Socio-political Discourse Research Articles

Jedan unutarpartijski spor početkom 1970-ih godina. Slučaj Pašage Mandžića i Tuzlanske grupe

In this paper, the author emphasizes the specific case of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian intraparty dispute in the context of the reconstruction of the republican leaderships in Yugoslavia, the change of “Croatian Spring participants” and “liberals” as well as the so-called “senior cadres” at the beginning of 1970s. Pasaga Mandzic's years-long dispute with the current political leadership in Tuzla and also in the Republic will touch upon various issues, from plans and results of economic and urban development, integration of enterprises, organization and activities of political and party leadership to establishing the "historical truth" about the events throughout the war years 1941 and 1942. Considering the current socio-political discourse, Mandzic will come out very boldly, demanding that it is finally time to "speak openly" about the actual war events, the consequences of Partisan-Chetnik cooperation at the end of 1941, the dominance of the Serb element in the communist leadership and its attitude towards the Bosniaks during the war, but also in the post-war period. The insistence on establishing the "real truth" entailed a revision of the existing image of a "glorious war past", which also raised the question of consistent application of the principles of brotherhood and unity. Ultimately, years of clarification resulted in the political elimination and moral discredit of Pasaga Mandzic.

SEMANTIC AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF CALLS

The article is devoted to consideration of main results of semantic and textual analysis of calls in the modern Ukrainian socio-political discourse. Forensic linguistic (semantic and textual) examination of speech to identify statements expressed as calls is one of the most relevant ones while pre-trial investigation and trial of criminal proceedings.
 The Article purpose is defining of a subject and object in forensic linguistic (semantic and textual) examination of writing, analysis of publicity criterion as one of fundamental during the establishment of appeal illocution in text content.
 The research was conducted on the basis of general scientific methods as well as on the basis of linguistics special methods and techniques, namely, using the method of observation, method of linguistic-stylistic analysis of a text, method of modeling, methods of semantic-syntactic and lexical-grammatical analysis, etc. Communicative intention of the author of the research in general was established with the help of the discursive method and the method of intent-analysis.
 The main result of the study is to obtain practical data on establishing the role of connotations of verbs of different modes of action in the structure of calls. The analysis of utterances with such a component as an indirect appeal is significant, its grammatical features are determined, and competence boundaries of a forensic expert in the field of forensic linguistic examination of a text are reflected in the article. It is established that nominalization is often used in the structure of constructions with the call illocution which belongs to the transformational speech process of transforming words of the verb grammatical form into a noun structural unit. The main characteristics of such types of appeals common in modern Ukrainian socio-political communicative discourse as call-slogan, call-appeal, call-program, evaluation-motivational call, etc., are outlined in the article. It is proved that main factors influencing type differences of calls are their semantic load and grammatical design.
 So far, the results of linguistic, semantic-textual research of appeals are the basis of a single algorithm for the study of speech structures of this type, they are relevant and significant for modern forensic practice.

The Contribution of Female Writers in the Libyan Post Arab Spring: The Voice of Azza Al-Maghour`s Short Stories

Alongside the rapid political and social change post Arab Spring, Libyan writers were constantly producing volumes of literary work, whether in print or online, to reflect on the socio-political issues in the society. Among these writers is Libyan lawyer and writer Azza Al-Maghour; Al-Maghour has published a great many short stories during and after the revolution. What makes her work distinctive is that she not only narrates fictional events, but that she simultaneously reflects on the Libyan reality post revolution; and her voice, she is the voice of the people. Her narrative style is structured as a cultural and intellectual revolution. Using a critical discourse analysis, this paper will examine how Al-Maghour contributes to the socio-political construction of Libyan society, and argues that Al-Maghour`s narrative structure, story frame, language style, and word connotations are used as tools to channel her political views. This paper will pay special attention to Al-Maghour`s discussions of women rights, social justice, and Libyan nationalism through her story settings and her characters. This paper begins by giving a brief overview of the context of Libyan women in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution, followed by Azza Al-Maghour`s biography. The paper will then present an analysis of her stories through language, style, story structure, socio-political discussions, and her contribution as a Libyan female writer to the context of the post Arab Spring.

Looking beyond the coronavirus: lessons and principles.

Looking beyond the coronavirus: lessons and principles.

