Discursive Strategies Research Articles

Interdisciplinary Research, Tenure Review, and Guardians of the Disciplinary Order

ABSTRACT While interdisciplinarity has been promoted in universities for decades, research suggests that untenured faculty struggle to receive recognition for their interdisciplinary research. Informed by the microfoundations of institutional theory and discursive legitimation, we examine how members of academic departments participate in the legitimation and reproduction of tenure and promotion norms in relation to disciplinary and interdisciplinary research in a prestigious private university. Our analysis draws on 59 interviews with department chairs, directors of interdisciplinary centers, and disciplinary and interdisciplinary untenured faculty in the STEM fields, the social sciences, and the humanities. Our findings reveal three mechanisms and processes through which tenure and promotion norms become legitimated and reproduced in academic departments: 1) institutional micro-practices concerned with evaluation and gatekeeping, 2) discursive legitimation of the expulsion of interdisciplinarity at the pre-tenure stage, and 3) scholarly positioning through discursive boundary strategies directed at rationalizing the expulsion of interdisciplinarity or the expansion of existing tenure and promotion norms. Taken together, these findings advance our understanding of the tensions between the promotion of interdisciplinary research in higher education institutions, reproduction of the disciplinary order in academic departments, and interdisciplinary early-career scholars’ career advancement.

Promoting mindfulness in education: Scientisation, psychology and epistemic capital

Mindfulness is increasingly found in many educational settings in the United Kingdom, but existing research has focused primarily on clinical efficacy or implementation issues, rather than sociological interests. This article draws on data from the ‘Mapping Mindfulness in the UK’ study to help explain the successful growth of mindfulness in education, by exploring the discursive strategies through which practitioners construct, promote and solicit support for the practice among policymakers and educational leaders. The analysis highlights the significance of certain authorities or epistemic capitals, and logics of ‘scientisation’, for positioning mindfulness as a credible and legitimate practice for educational contexts, yet also reveals competing discourses and alternative conceptualisations. In doing so, it extends theories of ‘scientisation’ by explicating the role of ‘harder’ and ‘softer’ forms of psychology within these processes. The research makes original contributions to sociological understandings of mindfulness and education, while offering new insights on broader theories concerning science and society.

The Political Dimensions in Discourses of Youth Organizations Operating in Poland: Scope and Dynamics of Changes in the Context of the Russo-Ukrainian War

In this article, the research aim was to reconstruct the political characteristics of the discourses of four youth organizations operating in Poland in three intertwined dimensions: content, structure and time. In the content dimension, by using the analysis of the discursive strategies, the focus was on political goals and political features of collective identities. In the structure dimension, by using the analytical tool provided by discursive institutionalism, the internal dynamics of discourses were explored. In the dimensions of structure and time, an attempt was made to capture the discursive change as a reaction to the war in Ukraine. Over 700 texts posted by the organizations’ websites or Facebook pages were analysed. Three types of discourses were identified, which show various ways of representing political objectives and collective identities. Furthermore, all of the discourses reacted to the war in Ukraine. The results show the scope and dynamics of such changes.

Co-constructing and negotiating knowledge propositions in social studies discussion: Exploring an SFL-based framework for close analysis of discourse moves

In this article, we explore the affordances of a framework informed by systemic functional linguistics for nuanced analysis of both students’ and teachers’ discourse moves in classroom interaction. Drawing on classroom discourse data from a middle school social studies inquiry context, we highlight coding categories from the analytic framework that help us systematically identify how students develop disciplinary knowledge propositions with longer turns of talk, how they engage with others’ points of view in substantive ways that enable co-reasoning, and how the focal teacher contingently adjusts her discursive strategies to facilitate students’ knowledge construction. We discuss how this framework adds to existing analytic constructs and tools for researchers to examine academically productive student discourse while also allowing researchers to characterize how discourse patterns shift to serve varied instructional goals and student needs across learning activities.

