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Discursive Construction (discursive + construction)
Selected AbstractsDiscursive constructions of terrorism in Spain: Anglophone and Spanish media representations of EtaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, Issue 1 2009Roberto A. Valdeón separatista; terrorista; medios de comunicación; noticias; enfoque crítico This paper studies the use of the terms ,separatist' and ,terrorist' in the aftermath of Madrid's 3/11 attacks and their discursive implications from a critical perspective, and attempts to throw some light on whether there are sufficient grounds to substantiate the voices against ,separatist' when reporting on attacks carried out by the militant group Eta that involved killings. The study is divided into three sections, which examine, first, the choice(s) made by Spanish news websites and the intratextual cohesion devices used by the authors, and, secondly, the terms and devices used in British and American news websites. Finally, we shall discuss the ideological implications that might lie beneath the preference for ,separatist' in Anglophone media, and comment on the problems derived from it. En este artículo se analiza el uso de las palabras ,terrorist' y ,separatist' tras los atentados terroristas que tuvieron lugar en Madrid en marzo de 2004, así como sus implicaciones discursivas desde un enfoque crítico. Se comprobará si existen razones para justificar las críticas al uso del término ,separatista' para definir los atentados perpetrados por la banda Eta. El trabajo se divide en tres secciones. En la primera se estudian medios de noticias españoles en internet para establecer qué elementos léxicos se utilizan así como las estrategias de cohesión intratextual presentes. En el segundo se analizan medios de noticias de habla inglesa, tanto británicos como americanos. Por último se comentarán las implicaciones ideológicas del uso de ,separatist' en los medios de habla inglesa así como los problemas que ocasiona. [source] "Destiny Has Thrown the Negro and the Filipino Under the Tutelage of America": Race and Curriculum in the Age of EmpireCURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 4 2009ROLAND SINTOS COLOMA ABSTRACT The article brings together the fields of curriculum studies, history of education, and ethnic studies to chart a transnational history of race, empire, and curriculum. Drawing from a larger study on the history of education in the Philippines under U.S. rule in the early 1900s, it argues that race played a pivotal role in the discursive construction of Filipino/as and that the schooling for African Americans in the U.S. South served as the prevailing template for colonial pedagogy in the archipelago. It employs Michel Foucault's concept of archaeology to trace the racial grammar in popular and official representations, especially in the depiction of colonized Filipino/as as racially Black, and to illustrate its material effects on educational policy and curriculum. The tension between academic and manual-industrial instruction became a site of convergence for Filipino/as and African Americans, with decided implications for the lived trajectories in stratified racialized and colonized communities. [source] HISTORY IN THE SIKH PAST,HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 3 2007ANNE MURPHY ABSTRACT This article offers a reading of an early eighteenth-century Punjabi text,Gur Sobha or "The Splendor of the Guru",as a form of historical representation, suggesting reasons for the importance of the representation of the past as history within Sikh discursive contexts. The text in question provides an account of the life, death, and teachings of the last of the ten living Sikh Gurus or teachers, Guru Gobind Singh. The article argues that the construction of history in this text is linked to the transition of the Sikh community at the death of the last living Guru whereby authority was invested in the canonical text (granth) and community (panth). As such a particular rationale for history was produced within Sikh religious thought and intellectual production around the discursive construction of the community in relation to the past and as a continuing presence. As such, the text provides an alternative to modern European forms of historical representation, while sharing some features of the "historical" as defined in that context. The essay relates this phenomenon to a broader exploration of history in South Asian contexts, to notions of historicality that are plural, and to issues particular to the intersection of history and religion. Later texts, through the middle of the nineteenth century, are briefly considered, to provide a sense of the significance of Gur Sobha within a broader, historically and religiously constituted Sikh imagination of the past. [source] The consumer stuck between a rock of victimhood and a hard place called responsibility: political discourses on the ,consumer' in Finnish and German governmental policy documentsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 4 2009Stefan Wahlen Abstract Executive governmental authorities contribute a discourse, making-up, outlining and configuring the consumer. The objective of this paper is to elaborate on the discursive construction of the consumer provided by governmental institutions. Exemplified by Finnish and German policy documents, this paper tries to provide an insight on the consumer as the subject that is governed by politics. Thus, a discourse analytic approach reveals according to what rationale the consumer is discursively constructed on a dichotomous sovereignty-vulnerability-continuum. Hence, this paper provides actors and institutions that are involved in consumer policy deliberate basic principles