‘This is What I go Through’: Latinx Youth Facultades in Suburban Schools in the Era of Trump

ABSTRACT This qualitative study examines reflections of 11 Latinx youth in Illinois and Colorado in their predominantly White, suburban high schools. We center the experiences and perspectives of Latinx youth, as we stand to gain insights into how they perceive their schools prepared and impacted their engagement for civic life. We highlight how youth from two distinct schools share similar reflections about their high school experiences and muddled approaches for civic life. We draw upon Gloria Anzaldúa’s notion of facultad to examine how these particular youth engage their instincts, knowledge, and sensibilities to survive predominately White educational contexts. We then bring together literature that responds to the question about the role of schools and preparing young people to be engaged in sociopolitical discussions and action.

The National English ability test in Korea and its legitimising discourses

ABSTRACT This study uses Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) paradigm to analyse Korean Ministry of Education (MOE) policy documents legitimising the National English Ability Test (NEAT) and consolidating a testing regime wherein educational testing is strongly positioned as a social technology facilitating practical English use. Focusing on discourse, style, and genre, this study illustrates how representational, identificational, and actional meanings of policy texts are socially constituted but also shape/reinforce the test’s surrounding structure, which it describes with reference to the concept of technopoly. To begin with discourse, one’s English competence is represented as an entity, where practical English use is specified as test construct; and NEAT development is represented as a technology aimed at facilitating practical use of English. As for style, the analysed documents show frequent use of transitivity and measurement registers, along with authorial self-assertions as experts and authorities. Last, the policy documents share a positivistic genre structure within which the mandate for test development is intertextually interwound to reinforce the underlying belief in efficiency, standardisation, and progress. The documents, in which test-driven policies are articulated, serve as an arena for agenda-setting in terms of sociopolitical discourses, but there remains little critical analysis of materials for language testing. Future research works should consider how agents of social change can legitimize or challenge testing-related policy discourses.

The idea of creating a national armed forces in the socio-political discourse of the Ukrainian SSR in the 80s–90s of the 20th century

The article deals with the process of initiation and implementation of the idea of creating the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the social and political discourse of the USSR in the late 1980s – early 1990s. The positions of key pro-Ukrainian public associations and movements, their programs, and statements concerning the "Ukrainianization" of the military forces that were located in the USSR are explored. An estimation of the position of these forces on public policy in the military sphere is given. It has been found out that the majority of the public associations and movements created under the conditions of "restructuring" insisted on the need for de-ideologization and demilitarization of social and political life. In most cases, members of such organizations required on the need to form military units based on the existing USSR armed forces exclusively from residents of the republic, who would report directly to the leadership of the USSR. Besides, the demand for military service by USSR citizens only within the republic remained one of the principal in the speech of Ukrainian associations and movements. The main proposals for possible reform of the military sphere on the territory of the republic are outlined. The author points out that among the Ukrainian intelligentsia, there were different visions regarding the ways of creating such forces. One part insisted on the creation of armed forces subordinated to the government based on and in the composition of the armed forces of the USSR. The other required a complete reboot of the military sphere, the introduction of a new approach to the army formation, and, ultimately, the creation of an army of an independent Ukraine. Much attention is given to the youth’s opinion about the ideologization and militarization of the Soviet high school. Representatives of the student youth were much more active than other social groups, expressing their dissatisfaction with the current situation, which resulted in spontaneous protests against the authorities. It was concluded that, at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the issue of military development was one of the key issues in the activities of Ukrainian unions, movements, and the first political parties. The members of these organizations were aware of the need to create an armed force in Ukraine that could counteract potential threats to state sovereignty. Such policies have resulted in numerous political actions, strikes, and demonstrations, which have been used as a mechanism to put pressure on the authorities to achieve individual political goals. In the end, under public pressure, as well as in the context of disintegration processes in the USSR, these requirements were fulfilled, which created the necessary basis for the creation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Actions for sociopolitical consciousness in a high school science class: A case study of ninth grade class with predominantly indigenous students

AbstractThis case study explores how a group of Grade 9 students engaged in sociopolitical discourses and actions in a science class in a mostly indigenous student school in Nepal. The study used sociopolitical consciousness (SPC) as a framework to document and understand indigenous students’ SPC‐oriented science interactions and subsequent social change actions. We used ethnographic methods of data collection over 6 months. The study focused on the actions of 4 girls and 2 boys belonging to the indigenous Tharu group. Data were analyzed using iterative qualitative methods. The study findings show that students are capable of engaging in critical thinking, critical reflecting, and taking actions for social change. Additionally, students are competent to link their experiences with social, structural, and political discrimination to the relevant science content they learn. The study presents four thematic findings related to SPC and science teaching and learning: Fostering social justice awareness in science class, fostering structural understanding of inequities in sickle cell disease, fostering sociopolitical actions for sickle cell disease, and the teacher's activist pedagogy for SPC in science learning. Implications of the study are that culturally relevant pedagogy helps indigenous students to become sociopolitically more aware of the links between science and social change. Adding aspects of critical pedagogies in science teaching could encourage students to become more sociopolitically reflective about science learning.