Unwanted Others of the City: Counter-Cultural Production of the Roma People of Urla-Turkey

ABSTRACT This article examines a case of urban displacement and its impact on the local Roma community by uncovering the discursive strategies of the local governments and the tactical responses of the local people. Based on two-year-long ethnographic research, this study aims to understand the intricate dynamics of the counter-cultural production of the Roma people as a response to gentrification policies of local governments. The rapid rise of the rent value of land has motivated the capital class to force an exile strategy on Roma and accelerated existing segregation policies. During this time, some discursive strategies to manufacture public consent about the gentrification have circulated to change the representation of the Roma identity, replacing their imagery in mainstream society by mainly signifying them as the undeserving poor. This research aims to understand how strategic discourses and actions have positioned Roma in the societal and cultural sphere and in response, how everyday tactics of the Roma engenders counter-cultural forms through intercultural communication.

Carbon dioxide removal: A source of ambition or of delays? Examining expectations for CDR in Swiss climate policy

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is recognized as an important tool for addressing residual emissions and achieving net-zero emission targets. While some have cautioned that a focus on CDR in policy processes may lead to delayed efforts to mitigate emissions, others have argued that such concerns are unwarranted. Nevertheless, the circumstances under which CDR could help or delay emissions mitigation in given contexts remain unclear. This paper explores the emerging discourse on CDR in Switzerland. We examined how the CDR community legitimizes CDR and limits its scope, and what the implications are for emissions mitigation. Switzerland is home to growing businesses in CDR and has pioneered the implementation of international offsetting projects under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement. We found that numerous promises help legitimize and attract interest in CDR. Actors use discursive strategies and rules to limit CDR and avoid disappointment in its contribution to climate mitigation. The idea that emission reduction should prevail over removal is promoted accordingly, which ironically helps legitimize the CDR idea yet dodges the question of how much removal is possible and for balancing which emissions. Superficial engagement with the issue is reinforced by the normalization of inflated promises and the sentiment that the mitigation deterrence rhetoric erodes trust in CDR. We argue that this can contribute to mitigation delays by evading the debate on what it is possible to remove and taking resources from alternative measures. We recommend a thorough discussion to examine the risks and the implementation of rules that minimize them.

From «Cowspiracy» to «Seaspiracy»: Discursive Strategies in Contemporary Vegan Advocacy Documentaries

Guided by the qualitative approach of film analysis, this article examines the discursive strategies used in the films Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret and Seaspiracy, while identifying contrasts with the rhetoric of other pro-vegan and environmentalist documentaries. The analysis of both films together serves to highlight: a) the prominence they give to environmentalist reasons for veganism; b) their different way of portraying violence against animals; c) their use of a detective plotline to articulate the narrative; d) their emotional use of first-person narration; and e) the emphasis they place on global responsibility for the environmental impact of animal-based food production and their proposal of specific, feasible solutions to reverse the situation. The study finds that Cowspiracy and Seaspiracy stand as evidence of the vegan advocacy documentary’s contributions to the environmentalist non-fiction genre to which it belongs, while highlighting the strategies used in both films (avoiding audience revulsion and promoting positive feelings; integrating fictional elements and fostering identification in order to seduce the audience; appealing to commitment and conveying proactive messages rather than a sense of helplessness) that enable the cognitive and affective dimensions to feed into each other for the purpose of persuading viewers and promoting individual and social change.

O consumo simbólico da desinformação ancorada na credibilidade jornalística: análise de elementos de legitimação do discurso nas Eleições de 2022

The aim of this article is to analyze the discursive strategies that refer to the attribute of credibility in pieces of disinformation that circulated in the 2022 Brazilian Elections. We will use the methodological assumptions of the case study and criticaldiscourse analysis and, as a corpus, we chose pieces of disinformation that focus on allegations of fraud in the electronic ballot boxes published on Twitter (now X) and Telegram (with circulation in other digital and networked environments) and in (supposedly) journalistic companies such as Jovem Pan, during the first and second rounds of the presidential elections. We observed the use of six different discursive strategies -some of them also used in journalism -in which the aim is to lend credibility to misleading and fabricated content.

