Religion and culture in the discourse of the European Court of Human Rights: the risks of stereotyping and naturalising

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourdes Peroni
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Group Practices ◽  
European Court

AbstractThis paper critically examines the ways in which the European Court of Human Rights represents applicants' religious and cultural practices in its legal discourse. Borrowing tools from critical discourse analysis and incorporating insights from the anti-essentialist critique, the paper suggests that the Court has most problematically depicted the practices of Muslim women, Sikhs and Roma Gypsies. The analysis reveals that, by means of a reifying language, the Court oftentimes equates these groups' practices with negative stereotypes or posits them as the group's ‘paradigmatic’ practice / way of life. The thrust of the argument is that these sorts of representation are problematic because of the exclusionary and inegalitarian dangers they carry both for the applicants and for their groups. In negatively stereotyping applicants' practices and in privileging certain group practices over others, these types of assessment underestimate what is at stake for the applicants and potentially exclude them from protection. Moreover, these types of reasoning risk sustaining hierarchies across and within groups. The paper concludes by sketching out an approach capable of mitigating stereotyping and essentialising risks.

Proselytism and Ostentation: a Critical Discourse Analysis of the European Court of Human Rights’ Case Law on Religious Symbols

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 162-188
Author(s):  
Giulia Evolvi ◽  
Mauro Gatti
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Religious Symbols ◽  
European Court ◽  
Over Time

Abstract This article focuses on the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) case law about religious symbols (N=27) from 2001 to 2018, exploring the following questions: What discourses does the ECtHR employ in cases about religious symbols? How do ECtHR’s discourses about religious symbols evolve in time? The data is innovatively analyzed through critical discourse analysis and leads to two findings: first, the ECtHR tends to endorse ‘Christian secularism,’ considering Christian symbols as compatible with secularism but not Muslim symbols; second, ECtHR discourses occasionally become more favorable to Muslim applicants over time, but the evolution of case law is not linear.

scholarly journals Ruptures of Possibility: Mexican Origin Mothers as Critical Border Pedagogues

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-125
Author(s):  
Idalia Nuñez ◽  
Suzanne García-Mateus
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Mexican Origin ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Border Thinking

In U.S. schools, educators are often regarded as knowledge producers and sole pedagogues, whereas parents (particularly of Color) are perceived as not engaged or interested in their child(ren)'s education (Colgrove, 2019; Nuñez, 2019; Ramirez, 2020). These negative stereotypes and white-centered discourses sustain raciolinguistic perspectives (Rosa & Flores, 2017) of families of Color and immigrant backgrounds. For the present study, we employed critical discourse analysis to explore why and how Mexican mothers raise bilingual children by examining how their experiences inform us about their powerful roles as critical translanguaging pedagogues. Drawing on border thinking and pedagogy of border thinking, the findings revealed two main themes: (1) how mothers recognize and draw on the ruptures of cultural and linguistic worlds, and (2) how they sustain language through family and cultural practices. Lastly, we share implications for educators, teacher educators, and policymakers.

scholarly journals A Critical Discourse Analysis of Representations of Travellers in Public Policies in Ireland

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Claire Jane Snowdon ◽  
Leena Eklund Eklund Karlsson
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Negative Stereotypes

In Ireland, negative stereotypes of the Traveller population have long been a part of society. The beliefs that surround this minority group may not be based in fact, yet negative views persist such that Travellers find themselves excluded from mainstream society. The language used in discourse plays a critical role in the way Travellers are represented. This study analyses the discourse in the public policy regarding Travellers in the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS) 2017–2021. This study performs a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the policy with the overall aims of showing signs of the power imbalance through the use of language and revealing the discourses used by elite actors to retain power and sustain existing social relations. The key findings show that Travellers are represented as a homogenous group that exists outside of society. They have no control over how their social identity is constructed. The results show that the constructions of negative stereotypes are intertextually linked to previous policies, and the current policy portrays them in the role of passive patients, not powerful actors. The discursive practice creates polarity between the “settled” population and the “Travellers”, who are implicitly blamed by the state for their disadvantages. Through the policy, the government disseminates expert knowledge, which legitimises the inequality and supports this objective “truth”. This dominant discourse, which manifests in wider social practice, can facilitate racism and social exclusion. This study highlights the need for Irish society to change the narrative to support an equitable representation of Travellers.