for the understanding of consumers. [source] Cities and the ,War on Terror'INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2006STEPHEN GRAHAM Programmes of organized, political violence have always been legitimized and sustained through complex imaginative geographies. These tend to be characterized by stark binaries of place attachment. This article argues that the discursive construction of the Bush administration's ,war on terror' since September 11th 2001 has been deeply marked by attempts to rework imaginative geographies separating the urban places of the US ,homeland' and those Arab cities purported to be the sources of ,terrorist' threats against US national interests. On the one hand, imaginative geographies of US cities have been reworked to construct them as ,homeland' spaces which must be re-engineered to address supposed imperatives of ,national security'. On the other, Arab cities have been imaginatively constructed as little more than ,terrorist nest' targets to soak up US military firepower. Meanwhile, the article shows how both ,homeland' and ,target' cities are increasingly being treated together as a single, integrated ,battlespace' within post 9/11 US military doctrine and techno-science. The article concludes with a discussion of the central roles of urban imaginative geographies, overlaid by transnational architectures of US military technology, in sustaining the colonial territorial configurations of a hyper-militarized US Empire. [source] Articulating the Nexus of Politics and Law: War in Iraq and the Practice within Two Legal SystemsINTERNATIONAL POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2008Philip Liste Does law rule foreign affairs in the democratic state? Basically, one might expect that democratic executives operate on the ground of what is called the Rechtsstaat, and that in a political system with checks and balances operations,especially those eventually dropping out of that ground,are subject to judicial review. However, legal systems are more often than not willing to abstain from a legal governance of its countries' foreign policy,because of "political reasons." Moreover, democracies obviously vary according to their legal operations. At least in the area of foreign affairs, the relationship of democracy and law does not take up a necessary character. Facing this contingency, the article engages in the discursive construction of a politics and law nexus in the course of the operations of two legal systems, in the United States and Germany. For that reason, it will proceed by deconstructing two legal decisions related to the war in Iraq. Building upon the premise that legal practices are intertwined into a larger web of (legal) text, the article argues that the possibility of a judicial abstention in cases bearing reference to foreign policy issues depends on meaning produced in the course of the signification and positioning of discursive elements like "politics" and "law." Thus, speaking law is a politico-legal practice. [source] ,Real Italians and wogs': The discursive construction of Italian identity among first generation Italian immigrants in Western AustraliaJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2010Emanuela Sala Abstract We explore the discursive construction of Italian identity among a bilingual sample of Italian-born Western Australians. Focus groups were held with two groups: Italians who had migrated to Australia as children and a group who had migrated as adults. We found intra- and inter-individual differences in identity construction, with much discourse devoted to demonstrating Italian authenticity and negotiating ethnic category boundaries. Shared markers of authenticity included language, heritage and food. The groups varied in their selection of referent groups to make authenticity claims, with the child migrants drawing upon the shared Australian stereotype of ,wogs' to construct and authenticate their Italian-ness. In contrast, adult migrants constructed Italian identity through comparisons with the dominant Australian ethnic group and in relation to a broader ,migrant' identity. The findings highlight the fluid and complex nature of ethnic identity and the need for further exploration of how it is constructed in talk. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Organizational Differentiation through Badging: Investors in People and the Value of the SignJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 8 2002Emma Bell This paper explores the meaning of the state,sponsored initiative for people management, Investors in People (IiP), through deconstruction of the signifiers that represent its articulation. Semiotic analysis is employed in order to consider the sign,value that is associated with IiP and to explore the symbolic meaning of cultural artefacts, such as ,the badge' and ,the flag', which feature in the experience of managers and employees in six case study organizations. This post,structuralist approach enables us to focus on the discursive construction of textual meaning surrounding IiP as a ,readerly' as well as a writerly project. It is suggested that organizations are subject to a process of image production and consumption. This process requires them to seek differentiation from other organizations by acquiring quality initiatives that constitute a system of objects. In particular, the meaning of IiP signifiers as emblems of achievement is explored and the extent to which these become simulacra is considered. It is argued that there is a significant gap between writerly intentions as to what quality initiatives ought to signify and their organizational, context,bound, indeterminate meanings. By elucidating the conditions of IiP's signification it is shown that this discourse has the