Negative Discourse Research Articles

Comparative Analysis of Mainstream Discourses, Media Narratives and Representations of Islam in Britain and France Prior to 9/11

It has become almost impossible to believe that Islam even existed in Western consciousness before September 11, 2001 (9/11). Those who have used that event to denigrate Islam, and those who criticise the Islamophobia inherent in such negative discourses, take the events and aftermath of that day as their starting point. In contrast to that imagination, and also in contrast to some literature that attempts to instantiate a critique of Orientalism, this paper shows that Western representations of Islam and Muslims were sophisticated, diverse and historically fluid before 9/11. It does so by analysing media sources from the United Kingdom and France, the two nation states whose governments have famously been at loggerheads over their post-9/11 analyses and foreign policies. The objective here is to capture the diversity of mainstream social discourses as they were reflected in the press. The purpose is not to analyse media influence or the relative importance of different discourses, so the sources are deliberately selective and small in number. The article is structured around the “paradigm shift” from an exotic, sensual stereotype of Islam to a stereotype of Muslim fanaticism (prominent at the time of the Rushdie affair, for example), which prepared the ground for responses to 9/11, but it also identifies a media critique of these discourses, and of Islamophobia in society and in the media itself.

Community College Organizational Climate for Minorities and Women

This paper explores the issues of what would constitute a positive organizational climate for women and minorities within the community college setting and ways in which such a climate might be achieved. It first describes some traditional or standard measures of a positive organizational climate for women and minorities and then evaluates how well the community college is doing when examined against these measures. Next, it describes some structural manifestations of a negative climate, including negative discourse about minorities and women. In doing so, it traces the development of some discourse patterns about these groups and provides some illustrative cultural assumptions that reflect these discourse patterns. The paper concludes with implications for the community college, including some steps to be taken to improve the organizational climate for minorities and women.

Marcuse, Bloch and Freire: Reinvigorating a Pedagogy of Hope

Critique of the current order of things is a necessary starting point for any project for radical change. Without an analysis of what is wrong, it is hard to convince anyone that change is necessary. And yet critique alone rarely inspires people to act. We need something to fight for as well as against. The article looks at the centrality of hope as a necessary complement to critique. Combining insights from Freire, Bloch and Marcuse, it argues that critical pedagogy needs to seriously engage methods to create an environment amenable to resistance and struggle for change, founded on a belief that a better world is possible. Marcuse, in particular, offers three key insights that can be instrumental in moving beyond the overly negative discourse and cynicism that prevail today – including a trenchant analysis of capitalism and desire, a program for aesthetic education and a model for utopian dreaming and embodied hope. It is argued that critical pedagogy must move beyond consciousness raising and identity formation alone to foster the belief that change is possible. We need to move toward a discourse and action that can capitalize on repressed desires and provide a provisional alternative vision that can galvanize people to act toward its realization.

A corpus-based approach to discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in UN and newspaper texts

A corpus-based analysis of discourses of refugees and asylum seekers was carried out on data taken from a range of British newspapers and texts from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees website, both published in 2003. Concordances of the terms refugee(s) and asylum seeker(s) were examined and grouped along patterns which revealed linguistic traces of discourses. Discourses which framed refugees as packages, invaders, pests or water were found in newspaper texts, although there were also cases of negative discourses found in the UNHCR texts, revealing how difficult it is to disregard dominant discourses. Lexical choice was found to be an essential aspect of maintaining discourses of asylum seekers — collocational analyses of terms like failed vs. rejected revealed the underlying attitudes of the writers towards the subject.

The Construction of 'Poverty' in Post-Soviet Russia

The role of this paper is to demonstrate how an intention of the Russian government to reduce the number of people who are still «in poverty» will not just require economic growth «trickling down» to the marginalised, but also a reconfiguration of the state’s theoretical construction, and quantification, of poverty. Facilitated by the use of current welfare reforms as a case study example, it will be posited that, as these negative discourses are the lenses through which social policy is both constructed and delivered, without a radical change in government policy/thinking it will be extremely difficult to reduce poverty levels significantly within the set timeframe.

