Discursive Space Research Articles

Identifying stance in legislative discourse: a corpus-driven study of data protection laws

Mirroring public ideologies and value systems in legislative discourse, stance not only functions as a powerful instrument for legislators to balance legal values and stakeholders’ interests but also acts as a valuable reference for individuals to understand legislative texts. This study conducts a corpus-driven analysis of stance expressions in legislative discourse. Using three self-compiled corpora that incorporate data protection laws from the United States, the European Union, and China, we apply Hyland’s stance model to contrastively analyse evidence of hedging, boosting, self-mention, and attitude markers across these jurisdictions and eventually propose a specialised research model of stance in law. This study unveils the nature of modesty and sufficient discursive space of data protection laws, as well as legislative values and public ideologies conveyed by different jurisdictions within the broader socio-legal cultural context. Besides uncovering the legal constructiveness of data protection laws, the results also suggest that the overall representation of stance in data protection legislation aligns with its performance in legislative discourse, which showcases a legislative tendency to achieve an overtly neutral appearance through covert stance expressions.

If you’re reading this, it’s meant for you: The reflexive ambivalence of algorithmic conspirituality

Growing awareness of the ubiquity of algorithms online has established a new discursive space for making sense of their role in individuals’ lives and society writ large. Within this space, social media users have come to think of algorithms as uniquely powerful forces shaping everyday experiences. This article explores how people make sense of algorithms, as seen through (dis)belief in algorithmic conspirituality, where users ascribe divine significance to algorithmic curation on TikTok. We ask: how do users understand algorithmic conspirituality, and under what circumstances do they believe (or not) in the mystical power of algorithms? Drawing on focus groups and interviews with TikTok users ( n = 25), we observed what we call reflexive ambivalence. This refers to a reflexive process in which participants examined their cognitive and affective responses to algorithmic conspirituality videos to untangle seemingly contradictory logical and mystical mentalities. With this insight, we complicate past work by demonstrating the co-occurrence and interdependency of rational, technical vs. affective, socially situated ways of knowing algorithms. We additionally highlight conditions under which belief in algorithmic conspirituality gained plausibility for our participants and how they rationalized the phenomenon as grounded in the worldly realm.

Reproduction propaganda: The state hails, citizens responds—A case study of Vietnamese governmental Facebook

Since the turn of the 21st century, aging populations and low fertility rates have alarmed governments across Europe and East Asia. The Communist state of Vietnam is now experiencing the same situation. The government has recently started a propaganda campaign to encourage its citizens to not postpone marriage and having children. This article explores one recent attempt—a viral post published on the government's Facebook page in November 2023 urging young citizens to marry before 30, attracting hundreds of thousands of reactions and comments. The article examines this heteronormative message and netizens’ comments, which show humor, resistance, and critiques of the government's welfare system. Using the concepts of (counter-) interpellation, it reveals the nuances of the power relations between the state and its people in this case study where biopolitics and personal choice intersect, illuminating how social networks provide a discursive space for mundane political engagement.

Communicative and pragmatic peculiarities of euphemisms in Russian and Uzbek languages

The object of the research is the linguistic means of explication, namely euphemisms, which were collected by continuous sampling from English and Uzbek dictionaries, encyclopedias and other reference and journalistic publications. The subject of the research is the communicative and pragmatic peculiarities of euphemistic units containing information about the moral values and ethical prescriptions inherent in society. The purpose of the research is to identify the communicative and pragmatic peculiarities of euphemistic nominations in the Russian and Uzbek languages, taking into account the national and cultural specifics of the compared languages. With the help of the cross-cultural method, we found that in addition to the uniqueness of the national context, there are phenomena in language systems, both universal and differential, including semantic universals and linguo-pragmatic maxims. The novelty of the research is a comparative analysis of the communicative and pragmatic peculiarities of euphemisms, taking into account the national and cultural aspect, which indicates the scientific novelty of the study. The results of the research showed that euphemism is not just a lexical substitute, but a broader concept, a form of discursive maneuvering. It has various strategies that perform the function of non-proximal manipulation of the discursive space, through which the speaker tries to increase the symbolic distance between himself and the mentioned event, on the one hand, and on the other hand, in certain situations, the use of a euphemistic unit may be due to the desire to mask real circumstances. The research work also shows that there is no relationship between the choice of euphemism strategy in the compared languages. Another important discovery is that Russians and Uzbeks resort to taboos when dealing with death and lies, but almost never sexual relations in Russian. Euphemistic language is influenced by the cultural and religious beliefs, lifestyle and norms of its speakers, especially in Uzbek, as we found when describing sexual relations and when addressing elders.