From the Chicago Boys to Hjalmar Schacht: The Trajectory of the (Neo)liberal Economic Expertise in Russia

ABSTRACT The article studies a set of ideological orientations and policy networks in Russia that could be grouped under the term “technocratic liberalism.” It provides an account of the origins of the liberal economic experts, their participation in various reform projects, their political and discursive strategies. The focus is on the contradictions of the technocratic approach to reform as revealed in the discourse and actual practice of the reformers, and their attempts to overcome or avoid these contradictions that ultimately led them to the position they found themselves in after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Voice: A Useful Concept for Researching Backlash and Feminist Counter-Actions?

Voice is central to claims-making and contestations around gender equality. This article engages with a diverse set of literature, social and feminist movement theory, and gender and development scholarship, to foreground voice in the analysis of the discursive strategies of backlash actors and the counter‑actions by feminist coalitions. Drawing on rich discussions with feminist academic-activists based in the global South and the UK, the article unpacks the various conceptual and methodological challenges that emerge in researching feminist collective voice in countering backlash, particularly on matters such as intersectionality and building collective feminist voice; intra-movement backlash and fragmentation of voice; capturing subtler forms of expressions of agency; and the cyclical nature of backlash.

A Reading of Friedrich A. Kittler’s Reading of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “Der Goldene Topf” (The Golden Pot) in Aufschreibesysteme 1800/1900 (Discourse Networks 1800/1900)

Friedrich A. Kittler’s canonical Aufschreibesysteme 1800/1900 (Discourse Networks 1800/1900) threatened the very idea of the canonicity of German literature. Yet Kittler’s readings systematically dismiss, mishear, and distort foreign voices who resist and cannot easily fit into his rigid theoretical framework. This discursive strategy is most apparent in his formative reading of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1814 “Der Goldene Topf: Ein Märchen aus der neuen Zeit” (The Golden Pot: A Fairy Tale for the Modern Age). Despite its erasures and repressions of difference, his reading of this text has had a largely positive reception. A re-reading of his formative reading is thus long overdue. By closely analyzing Kittler’s interpretation of Hoffmann’s text, this article demonstrates that Kittler's expressed claim to challenge a canonical approach to German literature and his disruptions of disciplinary norms and behavioral conventions mask his fundamental affiliation with processes of canonization.

Discursive Features of United States Foreign Policy Phetoric Towards the Middle East

In the contemporary international order, marked by increasing global interdependence and complex power relations, understanding the role of the United States as a global actor is crucial. This paper explores the interplay between American identity, discourse, and U.S. foreign policy rhetoric, particularly in its engagement with the Middle East. Rooted in the concept of American exceptionalism, it investigates the selective and strategic nature of U.S. rhetoric towards key Middle Eastern actors. The research integrates linguistics and international relations, with Critical Discourse Analysis as the primary theoretical framework. By addressing research questions concerning American identity, discursive strategies and their linguistic realisations, and rhetorical selectivity, this paper contributes to a deeper understanding of U.S. foreign policy rhetoric towards the Middle East.

Representations of the Holocaust in Bulgarian postwar literature

The study deals with the theme of the Shoah in Bulgarian postwar literature, which includes both works of fiction (authors like Viktor Baruh, Salis Tadzher, Simcho Isakov etc.) published in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (1946–1990), and literature of Bulgarian Jews in Israel (Albert Beni, Albert Mihael, Albert Varsano etc.). The article is an attempt to interpret the selected works (novels, novellas, short stories, poetry and memoirs) with regard to various discursive strategies that have changed and adapted to different socio-political contexts in both countries. The themes of the Shoah and the anti-Jewish policy of tsarist Bulgaria could take on diverse ideological functions depending on the context. Literature thus became an important component of various memory constructs in postwar Bulgaria and as well as in Israel.

