Discursive Interactions Research Articles

The Production of “Indisputable” Confession Evidence in China

ABSTRACT Police interrogation, as a means of criminal investigation, is based on discursive interactions and serves the purpose of truth-seeking and information gathering. In China’s criminal justice system, many police officers believe that confessions are more persuasive than other forms of incriminating evidence and can help increase the success rate of criminal prosecutions. As such, when interviewing suspects, officers do not always seek information but rather aim to obtain confessions. Using transcripts from police interrogations as data, this research examines the accusatorial interrogation model in China. It focuses on language to explore the dynamics of power in police interrogations and police culture in China.

Chasing greatness: on Russia's discursive interaction with the West over the past millennium

Chasing greatness: on Russia's discursive interaction with the West over the past millennium

«Хороший слог» и «новая художественность» в журнальной полемике 1860-1870-х годов

The research aims to determine the mutual influence of the principles of democratic criticism and raznochinets (“mixed-title”) literature in the 1860s-1870s. The work examines the issues related to the denial of artisticity as an important aesthetic criterion, as well as to the attempt to diminish the authority of literature with a “good style”, which “real critics” attributed to “aristocratic” literature. The paper considers the polemics of those years related to the socio-literary definition of the new stage of democratic literature with a social orientation, which was presented in magazines and by writers. The influence of raznochinets prose on the development of new criteria for evaluating literary works is identified, the function of the rhetorical form of a “conversation with the reader” in terms of combining critical and literary discourse is analyzed, using the prose of A. Scheller-Mikhailov, F. Reshetnikov, and I. Fedorov-Omulevsky as examples. As a model for subsequent imitation by fiction writers, the “conversation with the reader” in N. G. Chernyshevsky’s novel “What Is To Be Done?” is considered in comparison with his concept of art in “The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality”. Scientific originality is determined by the comparative method, which allows the researcher to reveal the forms of discursive interaction at the level of the concept of criticism and its embodiment in literary practice. As a result, it was found that a “conversation with the reader” as a metatextual manifesto of the author’s program becomes a component in the concept of literature of the post-Gogol period.

Shaping shores: An exploration of the interplay between law, spatial ontologies and the power to plan at Milnerton, Cape Town

The landscape of coastal planning is being transformed by the emergence of new scales of informal planning both alongside and between established statutory planning frameworks. As informal planning arrangements seldom operate within an institutional vacuum, they are frequently confronted by the path-dependent influence of pre-existing statutory planning institutions. However, there remains a marked dearth of knowledge surrounding the interplay between formal legal planning frameworks and informal planning arrangements at the coast. In response to this lacuna, the current paper endeavours to expand the existing comprehension of the influence of formal legal planning frameworks on informal planning processes at the coast by amalgamating legal geographical insights with the expanding discourse surrounding the function of actors' ontological understandings of space in structuring power relations and discursive interaction within planning processes. These insights are applied to a focussed case study of the operation of an informal planning process, the Milnerton Erosion Forum, at Milnerton, a coastal suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. The empirical findings presented in this article demonstrate the involvement of legal planning frameworks in constituting space and structuring power dynamics among actors at Milnerton, as well as the ways in which spatialised legal power is mobilised to influence socio-spatial decision-making within informal planning processes through actors’ ontological understandings and representations of places-to-be-planned. Through visibilisng the dialectical relationship between law, space and the power to plan at Milnerton, this article offers nuanced insights into the complex interplay between legal planning frameworks and informal planning practices at the coast.

Discursive Interaction and Agency in Transitional Justice: A Conversation Analysis Perspective

ABSTRACT The article presents discursive interaction as an analytical framework for capturing agency in transitional justice (TJ). Embedded in the paradigm of Conversation Analysis, which foregrounds the interactive nature of communication, the framework sets out how the exercise of agency is facilitated or constrained at the micro level of talk in conversational sequences. The article shifts attention to the mechanics of interactions in TJ, which are demonstrated empirically with patterns of interactions in the Croatian Parliament. The reconceptualization of agency based on the systematic analysis of how speakers engage with each other advances emerging theories of interactive TJ both conceptually and methodologically.

Pedagogy and positioning theory: relationships and the formation of context

ABSTRACT Structures and procedures that govern education provision inextricably generate positions for an articulation of pedagogy. Further, wider social-political and cultural-historical frames offer Discourses (after Gee 2012) that position pedagogy within educational provision. For the last 40 years neoliberalism, in various guises, has provided the backdrop to such provision and visions for, and the operationalisation of, pedagogy. Anglophonic interpretations are limited in their appraisal here through their positioning of pedagogy as ‘the methods and practices of teaching’, where context is portrayed as a series of matters to be mitigated so that quantitative uplift through learner credentialization can ensue. Alternatively, conceiving of pedagogy as ‘being in, and acting on the world, with and for others’ marks a shift both in how pedagogic moments are conceptualised and how context fits therein. Using Positioning Theory (cf. Harré and van Langenhove 1999), This paper argues that context cannot be seen as an immutable and fixed matter to which pedagogy must reply. Rather, pedagogy benefits from the realisation that moment-by-moment discursive interactions position and (re)position context in terms of its relationship with and to the worldly approach to pedagogy outlined above. The paper concludes by deploying this idea in the arena of classroom and behaviour management.