From the political to the personal: Constructing politicians’ biographies in the Nick Robinson podcast ‘Political Thinking’

Political podcasts have captured a global audience and emerged as an important innovation space in journalism. One of the most popular formats is the ‘extended interview podcast’. This study employs conversation analysis to examine how this format has been used to facilitate more personal and informal encounters between journalists and politicians who are usually associated with the accountability news interview. BBC Radio 4’s podcast ‘ Political Thinking with Nick Robinson’ is used as a case study. The analysis shows that Political Thinking provides a discursive context for politicians to construct and perform their personal identities, in contrast to their traditionally more formalised political performance as institutional representatives. The looser structure of the podcast, relative to the tightly scheduled news interview, affords Robinson the discursive space for more reflexive handling of politicians’ personal narratives. Talk is mutually co-operative and conversational. Similarly to the celebrity talk show Political Thinking has an experiential focus, oriented towards the narrative exploration of personal experience as a device to contextualise politicians’ careers and value systems. This is complemented with more playful sequences in which Robinson collaborates with politicians to curate their non-political identities and reveal details of their personality that may help the audience to see them in a new light. Through this process, politicians become personal storytellers, whose thoughts, emotions and non-political identities are brought to the fore above issues of policy and current affairs. In turn, Robinson allows politicians to bridge the gap between their institutional identities as politicians and their personal reflections as individuals.

Educational Politics and Policy Change in Neoliberal Times: An Argumentative Discourse Analysis

<p>With the rise of neoliberal reforms and efforts to privatize education, there is a growing need to examine how actors and groups from the public and private sectors influence educational policy change together. In this article, we advance a critical approach to understanding the changing discursive space of educational politics by following discourses through an expansive policy network that goes beyond its traditional boundaries. Specifically, we draw on argumentative discourse analysis (ADA), which allows for the analysis of how and why various actors and groups come together to assign certain meanings to educational phenomena or problems, leading to policy responses or changes. Rooted in Foucault’s notions of discourse and power, ADA offers a unique approach to discourse analysis that can illuminate policy change through discourse coalitions. Three case studies from educational policy scholarship are discussed to illustrate the value and utility of ADA in future critical education policy studies.</p>

When given two choices, take both! Social impact assessment in social entrepreneurship

ABSTRACT This paper examines how social entrepreneurs construct impact arguments as they begin to assess social impact. We examined the experiences of 68 social entrepreneurs in Chile and discovered that the construction of arguments for the purpose of thinking about and experiencing impact is different than the arguments constructed to establish dialogues around it. We explain this dual argument construction as arguments for worth and arguments for legitimacy. We expand scholarship on argumentation by clarifying social entrepreneurs’ efforts to pursue adherence facing competing demands and reinforcing their willingness and ability to engage with social impact assessment. We advance the understanding of social impact assessment in social entrepreneurship across three areas: tensions, accountability and performance and extend Nicholls’ general theory by explaining what precedes the discursive space where the assessment of social impact reconciles facticity and validity to establish materiality.

Receptive Publics

It is widely accepted that public discourse as we know it is less than ideal from an epistemological point of view. In this paper, we develop an underappreciated aspect of the trouble with public discourse: what we call the Listening Problem. The listening problem is the problem that public discourse has in giving appropriate uptake and reception to ideas and concepts from oppressed groups. Drawing on the work of Jürgen Habermas and Nancy Fraser, we develop an institutional response to the listening problem: the establishment of what we call Receptive Publics, discursive spaces designed to improve listening skills and to give space for counterhegemonic ideas.

‘Wolf Warriors’ in the UN Security Council? Investigating power shifts through blaming

AbstractWhat shifts in the extent and patterns of China's blaming are observable at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)? This article employs automated content analysis to measure the frequency of blaming by China and other permanent UNSC member states based on a dataset of all speeches (19,623 overall) in the UNSC from January 1995 to May 2022. Furthermore, it uses qualitative text analysis and network analysis to examine the targets of blaming in three different case studies of UN security governance—UN peacekeeping in former Yugoslavia (1998–2008), the UN sanctions regime against North Korea (2007–2017) and the broader peace and security discourse at the UNSC (2008–2018). The study conceptualizes Chinese blaming as a previously unexamined discursive strategy of compulsory power with potential long‐term effects on shifts in productive power. However, the results indicate the absence of blaming‐related shifts in the discursive space of the UNSC: China's rhetoric in the UNSC, compared with other UNSC members, has remained restrained over time. Variance in blaming behaviour between actors and across bilateral and multilateral settings seems to depend on strategic considerations that assess how to exert power most effectively.