potential to undermine the very philosophy it asserts. Finally, drawing on this analysis, we outline the way that badge acquisition develops over time through processes of accumulation and adaptation. [source] The social and discursive construction of computing skillsJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 1 2005Sanna Talja In this article a social constructionist approach to information technology (IT) literacy is introduced. This approach contributes to the literature on IT literacy by introducing the concept of IT self as a description of the momentary, context-dependent, and multilayered nature of interpretations of IT competencies. In the research literature, IT literacy is often defined as sets of basic skills to be learned, and competencies to be demonstrated. In line with this approach, research on IT competencies conventionally develops models for explaining user acceptance, and for measuring computer-related attitudes and skills. The assumption is that computer-related attitudes and self-efficacy impact IT adoption and success in computer use. Computer self-efficacy measures are, however, often based on self-assessments that measure interpretations of skills rather than performance in practice. An analysis of empirical interview data in which academic researchers discuss their relationships with computers and IT competence shows how a self-assessment such as "computer anxiety" presented in one discussion context can in another discussion context be consigned to the past in favor of a different and more positive version. Here it is argued that descriptions of IT competencies and computer-related attitudes are dialogic social constructs and closely tied with more general implicit understandings of the nature of technical artifacts and technical knowledge. These implicit theories and assumptions are rarely taken under scrutiny in discussions of IT literacy yet they have profound implications for the aims and methods in teaching computer skills. [source] The ,good' parent in relation to early childhood literacy: symbolic terrain and lived practiceLITERACY, Issue 2 2009Sue Nichols Abstract In this paper we consider the place of early childhood literacy in the discursive construction of the identity(ies) of ,proper' parents. Our analysis crosses between representations of parenting in texts produced by commercial and government/public institutional interests and the self-representations of individual parents in interviews with the researchers. The argument is made that there are commonalities and disjunctures in represented and lived parenting identities as they relate to early literacy. In commercial texts that advertise educational and other products, parents are largely absent from representations and the parent's position is one of consumer on behalf of the child. In government-sanctioned texts, parents are very much present and are positioned as both learners about and important facilitators of early learning when they ,interact' with their children around language and books. The problem for which both, in their different ways, offer a solution is the "not-yet-ready" child precipitated into the evaluative environment of school without the initial competence seen as necessary to avoid falling behind right from the start. Both kinds of producers promise a smooth induction of children into mainstream literacy and learning practices if the ,good parent' plays her/his part. Finally, we use two parent cases to illustrate how parents' lived practice involves multiple discursive practices and identities as they manage young children's literacy and learning in family contexts in which they also need to negotiate relations with their partners and with paid and domestic work. [source] Globalisation and New Zealand: Anchoring the Leviathan in a Regional ContextNEW ZEALAND GEOGRAPHER, Issue 2 2003LUCY BARAGWANATH ABSTRACT Despite its ambiguity and contentiousness, the term globalisation is widely used in New Zealand, as it is elsewhere, in analyses of contemporary times. Yet the concept of globalisation is frequently invoked at a high level of generality with little consideration of the specificities of the particular contexts to which it is applied; and in the case of New Zealand, the notion seems incongruous in many respects. We therefore seek to anchor the notion in the regional context of Canterbury, where our historical and ethnographic research leads us to suggest that globalisation is a misleading and contentious description of contemporary New Zealand. As a set of discourses, however, globalisation is pervasive and powerful. The contemporary policy climate strongly reflects the hegemonic discourse of hyperglobalism, which emphasises generic globality, novelty and change at the expense of continuity and the particularity of place, limiting the possibilities for action. Thus while empirically, many parallels with the past persist, nevertheless, contemporary policy-makers understand New Zealand's options as determined by globalisation as an external force. This contrasts with past policy discourses which emphasised the scope for domestic decision-making, within the context of inextricable connections with the outside world. Our emphasis on the discursive construction of the globalisation imperative draws attention to possible alternative interpretations of New Zealand's contemporary options. [source] The centre cannot hold: tales of hierarchy and poetic composition from modern RajasthanTHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 2 2004Jeffrey G. Snodgrass In this article I examine Bhat myths and legends concerning kings and bards. Bhats are low-status praise-singers from the Indian state of Rajasthan. In exploring these tales, I examine my informants' ideas about an