Discursive Influence Research Articles

“IF IT'S NOT ON, IT'S NOT ON”—OR IS IT?

Safer sex campaigns for heterosexuals have sometimes targeted women in particular to take responsibility for condom use. In this article, the authors question some of the assumptions underlying this strategy, for instance, the assumptions of women's relatively unproblematic relationship with condoms and women's control over condom use. The authors interviewed 14 women about their experiences and views of condoms and of heterosexual relationships more broadly. Using a feminist poststructuralist form of discourse analysis, they examine their accounts in relation to gendered discourses of desire and a coital imperative. They argue that an appreciation of these kinds of discursive influences is important for understanding the complex ways in which women are constrained and enabled to employ condoms for safer heterosex.

‘This is who we are and this is what we do’: teacher identity and teacher work in mid-twentieth century english educational discourse

This article is concerned with exploring the development and consolidation of an English national identity, forcefully intertwined with a teacher identity, created as part of modernising tendencies (conservative and socially progressive) within the education system. Within this national identity, with its traditions and ‘race’/culture references, there is a constant, and often unremarked reference to the character and personality of the teacher. The article expresses a series of interlinked propositions. First, that emphasis on systems may have obscured the deeper waves of discursive influence on teacher identity as expression of national identity. Secondly, that this teacher identity was formed around notions of the public school teacher and was circulated and re-formed constantly in the middle decades of this century Finally, that this discursive influence was used to morally construct/‘civilise’ the teacher as a site of Englishness and the nation.

Policy Effects: “flexible learning” in higher education and the “de‐differentiation” of the vocational sector

This paper explores the contemporary constitution of discourses of “flexible learning” within the Australian higher education sector as an effect of government policy. At the same time it is argued that policy analysts have in the past conceived of their work in terms of sectorial analyses, and that this is no longer adequate. In analyses which are sectorially based only a limited understandings of policy influence and effects are achieved. This argument is supported through the two sectorially based analyses offered within the paper. First, “flexible learning” as the discursive effect of higher education policy is explored. Second, the discursive influence of vocational policy within the vocational sector is examined. When the two analyses are taken together a complex picture emerges which broadens understanding of the possible meanings of “flexible learning” as policy effect within the higher education context. In examining these meanings wider social and economic policy agendas begin to emerge.

Individual Differences and Changes in Nonverbal Behavior

Investigations of deceptive communication have examined a number of nonverbal behaviors as potential correlates of deception; however, reviews of this literature reveal only a handful of behaviors that consistently distinguish deceptive messages from truthful ones. Procedural limitations apparent in some of these studies and an underspecification of individual and discursive factors that affect the production of nonverbal behavior were offered as potential explanations for these findings. The present study sought to reduce the procedural limitations of some prior studies and employed time series analysis to model individual and discursive influences on the response latencies of deceivers and truthtellers. A decay impulse model provided a good description of the data. This model reflects a decaying series of momentary increases (spikes) in the response latency series that were associated with an interviewer's critical questions, and the size of these spikes decreased with each successive critical question. Message veracity and self-monitoring were two variables that combined to affect the fit of the decay impulse model. Implications of these findings are discussed along with suggestions for future research.

Global and Local Discourses on Climate Change: A Perspective from the Concept of Embeddedness

Climate change has been becoming a major order of business of all including researchers and academics. This is known that global, national and local organizations, institutions and even the individuals are partaking into the issues with their own perspectives and skills of negotiations. Despite the series of international efforts and attempts, there are also a series of national concerns, efforts and attempts in combating against the effects of global climate change. This paper is an attempt to draw on the overview of contexts and concerns of international communities for combating global climate change and its discursive influence in national policy discourses. Moreover, the paper attempts to assess the local socio-cultural discourses and dynamics of climate change in relation to global and national discourses. Finally the paper highlights on how global and local climate change knowledge networks and epistemic communities either from political processes or the socio-economic fabrics are interrelated and determinant to each other. Keywords: climate change; discourses; embeddeness; dynamics; global; local DOI: 10.3126/dsaj.v4i0.4518 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol.4 2010 pp.143-180