Rhetoric of Landscape Architecture and Interior Design Discourses

The rhetoric of the pedagogic discourses of landscape architectural students and interior design students is described as part of a doctoral study undertaken to document practices and orientations prior to cross-disciplinary collaboration. We draw on the theoretical framework of Basil Bernstein, an educational sociologist, and the rhetorical method of Kenneth Burke, a literary dramatist, to study the grammars of ‘landscape’ representation employed within these disciplinary examples. We investigate how prepared final year students are for working in a cross-disciplinary manner. The discursive interactions of their work, as illustrated by four examples of drawn images and written text, are described. Our findings suggest that we need to concern ourselves with our pedagogic discourse that brings uniqueness and value to our disciplines, alongside shared discourses between disciplines.

Vive la république européenne? Reading The European Balcony Project as artistic counter-public

ABSTRACT The article first contextualizes the European Balcony Project (EBP), a manifesto written by authors Ulrike Guérot, Robert Menasse, and theatre director Milo Rau who subsequently put it up for discussion in various public fora. On 10 November 2018, artists and citizens performed the manifesto and proclaimed the European Republic from (theatre) balconies and public places in 25 European countries. They encouraged a dialogue that sought to promote a more diverse public sphere. In my reading, the EBP emerges as a contemporary version of Oskar Negt’s and Alexander Kluge’s public counter sphere, as a real and imaginary community in which political participation is enacted through the medium of talk in an arena of discursive interaction and democratic practice. By reading the texts in the context of a political avantgarde project, I show how the interventions aim to set a counterpoint to the resurgence of nationalism and promote a vision of a democratic continent based in shared values. My article thus illustrates how public art performances such as the EBP contribute to the thickening of imaginative relations throughout Europe and might aid in the construction of a larger European cultural identity.

The role of inner speech in the effect of argumentation among peers on learning: a case analysis / El rol del habla interna en el efecto de la argumentación entre pares en el aprendizaje: un análisis de caso

Different studies suggest that collaborative argumentation among peers promotes school learning, especially the comprehension of concepts. However, the available evidence shows that the relationship between argumentation and learning is not direct but instead mediated by development processes that, in turn, promote learning. The goal of this study is to understand the mediating role that the development of argumentative inner speech may play in the process of constructing knowledge through collaborative argumentation. A case study was conducted in which one child (fourth grade) was tracked throughout an entire unit in which he and his peers argued collaboratively class after class. We assessed the students individually before and after in their learning (oral and written) and written argumentation skills. The collaborative work from all the classes was videoed and analysed through discourse analysis. The student showed significant progress in both delayed learning and written argumentation compared to the group. Furthermore, the analysis of oral tests shows that the argumentative interactions that initially appeared in the discussions among peers were internalized so he could understand the concepts involved on an individual level. The article discusses the implications of these results in understanding the role of discursive interactions in school learning processes.

Discursive interactions in the classroom. Ideas to expand research and enhance teaching practice to multiply opportunities to learn /Interacciones discursivas en el aula. Pistas para ampliar la investigación y potenciar la práctica docente

During the last five decades, the scientific study of classroom talk has converged in the tradition of classroom dialogue. Empirical research has progressed, showing how dialogic forms of organizing classroom talk would be more conducive to student learning and development than monologic forms. However, two major problems remain unresolved. On the one hand, and despite the research mentioned above, teachers still mostly use a monological teaching method, thus arranging monological ways of organizing classroom discourse. On the other hand, our understanding of the psychological processes that would explain the relationship between the way of organizing classroom talk and learning is still limited. In the present article, we introduce a special section in which we have brought together six papers that sought to extend conceptually and methodologically the limits of the study of classroom talk by explicitly adopting the notion of discursive interactions in the classroom.

