Humour, ridicule and the de-legitimization of the working class in Swedish Reality Television

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Göran Eriksson
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Welfare State

Abstract Drawing on tools from Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis this paper analyses the editing techniques in a Swedish docu-soap showing that humour is used to ridicule the working-class participants, representing them as slow, inflexible, undynamic and unstylish. The paper places this within broader discursive shifts in Sweden where the rise of neoliberalism requires a dismantling of the welfare state, legitimized partly though establishing the lower social economic groups as morally flawed and themselves responsible for their increasingly disadvantaged situation as social inequalities increase.

The welfare state driving “me” and “we” medicine – a critical discourse analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-423
Author(s):  
Morten Deleuran Terkildsen ◽  
Viola Burau ◽  
Ulla Væggemose ◽  
Nina Konstantin Nissen
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Welfare State

scholarly journals Round hole, square peg: a discourse analysis of social inequalities and the political legitimization of health technology in Norway

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Round Hole ◽  
Central State ◽  
National Public Health

Abstract Background As research increasingly investigates the impacts of technological innovations in health on social inequalities, political discourse often promotes development and adoption, limiting an understanding of unintended consequences. This study aimed to investigate national public health policy discourse focusing on innovative health technology and social inequalities, from a Norwegian context. Methods The analysis relies on a perspective inspired by critical discourse analysis using central State documents typically influential in the lawmaking procedure. Results The results and discussion focus on three major discourse strands: 1) ‘technologies discourse’ (types of technologies), 2) ‘responsibility discourse’ (who has responsibility for health and technology), 3) ‘legitimization discourse’ (how technologies are legitimized). Conclusions Results suggest that despite an overt political imperative for reducing social inequalities, the Norwegian national discourse gives little attention to the potential for these innovations to unintentionally (re) produce social inequalities. Instead, it is characterized by neoliberal undertones, individualizing and commercializing public health and promoting pro-innovation ideology.

Discipline and Commoditize: How U-Visas Exploit the Pain of Gender-Based Violence

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 464-491
Author(s):  
Ghazah Abbasi
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
U Visa

U-Visas are granted to immigrant survivors of gender-based crimes. I use critical discourse analysis to examine 100 U-visa cases. I present two arguments. First, U-Visa adjudication establishes a panoptics of pain that disciplines survivors. The panoptics of pain transforms immigrant suffering into objects of scientific knowledge. Second, U-Visas establish an economy of pain that commoditizes survivors’ suffering. The economy of pain establishes transactional exchanges between immigrants and state agencies while generating economic profits for carceral corporations. I conclude with microlevel policy reforms to make U-Visas less exploitative of petitioners, and macrolevel policy reforms to empower working-class immigrants and prevent gender-based violence.

The struggle between welfare state models and prevailing healthcare policy in Scandinavian healthcare legislative documents

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Dahlborg ◽  
Ellinor Tengelin ◽  
Elin Aasen ◽  
Jeanne Strunck ◽  
Åse Boman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Healthcare Policy ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
New Governance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
State Models

PurposeThe paper aims to compare and discuss the findings of discursive constructions of patients in legal texts from the three Scandinavian countries. Since traditional welfare state systems in Scandinavia are being challenged by new governance systems, new questions are being raised about patient positions and agency, carrying with them potential ethical dilemmas for healthcare professionals.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology of the paper is inspired by critical discourse analysis. Comprehensively analysing the findings of previous discourse studies on how “the patient” is constructed in central policy texts, this study compares the position of the patient in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.FindingsThe paper reveals ideological struggles across the Scandinavian countries, operating at a political level, a legislative level and a healthcare level. It is shown that national governance systems still exert hegemonic power by strongly influencing patients' degree of choice and autonomy. The discursive struggle between welfare state governance and other governance systems in Scandinavia indicates a shift towards a commercial healthcare market although a traditional welfare model is advocated by professionals and researchers.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the specific conditions of Scandinavian healthcare policy, the findings lack generalisability. The research approach should therefore be explored further in additional contexts.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study can inform policymakers, professionals and patients of the ideological values underlying seemingly objective shifts in national policy.Originality/valueA comparative critical discourse analysis can expose patterns in the Scandinavian approaches to patient rights.

