based on these findings, it is shown how in the analysed debates environmental concerns are sidelined.