Discursive loyalty in the conditions of centralization of power in Russia: nature and typology of the phenomenon

This article raises a problem of existence of the verbal political symbols of autocratic discourse in public space. The hypothesis is advanced that in the conditions of centralization of the Russian political system, forms a specific type of discursive loyalty, interpreted as communicative behavior within the framework of the structure of verbal political symbols set by the official political discourse. The object of this research is the Russian sociopolitical discourse of Russia in the early XXI century. The subject is the instruments of manifestation of discursive loyalty used by public actors. Special attention is turned to the public attitude on verbal symbols of the country’s leader, political parties and bureaucracy in the conditions of centralization and personification of power over the period from 2000 to the present. An attempt is made to formulate the typology of discursive loyalty based on the components of perception of political symbols indicated by R. Cobb and C. Elder. Three basic types of discursive loyalty are defined depending on the dominance of separate components in perception: 1) affective, based on emotional empathy with the content of the discourse of power and its source; 2) cognitive, based on recognition of the relevance of verbal symbols of the discourse of power; 3) analytical, based on rational choice of the verbal symbols of power upon availability of the alternative or evasive option. Types of loyalty are illustrated by examples of discursive behavior of the subjects of civil society of the early XXI century – presidency and prime-ministry of V. V. Putin, whose personal influence actualized the affective type of loyalty, and the results of transformation of the political system led to proliferation of analytical type of loyalty. The author believes that the prevalence of analytical type of discursive loyalty is dangerous for the political system, due to its simulated nature, which creates an illusion of public support.

The Economization of Medicine Is the Logical Consequence of a Neglected Socio-Political Discussion

Die Ökonomisierung der Medizin ist logische Folge einer nicht geführten gesellschaftspolitischen DiskussionSusanne HochuliSusanne Hochuli SPO Schweizerische Patientenorganisation, ZürichSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:March 03, 2020https://doi.org/10.1024/1661-8157/a003403PDFView Full Text ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInReddit SectionsMoreBibliografieMöckli A: Das führt zu einer Tyrannei des Überlebens. az Nordwestschweiz: 24.10.2019. First citation in articleGoogle ScholarSchweizerische Akademie der medizinischen Wissenschaften: Medizin und Ökonomie – wie weiter? Positionspapier der Schweizerischen Akademie der medizinischen Wissenschaften. Swiss Academies Communications 2014; Vol. 9, No 4. First citation in articleGoogle ScholarMuheim LS, Senn O, Früh M, Reich O, Rosemann T, Neuner-Jehle SM: Inappropriate use of arthroscopic meniscal surgery in degenerative knee disease. Acta Orthopaedica 2017; 88:, 550–555. First citation in articleCrossref Medline, Google ScholarKessler O, Jehle K, Wächter M, Gedamke S, Willisegger J (Hrsg): Immer mehr – immer besser? Über-, Unter- und Fehlversorgung im Schweizer Gesundheitswesen. Bern; Hogrefe: 2019. First citation in articleCrossref, Google ScholarWermelinger R: Künstliche Gelenke – Basel schaut genauer hin. SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen; 30.11.2018. https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/medizinische-ueberversorgung-kuenstliche-gelenke-basel-schaut-genauer-hin; 11.12.2019. First citation in articleGoogle ScholarFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Schwerpunktthema: Die Ökonomisierung der MedizinVolume 109Issue 3März 2020ISSN: 1661-8157eISSN: 1661-8165 InformationPraxis (2020), 109, pp. 91-193 https://doi.org/10.1024/1661-8157/a003403.© 2020Hogrefe AGPDF download

Rhetorical and Persuasive Strategies Employed by Imran Khan in his Victory Speech: A Socio-Political Discourse Analysis

This study aims to explore the rhetorical and persuasive strategies employed by a political leader to propagate his ideology using language. It intends to critically analyze the victory speech of Pakistani Premier Imran Khan (IK)—the Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)—which he delivered at the Prime Minister House, Islamabad, after being elected as the 22nd Premier of Pakistan in 2018. The researchers attempt to unveil and analyze critically the strategies that worked behind this speech to persuade the audience. Different linguistic tools used for projecting and achieving political power have been identified and scrutinized. The qualitative analysis of the speech is based on theory of Aristotle’s Rhetoric; Ethos, Pathos, Logos and other persuasive strategies like use of personal pronoun, predication strategy, and positive self-presentation and negative others-presentation employed by IK, and further to study how language carries the power of transforming the perception and political views of people. The findings suggest that political discourse is intentionally crafted to communicate and persuade people about specific ideologies located in the discourse in an implicit way and IK uses the Aristotelian rhetorical model comprising of rhetoric, predication strategy, and self-presentation and negative Others-presentation strategy to persuade his audience to follow his hidden agendas.