Långbro Hospital, Sweden—From Psychiatric Institution to Digital Museum: A Critical Discourse Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 120633122110665
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Punzi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Residential Area ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Digital Museum ◽  
Psychiatric Institution ◽  
Psychiatric Institutions

Sites of oppression might be remembered in ways that contribute to dialogues about human rights and justice, exemplified by Sites of Conscience. Oppression was commonplace in former psychiatric institutions, yet such institutions are often subject to strategic forgetting and transformed into business parks, hotels, or residential areas. This article concerns Långbro Hospital, a digital museum presenting the former psychiatric institution Långbro, Sweden, now transformed into a residential area. I discuss how the former institution becomes a digital nonplace in which patients tend to be objectified or excluded, and the park and the buildings in which oppression occurred are reduced to representing beauty and functionality. I relate the analysis to digital Sites of Conscience such as British Museum of Colonialism and Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance and, thereby, show that thoughtful digitization might recognize prior as well as current injustice and oppression and contribute to change.

Discoursal representation of masculine parenting in Arabic and English websites

Pragmatics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Nahar Al-Ali ◽  
Hanan A. Shatat
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Gender Roles ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Cultural Ideologies ◽  
Shared Parenting ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
Family Life Educators

Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences and similarities between Arabic and English parents’ role in Arabic and English parenting website texts and the linguistic exponents used to address parents and signal their roles, and to find out the socio-cultural ideologies that have given rise to variations in gender roles. To this end, a corpus of 40 articles targeting gender-neutral titles and father related ones were selected equally from English and Arabic websites. Drawing on Van Leeuwen’s (2008) framework on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and Sunderland’s (2000, 2006) framework of analysis, the data were analysed and contrasted. The English texts reflected the prevalence of ‘shared parenting’ discourse, whereas the Arabic ones revealed a ‘very traditional parenthood’ discourse. These differences can be attributed to variation in the socio-cultural practices dominant in Arab and Western societies. Such findings will hopefully provide some useful insights for family life educators and parents who resort to such websites.

Ideological positioning in news translation

Target ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Pan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Appraisal Theory ◽  
Three Dimension ◽  
Chinese Reader ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Rights Issue

This article investigates the Chinese translations of several English news reports on China’s human rights issue carried in Reference News, a Chinese authoritative state-run newspaper devoted to translating foreign reports for the Chinese reader, and aims to establish how evaluative resources are resorted to by the translators to facilitate ideologically different positioning in presenting events and identifying participants in the translated news. The translations are compared with their English source texts using Appraisal Theory (Martin and White 2005) as the micro analytical framework and Fairclough’s (1995a, 1995b) three-dimension model of Critical Discourse Analysis as the explanatory framework.

scholarly journals Islam in the Digital Films Expose the Good Sides of Muslims

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 354
Author(s):  
Primi Rohimi
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
World View ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Generation Gap ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Important Message ◽  
Long Run

Film studies mostly show Islam in negative representation. From streaming film website, we can easily find many films that show Muslims stories. For example, Children of Heaven, Le Grand Voyage, My Name is Khan, etc. Those films do not seem to show Muslims as terrorist. They show Muslims life in various cultures and stories. The problem is what good sides of Muslims in the films can counter the negative stereotypes of Muslims in Hollywood images. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, this research exposes the good sides of Muslims in films. There is an Islamic world view in Children of Heaven. Some things may seem bad but then turn out to be good in the long run. My Name is Khan has a very important message about Islam. That is Islam is a peace and love religion. Le Grand Voyage shows a signification generation gap of Muslims. They are secular and devout Muslims. But they can communicate moderately.

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