Discourse Networks of the Far Right: How Far-Right Actors Become Mainstream in Public Debates

ABSTRACT How do far-right actors and issues structure public debates and become mainstream over time? Previous research has shown that far-right actors are central actors in political conflicts in Western Europe, partly due to their dominance in struggles on cultural issues. The entrenchment of the far right substantially depends on their networks and public visibility. However, we still lack a long-term understanding of public debates about far-right actors and their discursive interconnections across issues. In this paper, we deliver the first longitudinal analysis of the evolution and structure of far-right discourse networks and the diffusion of far-right ideas in public debates since the 1990s. Methodologically, this paper innovates by combining discourse network analysis with automated text analysis to investigate how the relations between far-right actors and issues are represented in mass media. We analyze more than 500,000 newspaper articles in six different mass media outlets in Germany. The results show that far-right actors have gained more public visibility since the 1990s. The study demonstrates that the mass media debates have introduced and amplified cultural issues “owned” by the far right. Far-right discourse networks in mass media have grown, discursive interactions have intensified and discourse networks have become more centralized. Our results indicate that the discursive mainstreaming of the far right evolved in the context of the “refugee crisis” in 2015, and was linked to the AfD’s institutional access. Overall, the study aids in developing a better understanding of the success of the far right and the crucial role of public debates.

Typology of fakes about the special operation in Ukraine in the digital public sphere

The article represents the analysis of fake information distributed in the digital public sphere, namely, of a very significant amount of digital content about the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine. The object of the study is the nature of the discursive interaction of agents of political communication in the digital public sphere in the process of broadcasting their views and opinions. The analysis is based on the messages posted primarily on the social network VKontakte. The most important criterion for selecting material included in the scope of the study was its fake, that is, unreliable, distorted content. As a result of the analysis, the authors make an attempt to classify the fake narratives within this topic and highlight their features. The understanding such features of fake narratives, on the one hand, should allow critical perception of the information disseminated in the sphere of public digital discourse and diagnose fake information as such, and, on the other hand, facilitate the legal assessment of fakes.

Трактат в обличье поэмы: пограничный жанр и особенности его языковой организации

The hybrid genre of poetic treatise occupies a somewhat marginal position within the lit­erary genres landscape. Nonetheless, it holds particular interest as a realm of interaction be­tween artistic and scientific discourses, sometimes intertwining with everyday speech. In the twentieth century, the interplay between scientific and poetic texts, as well as between verse and prose, took on new experimental forms. Western literature saw the influence of Ludwig Wittgenstein and his philosophical treatise form on artistic practices, including poetry. Witt­genstein's "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" left a significant imprint on poets associated with the ‘language school’ in the USA. Furthermore, Wittgenstein's treatise and its interpre­tation by Arkadii Dragomoshchenko continue to reverberate in contemporary Russophone poetry, particularly within the objectivist line. The research material encompasses texts of poetic treatises from the Russian avant-garde (Ivan Terentyev, Daniil Kharms, and Yakov Druskin), contemporary Russophone objectivist poetry (Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, Ale­ksandr Skidan, and Nikita Safonov), and American ‘language writing’ (Ron Silliman, Lyn Hejinian, Charles Bernstein, and Bob Perelman). The article scrutinizes the linguistic charac­teristics of such discursive interaction within the experimental form of a ‘treatise disguised as a poem’. Specific linguistic traits of the treatise genre, typically found in scientific and philo­sophical works, are transposed onto poetic texts. These include discourse words and expres­sions conveying metatextual deixis and the process of argumentation, a distinct I-We subjec­tivity characteristic of scientific discourse, a pronounced focus on propositionality as a deter­minant of truth or falsity, and a clearly delineated, mathematically ordered division of state­ments.

Genre differentiation of small-format texts in modern English

A number of objective conditions that have formed in the modern society are reflected in language as the tendency to reduce the volume of communicative units – texts – that are used in the process of communication. Currently, short textual formations are characteristic of all types of discourse, including those of interpersonal and institutional communication in the media, scientific, official and business environments, as well as in the context of creative writing. The relevance of studying small texts is explained by the need to identify specific ways by which the pragmatic potential of a limited number of linguistic means is most efficiently realized within a small construct, allowing the text to successfully fulfill its complex communicative goal in the process of verbal interaction. Specifics of discursive interaction of linguistic instruments within the framework of the textual structure are closely related to the genre parameters of a particular text variety, however at the moment researchers have not yet adopted a unified approach to systematizing genre variations of small texts. The purpose of this article is to work out a set of classification parameters for systemic arrangement of various small-format texts, which will potentially bring them to a single standard of description. As a result, a number of classification criteria for genre systematization are proposed including ontological, functional stylistic, quantitative, semiotic, formalization and environmental ones. Within the framework of each criterion, variants of genre implementations are singled out with the latter being supported with linguistic illustrations in the form of contemporary English small-format texts.