Toward a new understanding of immigrant information behavior

PurposeImmigration dominates much of the current US sociopolitical discourse. The research on US-based immigrant information behavior, however, remains scant. To understand the role of information in immigration, this study explores information overload among Black immigrants in the US.Design/methodology/approachThe researcher developed a literature-derived information overload scale to investigate participants' information access along with experiences and response to information overload.FindingsResults suggest that participants experience information overload due to behavioral (e.g. the demands of needing, seeking, or using information), quantitative (i.e. volume or length), and qualitative (e.g. authority, diversity, or urgency) indicators. Most participants mitigate information overload by turning to intermediaries and filtering resources.Research limitations/implicationsThe information overload scale can advance knowledge of the role of information in immigrant acculturative stress.Social implicationsLIS researchers and practitioners can utilize findings to foster social inclusion and well-being among immigrants.Originality/valueScholarship on immigrant information behavior must reflect the centrality of information in migration and how it shapes integration and acculturation.

Detective Fiction in a Post-Truth World: Eva Rossmann’s Patrioten

Detective fiction is known as a genre that is concerned with revealing truths, both in the fictional world of the text as well as in the society after which it is patterned. The current socio-political environment, however, has been described as an era of post-truth politics and political propaganda, in which truth is more often determined by the relative strength of its representation. While some contemporary crime novels continue to propagate a reassuring message of truth, select Austrian narratives reflect this new so-called post-truth world. Bringing together theories of detective fiction and post-truth discourse, this article demonstrates how Eva Rossmann’s 2017 crime novel Patrioten (Patriots) adapts the themes and structures of traditional detective narratives to expose a society in which certainty is determined less by objective facts than by their construction in the media and socio-political discourse. The analysis concludes that the novel’s thematic and formal innovations help to redefine the socio-critical potential of contemporary detective fiction by showing the imminent dangers of an unregulated post-truth society.

Picturing translocal youth: Self‐portraits of young Syrian refugees and young people of diverse African heritages in South‐East England

AbstractYoung refugees and diasporic youth often have multiply located senses of self. Using a creative visual methodology, recently arrived young Syrian refugees and young people of diverse African heritages born in the United Kingdom (aged 16–20) produced digital self‐portraits to express their translocal subjectivities. Young Syrians represented themselves as “bilingual becomings”; learning English occupied their minds and was key to their imagined futures, but their hearts were often associated with the homeland they had lost. In contrast, speaking English was sometimes taken for granted in the art work produced by young people of African heritages, which portrayed hybrid, multilingual selves and translocal relationality. Both groups embraced signifiers of national, religious, and cultural identity but through their silences and omissions, dis‐identified with exclusionary notions of “Britishness,” nationhood, and citizenship. Their self‐representations provide hopeful counter‐narratives to hegemonic sociopolitical discourses that position “Black African” youth and Muslim young men as a “threat” and “illegitimate” citizens.

Why Can’t I Be Latina, Female, and Professional? Clinical Implications of Social Discourses that Render Class Invisible

ABSTRACTThis article will first present and then apply an Integrated Sociopolitical and Psychological Analysis Model, ISPA, to examine the complexity of social class and social class— consciousness in an intra-ethnic clinical relationship and treatment process. The analysis will show how the internalization of dominant and subjugated sociopolitical discourses that conflate social class, race, ethnicity and culture, compounded the client’s existing psychological conflict and associated mental health symptoms. It will then discuss why the Integrated Sociopolitical and Psychological Analysis Model is a needed approach in direct clinical practice.

The theater of Jan Klata. Struggling for a new audience

This short text presents the characteristics of theater works by the director, Jan Klata. I attempt to investigate the changes in contemporary Polish theatrical language. The evolution of theater perception, the expressive aesthetics of Klata’s performances and topics that began the fight not only over the new theater that would be a place of socio-political discourses but also for the new audience. In the introduction I present J. Klata and describe the circumstances that accompanied his theater debut. Thereafter, referring to J. Klata’s staging of classical works, I point out the characteristics of his theater and describe how the phenomenon of reinterpretation functions in contemporary theater. I then try to question the explicit labeling of J. Klata’s works as “post drama theater” or “political theater” by paying special attention to analyzing the director’s works in a social context. This political and social background of J. Klata’s performances contributes to the fact that his work is perceived as one of the leading examples of “engaged theater”. The staging means of expression applied by the director and his often radical interference in the texts of works from the literary canon have encouraged younger directors to make their own daring experiments . What was perceived as “revolutionary” and controversial at the time of J. Klata’s debut, today, only seven years later, has become standard in Polish theater.