Análise Histórico-Discursiva do Editorial “1964” da Folha de São Paulo

Abstract The article aims to analyze the Folha de São Paulo editorial "1964" in the light of the historical-discursive approach (HDA), basing the discussion on the concepts of discourse, media and history, and the historiography of the press and dictatorship. This text, published on March 30, 2014, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the 1964 coup, is part of a broader movement that also includes other newspapers of the mainstream press to reassess and rewrite their history during the period of the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985). The methodology used was the eight stages of the HDA and its five central questions. By identifying three dichotomous macro-topics (support for the military dictatorship as a mistake versus support as a long and painful learning process; the regime's violence versus its economic achievements; and the dispute between revolutionary socialism versus the market economy) and the discursive strategies used (predication, argumentation, perspective, intensification, and mitigation), it was possible to observe that the newspaper discursively: (a) makes the problems caused by the military regime invisible; (b) emphasizes the economic growth that the country experienced during the period; and (c) justifies its actions by linking them to the context of the time, which raises questions about the examination of its position. The main conclusions suggest that the ambiguity with which the company positions itself, attenuating its contribution to the military regime and at the same time intensifying its democratic role, makes sense in the light of a contextualized business strategy and should be considered in the discussion about the interfaces between discourse, media and history.

A Transitivity Analysis of English Newspapers Headlines on the Ukraine-Russia War: A Study with Critical Discourse Analysis and Systematic Functional Linguistics’ Perspective

Newspaper is the representative of what happens in society. It uses different writing strategies. The language of the newspaper emerged from beliefs, speech and writing practices (Joseph, 2006). There are different lexical, grammatical, and discursive strategies that the author uses in his article or headline. This study aims to explore the lexical and discursive choices that are used in newspaper headlines depicting the Ukraine-Russia war. It uses a descriptive research method and Halliday’s transitivity system as a research instrument. The researcher investigated how language features are used to create an emotional impact and influence the common public. The study highlights the hidden ideologies that are the basis of the lexical choices or different representations of the same event. The results show that "Stars and Strips", a German newspaper, shows Vladimir Putin as a leader of Russia who has authority and a great impact on the people of Russia but “The New York Post” and “The Guardian” depict him as a murderer who is responsible for this war and attacks Ukraine and kill people violently because of his desire.

Культура исторической памяти современного немецкого монархизма

The article examines monarchism as a form of memorial culture and historical policy in contemporary German society. The research aims to analyze monarchism as a form of historical memory. The author explores the role and significance of monarchist intellectuals in shaping historical policy and the memorial culture that evolves within the framework of monarchist historical imagination. The novelty of the study lies in examining the current stage of monarchist ideology in Germany, not as a form of political participation, but as a version of historical memory and memorial culture, grounded in the principles of both historical revisionism and German nationalism. The article demonstrates that (1) monarchism in contemporary Germany cultivates its own perceptions of the past and history; (2) the historical imagination of German monarchism is a form of historical revisionism, as the monarchist past and legacy are systematically mythologized and ideologized in the political imagination of monarchist supporters; (3) in its historical imagination, monarchism constructs alternative versions of historical memory and memorial culture, distinct from those proposed by civic identity. The article highlights that monarchist forms of historical memory contribute to ongoing transformations in memorial culture, promoting the parallel development of alternative counter-memories that operate within the political and ideological framework of monarchism. It is suggested that the visualization of collective historical memory regarding the unique historical experience of monarchy, including the narrative and discursive tactics and strategies of contemporary monarchists, enhances the heterogeneous nature of Germany’s memorial tradition, fostering the consolidation of unique perspectives on the past, which form the foundation of monarchist historical imagination and memorial culture as a form of alternative memory.

Countering “terrorism” on social media: The use of a political category in the discourses of Meta, Google and Twitter

Since the beginning of the wave of terror attacks by Daesh in Europe and the United States in 2015, social media corporations Meta, Google and Twitter have proclaimed a new mission to counter terrorist exploitation of their services. By way of a discourse analysis of their corporate communications, this article analyses the ways in which these firms have appropriated the essentially contested category of “terrorism”, highlighting their discursive strategies to empty this concept of its political aspects.