Negotiating Youth: Growing Up in Inner-city İstanbul

Two studies examined the representations, lived experiences and subjective worlds of young people in an economically disadvantaged neighbourhood of İstanbul, Turkey. As part of a larger project, face-to-face surveys (n=500) were conducted with young people aged 14–28, and focus groups (n=90) were carried out in the community. Along with shared difficulties and modest expectations for the future, differences were found as a function of educational and work status in how young people constructed the meaning of youth, their life satisfaction and expectations for the future, and how they negotiated the largely negative discourse about their community and the youth within. Institutional connections and particularly being within the educational system and participating in organized sports were important resources that the young people drew upon. The results point to the need to better understand the diversity of the meaning and experience of youth in different contexts.

Semántica y pragmática de la ironía verbal

Se hace un estudio del multifacético y resbaladizo concepto de la ironía verbal con especial incidencia en sus aspectos semánticos y pragmáticos. Desde el punto de vista semántico, la ironía se reconoce como un discurso negativo indirecto que funciona gracias a la relación cognitiva de antonimia. En tal sentido, postulamos que los mensajes irónicos tienen en su forma lógica una negación invisible, pero siempre presente. Pragmáticamente, la ironía se entiende a la luz de la idea de los grados de saliencia aplicada al papel del contexto y se apoya considerablemente en la dinámica de la intención comunicativa. La multiplicidad de factores que se ponen en juego en la interpretación irónica nos lleva a postular la necesidad del concepto de competencia irónica (como parte de la competencia retórica). Este concepto intenta dar cuenta de las abigarradas estrategias aplicadas tanto en la producción del texto irónico (el rol del enunciador) como en la interpretación de las ironías por las que vivimos (el rol del enunciatario)

The Language of Recovery: How Effective Communication of Information Is Crucial to Restructuring Post-Stroke Life

Background: Providing appropriate and effective information to people with stroke and their families has been identified as a key component to successful practice. Researchers continue to focus on “lack of information” as being the lack of specific technical medical information rather than the communication of practical knowledge and how people use that knowledge to restructure life after stroke. To meet patients’ expectations and achieve better outcomes in stroke, professionals need access to communication theory, research, and training. Objectives: Improve stroke communication systematically. Method: This article will examine stroke communication using a three-part framework: 1. Utilize theory to clearly conceptualize how communication influences stroke outcome. 2. Identify components and mechanisms of communication content to positively influence stroke outcome. 3. Develop goals and strategies for putting content skills into stroke communication practice. Conclusion: Relatively little is known about the content and structure of informal communication transactions between stroke survivors, families, and health care professionals and how they accommodate (or resist) realignment of identity after stroke. The professional discourse attempts to ensure realistic expectations of recovery whereas stroke survivors and families complain about the negative discourses, how possibilities for life after stroke are presented, and the hopelessness that this creates. More research is required into how these different discourses affect outcomes.

A ‘give it a go’ breast-feeding culture and early cessation among low-income mothers

Objective: to examine cultural expectations and experiences of breast feeding amongst first time mothers from low-income areas, in order to improve understanding of why many cease breast feeding in the early days of their babies’ lives. Design: qualitative interviews were carried out with 16 women, who expressed an intention to breast feed, at 37 weeks in their pregnancy and again at 3–9 weeks postnatally. Setting: women were interviewed in their own homes in low-income areas of North Tyneside, north-east England. Findings: decisions about breast-feeding cessation were usually made within the first few days as women negotiated the pathways of informal cultures of feeding babies and the availability and quality of formal care. A ‘give it a go’ breast-feeding culture is identified, where women who intended to breast feed had a strong expectation of difficulties and even failure. Expertise and confidence with bottle feeding were more widespread among family and friends. The many influences on the mothers’ decision-making were interconnected and contingent upon each other: if one aspect of breast feeding ‘goes wrong’, other reasons were often brought into play and the underlying pessimism that was felt antenatally was borne out. Conclusions: positive experiences of formal support could make a crucial difference in the early days of breast feeding. However non-breast-feeding cultures permeated and found expression in negative discourses. Support needs to take account of the cultural contexts in which mothers make decisions and the fact that breast feeding is affected by a multitude of factors simultaneously. Access to advice at the right time is a key issue for some low-income women.