Multiculturalism in a “homogeneous” society from the perspectives of an intercultural event in Japan

In this paper, I demonstrate how long-term multigenerational minorities and Japanese residents engage in the current socio-political discourse of “multicultural coexistence” society (tabunkakyōsei shakai), which had not previously been integral to the vocabulary of national rhetoric in Japan until the 2000s. I argue that the lack of clear definition and goals of multicultural coexistence by the current Japanese government generates obstacles in the attempt to build a multicultural society. While local municipalities’ programs, such as multilingual services and lifestyle support, are certainly needed, long-term foreign residents with linguistic and cultural competence are suspicious of the concept of multicultural coexistence due to their own embodied marginalized positions. Taking a local municipality’s intercultural event as a point of reference, this paper explores how long-term minority residents perceive their positions at the crossroads of seemingly paradoxical forces of multicultural trends and an ongoing national identity founded upon ethnic homogeneity.

African Pentecostal ecclesiastical practices and cultural adaption in a changing world

ABSTRACTThe migration of people from Africa to the UK in the last few decades is a subject of ongoing socio-political discourse. One of the results of global South to global North migration is the emergence and establishment of immigrant Pentecostal Churches in the UK set against the backdrop of a declining indigenous Christianity in Europe. This contrast has aroused the expectation for the African Pentecostal Church to be an agent of mission in the diaspora—in what is, arguably, labelled ‘reverse mission’. Effective reverse mission demand strategic ecclesial and missional approaches that are relevant to the mission environment. This study seeks to explore how a large growing African Pentecostal denomination—the Apostolic Faith Mission International Ministries UK (AFMIMUK) is altering its cultural practices and expression(s), to facilitate cross-cultural ministry and missions in the UK, through a qualitative methodology. The research is undertaken and presented through a sociological approach to Pentecostalism and a ‘Pentecostal hermeneutics’ theoretical framework.

Polycode content of news texts about coronavirus with proper names (PN) in electronic socio-political discourse

The article analyzes the features of the functioning of proper names in the news socio-political discourse in different countries and regions (Russia, Tatarstan, Vietnam, Albania). The authors consider the psycholinguistic aspects of the use of PN’s in texts about coronavirus, identify the features of the impact of such texts on the reader, and identify the target orientation of such texts. Hypothesis: PN in news reports about coronavirus in modern socio-political discourse in conditions of quarantine and self-isolation serve as a bond that unites different layers of society, creating a hologram of a single mental space. The very problem of coronavirus is potentially dangerous for society due to the increased attention of all representatives of society to the problem of health. The relevance is due to the increasing influence of AI on personality identification and the problems of attribution of texts in the news sociopolitical discourse since it has a priority influence on the transformation of public consciousness. The authors consider the traditional role of PN’s in the news text, with an emphasis on performing the tasks of a certain ethnolinguistic and cultural marker. The study helps to understand language universals in the transmission of psychoemotional moods in a situation of stress in a pandemic situation.

X-phemisms, or On the difficulty in distinguishing between euphemisms and dysphemisms

The present paper attempts to examine the existing approaches to the study on euphemisms and dysphemisms. The paper finds that the study on euphemisms and dysphemisms should be based on the holistic approach that entails combining particular aspects of diverse fields and provides a comprehensive understanding of language as a cognitive-communicative, sociocultural and biopsychological phenomenon. Applying both functional-pragmatic and diachronic approaches proves to be effective in identifying euphemisms and dysphemisms and distin- guishing between them. The results of the study indicate that not all low colloquialisms may be considered dysphemisms, although in some cases pejorative words, taboos and vulgarisms may serve as a conceptual source of dysphemisms. The study reveals that there can be no such notion as universal euphemism or universal dysphemism as the status of a word is determined by a set of social attitudes that may vary between dialect groups and even between individual members of the same community. Thus, when distinguishing between euphemisms and dysphemisms one should take into consideration diachronic meaning change, the current context, the previous context, subject-object relationship. The research data is taken from English socio-political discourse, media discourse, English monolingual and etymology dictionaries. The choice of the research data stems from the fact that media discourse and socio-political discourse reflect public ideologies and values, which allows to monitor diachronic meaning change conditioned by social factors. In addition to it, the dynamic nature of x-phemisms becomes observable in socio-political and media experiential contexts.