Finding fun in the fatigue: Exploring healthism among group fitness instructors

The concept of health is culturally contingent, and fitness practices provide a venue to gain insights into the construction of health. In this case study–based article, I focus on group fitness instructors’ narratives on healthiness and fitness rituals. By combining Foucault’s notion of the ‘microphysics of power’ and the socio-cultural phenomenon healthism, I employ a genealogical approach that reveals how healthism renders a discursive space for group fitness instructors (‘local fitness experts’) to navigate their understanding of health norms. A qualitative method consisting of 22 semi-structured interviews was used. Group fitness instructors teaching in Austria for a global group fitness distributor (Les Mills) were interviewed. The results show that eliminating risks to health is the highest imperative to the instructors, which is traced back to a dichotomy between ‘disciplined training’ and ‘fun training’, where fun training is seen as feminine and risky. Furthermore, instructors underline their health literacy through skeptical consumerism – choosing health for the sacrifice of fun or finding fun in the fatigue.

The Phenomenon of Creative Heritage in Socio-Humanitarian Discourse

The main idea of the article is to address the phenomenon of creative heritage as an independent basic concept of modern socio-humanitarian research. Having analyzed a certain corpus of works in the field of memorial cultural practices, the authors came to the conclusion that there is no instrumental distinction of the concepts “cultural memory”, “artistic heritage”, “creative heritage” in this discursive field. The novelty of the study lies in analyzing the specificity of the concept “creative heritage”, as well as its role in contemporary socio-humanitarianism in general and art history in particular. Since the field of applied interest of the authors lies in the sphere of a specific art form — dance, practical conclusions are drawn in relation to it. It is emphasized that along with the generally accepted methods of research in a given discursive space — typological, structural, functional, biographical — the method of humanitarian blockchain and the concept of “artistic code of the epoch” proposed earlier by one of the co-authors can be used to study the creative heritage of a person (creative group) in the history of art. Emphasis is placed on the relevance of this research policy in connection with the current geopolitical agenda, the practices of “culture of cancellation” being implemented before our eyes, and, accordingly, the need to develop effective projects in the sphere of state cultural policy, forming the working contours of cultural memory and national identity. The problem of identifying, studying and preserving the creative heritage as part of the cultural heritage acquires special relevance in the realities of the modern historical stage — the “early digital era”, accompanied by the rapid development of digital technologies, including destructive ones such as deepfake. The practical potential of the development of this concept is particularly noted, which allows for the consistent preservation of traditions and innovations in artistic activities, to use both the formed array of cultural heritage of different levels and the potential of creative cultural industries.

Anti-Systemic Counterpublics: Rethinking the Counterpublic Sphere

Amid debates over the impact of social media platforms on democratic societies, there is increasing academic interest in how they offer new spaces for destabilising forces and movements that challenge democratic values, practices and norms. This article proposes an analytical framework to study “anti-systemic counterpublics”—defined as arenas for production and circulation of discourse that undermine the legitimacy of the established socio-political order. Integrating insights from both counterpublics literature and the theoretical literature of anti-system parties, this study shifts focus from progressive counterpublics seeking to expand the discursive space for marginalised voices and groups to anti-systemic counterpublics contesting the dominant socio-political order. The analytical framework delineates three dimensions of anti-systemic counterpublics: the content of their discourse (discursive), their modes of articulation and expression (performative), and their strategies for alliance-building and positioning within broader information landscapes (positional). Using two case studies—anti-lockdown movements and a news outlet—I illustrate how such counterpublics often align with fringe political actors and hyper-partisan news media. These cases help illuminate their strategies, from crafting persuasive messages to mobilising identities, and opposing mainstream actors and narratives. This framework offers a lens to understand the evolution and influence of anti-systemic voices, both in digital and non-digital spaces.