issue which has long been seen as a central conundrum of Indian caste theory: how best to characterize the status of those with priestly standing in relation to those classed as warriors and kings. In their stories, Bhats demonstrate the ways in which high-caste persons such as kings are utterly dependent on bardic services , thus rendering performers like themselves central, and kings peripheral. With respect to the debate about whether kings or priests rank first in South Asian schemes of rank and primacy, Bhats themselves think in terms of a third class of persons: bards. Further, I suggest that, in arguing for the social centrality of linguistically talented bards, my informants display a consciousness that is particularly attuned to the discursive construction of social hierarchies. Finally, I seek to explain why Bhats, who are bards of former untouchables now living in an ostensibly modern, casteless democracy, still speak so persistently of kings and royal bardship. My answer to this is that, in fabricating fictive royal bardic identities, present-day Bhats are able to appropriate roles and statuses now abandoned by the former elite bards of post-Independence Rajasthan. [source] Discipline and Devolution: Constructions of Poverty, Race, and Criminality in the Politics of Rural Prison DevelopmentANTIPODE, Issue 3 2009Anne Bonds Abstract:, The soaring expansion of the US prison population is transforming the geographies of both urban and rural landscapes. As the trend in mass incarceration persists, depressed rural spaces are increasingly associated with rising prison development and the increasing criminalization of rural communities of disadvantage. Drawing on in-depth archival and interview research in rural communities in the Northwestern states of Idaho and Montana, this paper explores how cultural productions of poverty and exclusion intersect with rural prison development. I examine how representations of poverty and criminality are entangled with processes of economic restructuring and the localization of economic development and social welfare. I explore the ways in which the rural prison geography of the Northwest is linked to the material and discursive construction of those in poverty and how these narratives are produced through local relations of race, ethnicity, and class. I suggest that the mobilization of these constructions legitimates rural prison expansion, increasingly punitive social and criminal justice policies, and the retrenchment of racialized and classed inequality. Further, I argue that these discursive imaginations of the poor work to obscure the central dynamics producing poverty under the neoliberal restructuring of rural economies and governance. [source] Forming professional identities on the health care team: discursive constructions of the ,other' in the operating roomMEDICAL EDUCATION, Issue 8 2002L Lingard Background, Inter-professional health care teams represent the nucleus of both patient care and the clinical education of novices. Both activities depend upon the,talk' that team members use to interact with one another. This study explored team members' interpretations of tense team communications in the operating room (OR). Methods, The study was conducted using 52 team members divided into 14 focus groups. Team members comprised 13 surgeons, 19 nurses, nine anaesthetists and 11 trainees. Both uni-disciplinary (n = 11) and multi-disciplinary (n = 3) formats were employed. All groups discussed three communication scenarios, derived from prior ethnographic research. Discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed. Using a grounded theory approach, three researchers individually analysed sample transcripts, after which group discussions were held to resolve discrepancies and confirm a coding structure. Using the confirmed code, the complete data set was coded using the ,NVivo' qualitative data analysis software program. Results, There were substantial differences in surgeons', nurses', anaesthetists', and trainees' interpretations of the communication scenarios. Interpretations were accompanied by subjects' depictions of disciplinary roles on the team. Subjects' constructions of other professions' roles, values and motivations were often dissonant with those professions' constructions of themselves. Conclusions, Team members, particularly novices, tend to simplify and distort others' roles and motivations as they interpret tense communication. We suggest that such simplifications may be rhetorical, reflecting professional rivalries on the OR team. In addition, we theorise that novices' echoing of role simplification has implications for their professional identity formation. [source] Amassing the Multitude: Revisiting Early Audience StudiesCOMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 3 2005Jack Z. Bratich This article examines early problematizations of "the audience" in communication studies (in Michel Foucault's sense of problematization). Using Michael Hardt and Toni Negri's concept of the "multitude," the author argues that the audience is a product of discursive constructions, but that these constructions themselves draw upon the ontological practices of what may be called "audience powers" or "mediated multitudes." Problematizations of the audience in communication studies are examples of what Negri calls "constituted power," as they seek to capture conceptually the immanent practices of audience constituent powers. Concentrating on 3 early audience discourses (propaganda, marketing, and moral panics), the author assesses how audience power provoked these problematizations and argues that an ontology of media subjects and audience powers offers new perspectives on audiences and audience studies. [source] | ||||||||||||||||