Self-Framing and Other-(Re)framing in Institutional Political Discourse: The Case of Donald Trump’s Final Speech Before the UN

The goal of this study is to provide a sociocognitive critical discourse analysis of Donald Trump’s 75th UNGA (The UN General Assembly) speech 2020 to demonstrate how Trump (re)framed America and other political actors. The study’s methodology has been divided into three stages: (a) identifying the speech’s macrostructures (major themes) embodying the speech’s global meanings, (b) analyzing the speech’s explicit and implicit local meanings, and (c) laying out Trump’s subjective context model. Findings revealed that (1) the semantic (cognitive) structure and textual arrangement of Trump’s speech are meant to draw attention to two ideologically opposed discourse worlds with skewed, hegemonic intergroup and outgroup representations; (2) a polarized context model, based on the WE/THEY schema, has motivated and controlled Trump’s speech for the purposes of persuading the audience, stigmatizing other social actors, and managing opinion formation; and (3) Trump’s context model has been shown to control the production of specific microstructures that correspond with a variety of discursive strategies.

A fome no Brasil: notas sobre as narrativas no jornal Folha de São Paulo no período pandêmico de 2020

ABSTRACT Objective This survey aims atreviewing the journalistic narratives of the newspaper Folha de São Paulo (digital edition) about hunger in Brazil during the 2020 pandemic period. It is known that journalism plays an important role in keeping the public informed and in helping to contribute to the shaping of society's opinion. Despite hunger being a structural phenomenon in this country, little is published in the mainstream media discussing the magnitude of the problem and the articulation of measures taken in the three government spheres (federal, state and municipal), to ensure access to food to the most vulnerable populations. Method News excerpts addressing hunger as the main topic were selected from Folha de São Paulo daily newspaper and were highlighted based on reading keys (n=11, published between March and December 2020). Results In all the selected articles, the newspaper addressed the cause of hunger from the perspective of the pandemic (passing event and manifestation). Issues linked to the economic and social crisis experienced in the country were not emphasized. This form of covering hunger in news articles can enhance the idea that the poor are the result of the currently spreading fatality. Conclusion Finally, from these first results we could infer that the newspaper, when addressing hunger in Brazil in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, sought to construct a biased reality that hunger was derived from the health crisis, at the same time that it presents the hungry people narratives as a discursive strategy to sensitize the reader to Folha de São Paulo intentions.

The Blogosphere of Ukraine: Content Analysis of the Anti-Vaccine Campaign During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a surge in existing anti-vaccine sentiments in Ukraine, posing a threat to public health. This study aims to analyze the anti-vaccine campaign in the Ukrainian blogosphere, which intensified during the pandemic and coalesced around issues related to the coronavirus. Relevance of the study. The relevance of the study is determined by the increasing popularity of anti-vaccine sentiments in Ukraine, which are facilitated by the growing influence of the blogosphere as a powerful channel for disseminating destructive content. The study aims to identify the key categories that bloggers appealed to while conducting the campaign against vaccination for coronavirus disease in Ukraine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology. To determine the most influential representatives of the anti-vaccine movement in Ukraine, a media monitoring was conducted focusing on the exposure of fakes and misinformation regarding COVID-19. A list of the channels of the most popular Ukrainian bloggers who are corona-skeptics and opponents of vaccination was compiled. Subsequently, 232 videos published on these bloggers’ channels were studied. The content analysis method was applied to identify the key messages and calls used by vaccination opponents. Results. The most popular representatives of the anti-vaccine movement in Ukraine were found to be lawyers, pseudo-experts, citizen journalists, and proponents of conspiracy theories. The media activity of anti-vaccination bloggers was recorded throughout the entire pandemic of the coronavirus disease in Ukraine and for some time after its end. The chronology and reasons for the main surges in their activity and audience interest are revealed. The study identified the most common categories appealed to by bloggers in the anti-vaccination campaign, as well as their calls to action and objects of their criticism. Conclusions. The study demonstrates that Ukrainian vaccination opponents politicize vaccination issues, actively using conspiratorial rhetoric. The key categories of coronaskeptics bloggers’ messages include violations of rights (both fundamental rights and rights to work, choice, etc.), safety (of vaccines or the disease itself), conspiracy theories and moral. The most popular appeal of vaccination opponents is to “think critically” and not comply with requirements related to vaccination or quarantine restrictions. The main objects of criticism are authorities, various institutions, and the media. Further investigation into the discursive strategies of anti-vaccine campaigns will contribute to the formation of an effective counter-narrative.