The creation of the incapable social tenant in Flanders, Belgium. An appraisal

As long as the social rented sector housed traditional families and the allo- cation procedures were rather loose, there was little commotion about the sector. A combination of a change in family structures, economic changes, and the strengthening of allocation procedures in favour of those most in need did change perceptions. Marginalisation and ghettoisation, especially of high-rise social housing estates, became buzzwords. This paper deals with the causes of these changes and with their implica- tions. The marginalisation discourse calls for enlarging the target groups and estate- specific allocation procedures (to obtain a 'social mix'). It illustrates a profound desire to diminish the number of ethnic minorities, single parents, single-person households and all kinds of people with a weak income profile who gain access to social rental housing. Furthermore, this discourse is reaching a crescendo: after it was started in the early 1990s by staff members of local social housing companies, it passed through the union of the social housing companies, the umbrella organisation of the sector, and parliament, reaching its greatest momentum so far in early 2002 when it was adopted by the Flemish housing minister. The counterpoint to this negative discourse is the high degree of satisfaction among social tenants, as observed in a study carried out in 1999. In our paper we will try to explain the background of these opposing trends and the possible consequences for the social rental housing in general and for tenants in par- ticular.

Internet: a negatividade do discurso da mídia versus a positividade da experiência pessoal. À qual dar crédito?

Tendo em vista a insistência da mídia brasileira em divulgar resultados de pesquisas estrangeiras, principalmente norte-americanas, que sistematicamente apontam os efeitos negativos do uso intensivo da Internet, foi realizada uma pesquisa em profundidade com usuários "pesados" brasileiros. Foram minuciosamente entrevistados 20 homens e mulheres que se conectam diariamente à Rede durante no mínimo duas horas de seu tempo de lazer. O levantamento de seus hábitos, preferências e opiniões revela que esses usuários enfrentam um dilema de difícil solução. Por um lado, sequer cogitam se contrapor a um discurso que lhes é passado como científico -- e, portanto, confiável -- , mesmo quando este avalia o uso intensivo da Internet sob a ótica da patologia. Por outro, são instados por seu cotidiano, em cuja rotina a Internet se inseriu sem maiores problemas, a dar crédito à sua própria experiência positiva na Rede. Para resolver o problema, lançam mão de estratégias de distanciamento, relativização e até mesmo desqualificação bem-humorada do discurso da patologia divulgado pela mídia.

Sahel pastoralists: opportunism, struggle, conflict and negotiation. A case study from eastern Niger

The livelihoods and life chances of pastoral communities in the West African Sahel are linked to: the complexity of the activities they must engage in to insure access to resources; to the nature of conflicts and co-operation between ethnic groups; to the inconsistent role of the state in assisting or constraining pastoral livelihoods; and to the negative discourse surrounding pastoralism that still circulates in some government and development policy circles. The paper reviews pastoral livelihoods systems in eastern Niger to illustrate changing modes of access to water and pasture, culminating in present-day tensions and conflict between pastoral groups. State development efforts to provide secure watering points for pastoral herds have initiated social conflicts and violence, rather than creating security. No viable solution has yet been found to control the use of public wells and boreholes. Enabling frameworks for negotiation and conflict resolution must be developed locally, and centrally enforced in this, and many other regions of uncertain climatic change and overlapping systems of resource exploitation.

‘Sending the wrong signal’: Analysis of print media reportage of the ACT heroin prescription trial proposal, August 1997

To analyse and compare newspaper coverage about heroin during a period spanning two government policy decisions to approve, then prevent, a trial of heroin prescription to dependent users. All articles published about heroin spanning the two policy decisions (1-19 August 1997) were collected from seven major Australian newspapers. Analyses included content and orientation analyses of all articles and discourse analysis of articles (excluding letters) containing value-laden statements about heroin prescription. Comparisons were made of content, orientation and subtextual themes employed by opponents and proponents of heroin prescription. 231 articles with references to heroin were identified from seven newspapers, 28% were published by The Daily Telegraph. This newspaper campaigned against the heroin prescription trial with 66% of news articles and 100% of opinion items negative in orientation, compared to averages of 11% and 16% of news and opinion articles published by comparison newspapers. Seven subtexts were identified in coverage opposing heroin prescription including "surrender in the war on drugs", "government as drug pedlar" and "deserving/undeserving citizens". Six subtexts supportive of heroin prescription were identified including "failure of prohibition" and "time for new approaches". The mid-1997 policy reversal on heroin prescription was due, in part, to the higher activity of opponents following approval of the trial and because proponents did not reframe discourses used to denigrate the proposal. To be successful, advocates of new policy need to recognise and reframe negative discourses to create new dominant themes which address the concerns of the public.