Morphology and semantics of derivational metaphors in Spanish media discourse

The cognitive and pragmatic potential of derivational metaphorical nominations, actively used in the Spanish media discourse, represent a relevant direction of Discursive and Cognitive re-search that requires scientific comprehension.The article is devoted to the study of the linguo-cognitive specificity of derivational metaphors that verbalize new meanings, name new realities and frequently function as nomination-neologisms or occasionalisms. Derivational metaphors perform a pragmatic function, broadcasting an intentionally conditioned vision of the world in modern Spanish media discourse, and implement the intentional and evaluative discourse pragmatics. The objective of the study is to consider the morphosemantics of derivational metaphors and analyse the most frequent word-forming productive models of metaphorical nominations in Spanish media discourse.An integral methodological approach is used to the study of word-formation discursive metaphors, which combines contextual, semantic, interpretive and stylistic analysis methodologically opening up the possibility of a systemic study of the linguo-pragmatics of derivative metaphorical nominations that function in the Spanish media discourse. The most productive morphosemantic models of word formation for creating metaphorical concepts in the Spanish media space are affixation (prefixation and suffixation as well as their combination) and word compounding.The cognitive approach to the study of derivational metaphors through the prism of onomasiological theory allows one to interpret the process of word formation as a way of translating cognitive attitudes and meanings. The metaphorical meaning is generated by a derivational act. The morphological structure of a word change is not identical to the sum of the meanings of the derivational components involved in the creation of a new metaphor. In the discursive space the associative potential relative to the basic meaning of affixes or root morphemes in compound words brings a number of interpretations that vary the metaphorical rethinking of their semantics and integrate axiological evaluation.The discursive role of word-formation metaphors, which have an evaluative potential, lies in the implementation of the pragmatic function of updating meanings, aimed at influencing the consciousness and behaviour of the target audience.

Традиционализм как фактор политической стабильности в современном российском обществе

The article considers traditionalism as a positive factor contributing to the achievement of political stability in Russian society in the modern complex context of aggravating external threats. The object of the study is political stability as a unity of factors and consequences in modern society. Subject of the study – traditionalism as a factor of political stabilization and reintegration of Russian society in the modern context. The study of traditionalism is conducted in the unity of cultural-historical and modern socio-political aspects, due to which this phenomenon is a leading factor of political stability in society and the state, which proclaims traditional values as basic. The study of traditionalism as a factor of the political process in our country is based on the idea of the unity of socio-historical and political science knowledge, forming a single discursive space. Tradition as a multidimensional phenomenon of folk life, synthetically expresses everyday perceptions that influence the political climate in society. The relationship between tradition and innovation in the context of the development of digital technologies as the basis of the communicative process should reach a new level and become part of the practice of political legitimization.

Digital Shifts and Ethno-Political Dynamics: Examining Event and Actor Designation in the Cameroon Boko Haram Terrorism Conflict through Print and Online Platforms

This study examines how the issue of ethnic identity is approached in Cameroon within the context of combating Boko Haram terrorism, considering the influence of the rise of social media on journalistic practices. The advent of these platforms has fundamentally altered the landscape of media coverage, challenging the traditional monopoly of journalists in shaping the narrative of news. How does this technological shift affect the discourse, especially in the designation of events and actors in the reporting of Boko Haram terrorism in Cameroon, whether in traditional print media or on online platforms like Facebook? Do these designations in print media and Facebook discussion forums indicate shifts in the dynamics of the Cameroonian media sphere (censorship, government repression, etc.), resulting from the emergence of new voices in digital discursive spaces? This study employs a dual analysis, integrating a critical examination of media discourse with a sociological study of journalistic production. The scrutiny of media discourse is based on the investigation of 497 articles published between 1st January and 30 June 2015, sourced from seven Cameroonian newspapers. The online corpus encompasses 450 written publications from three Facebook forums. We aim to establish a dialectical relationship between newspaper discourse, online content, and the sociological foundations shaping their production. The observed quality of designations in the studied forums unveils a surge in hate speech within the ethno-political landscape of Cameroon. While this phenomenon remained manageable through the intervention of state regulatory bodies in traditional media, the unrestrained nature of online content, coupled with the absence of state control, has facilitated the rise of inter-ethnic discursive hatred in politics. In conclusion, this study underscores the challenges stemming from the evolution of journalistic practices in a technological landscape and emphasizes the urgent need for regulatory frameworks to counteract the upswing in hate speech and inter-ethnic tensions within political discourse.