A ideia de universidade em Van Rensselaer Potter e Jürgen Habermas: novos olhares para a universidade na era digital

ABSTRACT The university is part of the process of “social digitization” and shows itself as a space for discursive interaction. The idea of university derives its meaning from its establishment in the form of a project of integral and citizen formation. The aim of this article is to analyze the concepts of university and their implications in the context of digital technologies based on the theoretical frameworks of Van Rensselaer Potter and Jürgen Habermas. This investigation consists of a philosophical study and bibliographic research through a thorough and comparative analysis of the theoretical references. Potter understands that the university environment is the space for the prospection of humanity’s future and the guarantee of its survival. Potter’s bioethical view roots the university in its project of serving society through the resolution of global problems. In Habermas, the idea of university shines the space for communicative action in human formation. In this context, the university in the digital era projects its training activities and constitutes an open and plural environment for strengthening the democratic foundations of society.

Discursive Interactions of Reading Mediation of Primary Education Teachers of Excellence in Different Disciplines: What Can They Contribute to Teaching Practices?

Resumen Las interacciones de mediación lectora en Chile son predominantemente reproductivas y presentan un limitado desafío cognitivo. Es por ello que el objetivo de la presente investigación fue caracterizar las interacciones discursivas de mediación lectora en diversas asignaturas de profesores de excelencia de educación primaria. En relación con la metodología, correspondió a un estudio de casos múltiples cualitativo y los participantes fueron 9 profesores de 6 establecimientos escolares de La Araucanía, Chile, cuyos audios de sus clases (27) grabamos y analizamos según sus ciclos y tipos de interacciones: dialógicas, IRF (Iniciación-Respuesta-Feedback) o IRE (Iniciación-Respuesta-Evaluación). En relación con los resultados, identificamos que existe un predominio de ciclos IRE, pero las interacciones son significativamente más dialógicas en comparación con las evidencias previas.

Debating representations of the 2019 Hong Kong protests online: New evidence for ‘metalinguistic density’

The current paper replicates findings related to the analytical heuristic of ‘metalinguistic density’. It provides updated theoretical motivations for an analytical focus on explicit metalanguage in online text-based settings, based on notions of symbolic interactionism. An analysis of online user comment data of the 2019 Hong Kong protests reconfirms that the relative occurrence of metalanguage focusing on certain terms indicates the extent to which these terms’ denotational norms are shared amongst a community of language users.While most terms in the corpus do not regularly attract explicit metalanguage, several terms thematically related to the protests did. This disproportionate metalinguistic attention may be explained by political disputes on the movement's legitimacy, which led to normative debates on the discursive representation of the protest movement. Finally, certain phrases had become indexical of a certain political position to the extent that they were the frequent target of irony. In general, the results suggests that ‘metalinguistic density’ is a useful heuristic to employ in text-analytical investigations that seek to explain participants’ interpretations of discursive interactions.

De-Europeanization as discursive disengagement: has Georgia “got lost” on its way to European integration?

ABSTRACT This article looks at de-Europeanization as a progressive disengagement between domestic authorities and EU actors manifested through their discourses. The authors view discursive disengagement as consisting of two major aspects: Discursive opposition between domestic authorities and the EU reflected in their conflicting statements and the intensification of this discursive opposition, whereby the domestic authorities’ discourses shift from defensive to offensive ones. The authors trace the respective developments based on the case of Georgia, looking at the discursive interaction between domestic and EU actors in the Georgian TV media from July 2021 to June 2022. The research has revealed Georgian authorities’ discursive opposition to EU actors behind the façade of seemingly pro-European statements. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this discursive opposition has escalated and become offensive. The authors use quantitative content analysis to map actor-discourse networks, as well as critical discourse analysis to reveal deeper layers of de-Europeanization discourse.

Power Relations And Authority in Teachers' Online Communities of Practice: Formation, Impact, And Implications

Teachers' online communities of practice have become ideal environments for teachers' professional learning, however the catalysts and derivatives of interpersonal interactions, such as power relations and authority in teachers’ online practice communities have not received enough attention -- these factors affect the inquiry and learning in teachers’ online practice communities to some extent. This study selected a case study of an online community of practice composed of four teachers. Based on the relevant concepts of Goffman's micro-sociolinguistics, we explored how teachers construct power relations and authority through discursive interactions in an online practice community, as well as its impact and implications for teachers' pedagogical inquiry and learning. This study analyzes discursive interactions in teachers' online communities of practice from a sociological perspective, providing a new perspective for analyzing teacher participation and learning in teachers' online communities of practice.

Talking to learn: Patterns of discursive interaction in post-lesson debriefs

Post-lesson debriefs are a hallmark of teacher education programs globally, with the assumption that these conversations will encourage reflective thinking and foster better practice. However, not all debriefs equally support these goals. This study examines the nature of discursive interactions in lesson debriefs. It considers learning as a discursive achievement, realized in the situated interactions between university supervisors, mentors, and student teachers. Analysis of ten debriefs resulted in five patterns of discursive interaction: directive discourse; normalizing discourse; analytic discourse; justificatory discourse; and evaluative discourse. This study uniquely contributes to understanding the importance of debrief talk for teaching and learning about teaching.