Difference and the Negotiation of ‘Old Age’

In this paper we contribute to recent discussions of ageing and ageism in human geography. Findings are presented from a qualitative study of older people which explored the association of old-age identities with different spaces. By focusing in particular on leisure spaces, some of the ways in which the identities and spaces available to older people are constructed by class, ability, and gender are highlighted. These sites have different meanings and associations, reflecting positive as well as negative discourses of ‘old age’, allowing some individuals to negotiate ‘old age’ through maintaining distinct and separate leisure activities and spaces.

Different Visions of Space: Italian Fascist Writers and the United States

Charles Burdett’s paper analyses some of the numerous texts written during the Fascist period on the United States by authors such as Ciarlantini, Mario Soldati, Margherita Sarfatti and Emilio Cecchi and demonstrates the different connections such texts have with the politics of the time. Perspectives of the United States changed over the critical period between 1930-1936, in same ways reflecting the trajectory of Italian foreign policy. Burdett argues that whilst at the beginning of the 1930s we can talk of a fascination with the United States, an admiration for American material progress and technical innovation, by 1936, the year of the signing of the Rome-Berlin axis, the United States is seen by some Italian writers as the antithesis of the collective values of Fascism. Depending on whether the authors appropriate or reject Fascist discourse, in the texts examined the United States becomes either the ‘utopian object of desire’ for the young writers opposing Fascism or the antithesis of Fascist values for those who support the regime. The paper stresses how the perception of the United States can be extremely ambiguous and contradictory, for instance, M. Sarfatti, in spite of being one of the best known authors during the 1930s, and a supporter of the regime, is nevertheless taken by American optimism, the enormity of the architecture of the States and also, in particular, by the energy, strength and discipline of American women. But her discourse centers on the similarities and parallels she sees between Northern American and Italian culture, where Italy, or rather ‘the Graeco-Roman ideal’, is presented as the basis of American culture. Burdett asserts that her recognition of a shared civilisation between Italy and the United States serves an important function in the text: on the one side it legitimises the United States as an imperial power because of its undoubted technical superiority, and on the other, given Italy’s lasting cultural influence on the whole of Western civilisation, it also promotes Italy’s aspirations to colonial expansion. Views closer to official Fascist thinking were expressed by E. Cecchi. His observations were published as newspaper articles over a period of two years and later collected into a volume, America amara (Bitter America). In the second part of this paper Burdett shows how Cecchi’s description of the ‘inevitable effects’ of racial differences is closely linked to the Fascist idea of the superiority of a society which is racially homogenous. Cecchi presents the reader with an overall negative vision of the United States, a country that, according to him, in rejecting the ‘puritanical’ principles of the founding fathers, has become chaotic, violent, and has degenerated to such an extent that it no longer possesses any ideals or any values. In Cecchi, the landscape of New York’s skyscrapers becomes a metaphor for the pride and the ‘godless religion’ of the whole of the United States, and, on a representational level, even American fiction is seen by the writer simply as a catalogue of ‘sinister emotions and impulses’. Burdett concludes his paper by emphasising how Cecchi’s negative discourse on the American lack of collective ideals becomes an apologia for Mussolini’s ‘moral revolution’. The Fascist regime is presented as the antithesis of the individualistic and materialistic culture of the United States, acting as guarantor not only of the country’s institutions but also of the Catholic religion and the traditional values of Latin civilisation.

Echoes after Carl Rogers: "Reflective listening" revisited.

Abstract By means of an analysis based on Heidegger's conceptualization of “authentic language,” this article shows that the Rogerian “reflective listening” is a “speech which maintains silence” and that the therapeutic potential of this “attending skill” lies not so much in its attending to the client's statements, as in its nourishing the silence in the latter's voice. In particular, it demonstrates that “reflective listening” has the capacity to function as a therapeutic tautology, as a “negative discourse” which intends to “speak but say nothing,” and thereby recovers silence in the midst of “idle talk.” Ethical implications of this particular perspective on the Rogerian discourse are discussed.

Discourse and the Denial of Racism

Within the broader framework of a research programme on the reproduction of racism in discourse and communication, the present article examines the prominent role of the denial of racism, especially among the elites, in much contemporary text and talk about ethnic relations. After a conceptual analysis of denial strategies in interpersonal impression formation on the one hand, and within the social-political context of minority and immigration management on the other, various types of denial are examined in everyday conversations, press reports and parliamentary debates. Among these forms of denial are disclaimers, mitigation, euphemism, excuses, blaming the victim, reversal and other moves of defence, face-keeping and positive self-presentation in negative discourse about minorities, immigrants and (other) anti-racists.