Alternative spaces of encounter: Characterological metadiscourses and ‘joint voice’ in Finnish multi-ethnic inclusive theater

Abstract This article explores the characterological metadiscourses through which characters, or figures of personhood, become modeled, evaluated, and enacted during a multi-ethnic, community-inclusive theater project that aims to make the group's ‘joint voice’ heard on stage and in society. Based on ethnographic data and discourse-analytical methods, the article examines two modes of characterological metadiscourse that contribute to the construction of an ‘alternative’ discursive space that allows the group to reflect on and to experiment with everyday social interactions. First, the article analyzes writing and conversation tasks that deal with experiences of ethnicization and inequality. Second, the article analyzes exercises in acting techniques, in which the focus turns to universal characterological dimensions, enabling each participant to participate in the joint voice as an equal performer. The analyses illuminate a local strategy of managing multi-ethnic relations and committing to ideals of solidarity and egalitarianism with the purpose of collective social action. (Voice, entextualization, interdiscursivity, ethnicity, raciolinguistics, theater)*

PARADOX OF STATE OF LAW IDEA ON PANCASILA PHILOSOPHICAL JUSTIFICATION AS SOURCES OF LAW


 
 
 
 The state of law idea formulated in the provisions of Article 1 paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia is a formulation containing normative statement that is still dubious and seems convincing. Embedding the nature of legality in the context of the idea of the rule of law through the statement that Pancasila is the source of legal norms need to be questioned. The idea of Pancasila is impossible to realize if it does not materialize into a living reality, not a dead one. The possibility if Pancasila is used as sources of law it will expand coercive actions and choices of legal imperatives. Pancasila must be able transforming and making itself relevant in midst of the challenges of social changes. The construction of the idea of a rule of law should not depend on absolute and certainty. It must be able to be created as a discursive space that is truly interpretive and not limitative. Pancasila is existed and recognized in the constitutional adjudication with presuppositions to explain the rationalization of legal reality. It must be carried out at the level of the goal for obtaining and achieving justice. The problem of the paradox of the rule of law idea can be raised through legal interpretations that are able to find a relationship between what should be normative and what is factual. Judges must be able to voice more than what is stated in the law and what is said by the law.
 
 
 
 

Do You See Me? An Examination of Black Pre-Service Teacher Experiences in a Teacher Preparation Program

Within the United States, Elementary education has been a discursive space dominated by a White, English-monolingual, middle-class teaching force and perspectives. A look at teacher preparation programs across the nation highlights the growing disparities in the racial makeup of teacher preparation programs. By looking closely at the perspectives of six Black pre-service teachers in a predominantly White institution of higher education, their lived experiences are examined to illuminate how they negotiate becoming teachers in hegemonic spaces while battling socially imposed and self-internalized deficit conceptions of their own identities as developing teachers.

Exploratory Practice: understanding classroom life with a Youth and Adult Education group and their teacher

In this research, intelligibility was built regarding the teaching-learning process of English language for a Youth and Adult Education group and their teacher and the influence that the reflective process has on the construction of beliefs about learning languages and about learning itself. In this article we will reveal the details of how the reflective process was brought to a group of students and their teacher during such research, in addition to reporting relevant aspects of the opportunity that the researcher had to experience with the research participants the ethical, collaborative and inclusive proposal for the research of Exploratory Practice, creating a discursive space so that the research participants could intensify or enrich their understandings about life in the classroom. The proposal of this work, which is in line with the scope of Applied Linguistics, although it aims at building local understandings, can help teachers in the area of English language teaching to reflect on their practices, as well as encouraging them to listen and look more in tune with their students when they encounter teaching situations in which they do not have the learning return they expect from them.

The formation and problems of translation of environmental terms in the Kazakh language lexical system

Relevance. Nowadays social, economic and political systems are taking place in our world. It leads to the emergence of new terms and concepts. New professions also appear. The professions like consecutive interpretation, written translation, simultaneous interpretation demands high competence not only in native language, but also in mastering the foreign language. Good interpreters should have a wide lexicon, not only in the foreign language but also in their mother tongue. Purpose. Aims and tasks of such type of discourse is conditioned by the desire for accuracy an unambiguous interpretation of the text, which is realized through use of terms. Methodology. This article deals with issues concerning ecological discourse phenomenon and its features in the linguistic and translation aspect. Results. Environment becomes very important part of contemporary world community. Ecological problem permeates into communicative activity of society and influences its discursive space. Ecological issues are of the utmost importance in our century. It is due to need to protect the environment from destructive consequences of technological progress. Conclusions. Scientists outlined a special type of discourse – ecological discourse. Scientific ecological discourse has the same features as scientific discourse. Many researches should be done in this sphere, but unfortunately, in Kazakhstan scientists don’t pay enough attention to this problem.