The retranslation of Chinese political texts

Target ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Pan ◽  
Tao Li
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Communist Party Of China ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Individual

Abstract The past three decades have witnessed an increase in research on retranslation. Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis, this study examines the retranslation of political texts – specifically Work Reports by the Communist Party of China – as a special genre in its own right. By concentrating on the retranslation of a recurring set of Chinese political concepts, culture-specific items, and preferred usages into English from the early 1990s to the late 2010s, this study shows how and why the retranslations have been carried out, as motivated by the evolving ideologies of the original author – the Communist Party of China. The retranslations are shown to be influenced by the broader social, economic, and political dynamics within China, rather than by prevailing factors within the receiving culture or variables associated with the individual translators, as is commonly suggested in the literature. Our findings add to the existing body of research into retranslation by extending the genres and contexts of retranslation research.

scholarly journals Branding and strategic maneuvering in the Romanian presidential election of 2004

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabela Ieţcu-Fairclough
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Strategic Maneuvering ◽  
Presidential Election Of 2004 ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Branding Strategies

In this paper I analyse differences in the legitimation strategies used by and on behalf of the two presidential candidates in the elections of December 2004 in Romania, using a combination of Critical Discourse Analysis and pragmadialectics. These differences are seen to lie primarily in the varieties of populist discourse that were drawn upon in the construction of legitimizing arguments for both candidates: a paternalist type vs. a radical, anti-political type of populism. I relate the success of the latter type to more effective strategic maneuvering in argumentation, part of more effective branding strategies in general, but also to existing types of political culture amongst the electorate and to social, economic circumstances. In CDA terms, I discuss the “Băsescu brand” as involving choices at the level of discourse, genre and style; in pragma-dialectical terms, I view its success as partly the effect of successful strategic maneuvering. I also place the success of this brand within the Romanian context at the end of 2004, where often questionable populist electoral messages were perceived as reasonable and acceptable, as fitting adjustments to the situation and even as means of optimizing the deliberative situation of the electorate.

scholarly journals Attitudes towards migrant workers in South Africa: A critical discourse analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vongai S. Ruzungunde ◽  
Sindiso Zhou
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Speech Discrimination ◽  
Festive Season

Background: The influx of migrants from neighbouring countries has contributed to diversity in South Africa. This has caused on-going clashes between local residents and migrants. This article explores the role of discourse towards enabling a cohesive society. There has been much focus on migrants working in South Africa over the 2020 December festive season as many faced challenges in travelling to their respective countries because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This limelight exposed the underlying discrimination towards migrants in South Africa remain regardless of the South African progressive Constitution that values and respects individuals as well as protecting them from discrimination.Aim: This article adopts threat theory and uses critical discourse analysis to highlight the existing and continued discrimination towards migrant workers. The article exposes the causes of social inequalities, which can assist the government in decision-making towards reducing the inequality gap in service delivery.Setting: Public viewer comments on the news updates on migrants’ travel that were posted on the national news websites over the 2020 festive season were analysed.Methods: Critical Discourse analysis (CDA) was employed as a method of analysis in this article.Results and conclusion: The article intends to add to the existing body of knowledge and to also inform local government towards canvasing agenda that incorporate all human rights and enable a cohesive society by considering the role of discourse as an enabler of the problems experienced in societies. The results show that discourse contributes to negative attitudes, hate speech, discrimination and stereotyping towards migrants in South Africa.

scholarly journals Swedish exceptionalism, herd immunity and the welfare state: A media analysis of struggles over the nature and legitimacy of the COVID-19 pandemic strategy in Sweden

2021 ◽  
pp. 001139212199002
Author(s):  
Katarina Giritli Nygren ◽  
Anna Olofsson
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Voluntary Action ◽  
The World ◽  
Crisis Narratives ◽  
The Welfare State

Compared to many other countries, Sweden has managed the COVID-19 pandemic with no lockdowns, less regulation and more voluntary action expected of citizens and organizations. In this article, the authors explore media representations of national preventative strategies and how they were anchored in broader discourses. The article aims to analyse the development of crisis narratives and struggles over legitimacy during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden. Employing a critical discourse analysis, the authors investigate the editorials and opinion articles in Sweden’s largest morning newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, during the spring of 2020. The authors combine descriptive analyses of the development of the crisis narratives with discursive analyses of conflicting ideologies in the debate. The study indicates that three crisis narratives dominated the debates: health, the economy and democracy. Within and between these narratives, struggles over legitimacy in the handling of COVID-19 were captured in several conflicting perspectives or paradoxes: Swedish exceptionalism versus the world, centralization versus decentralization and herd immunity versus herd humanism.

scholarly journals Critical Discourse Analysis: As An Empirical And Rational Foundation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Pandapotan Sahat Martua Simangunsong ◽  
Dewi Surianyali
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Language Implementation ◽  
Critical Attitude ◽  
Democratic Societies

Critical discourse analysis is not related to a particular linguistic school or Discourse analysis. Discourse analysis can be used as an empirical and rational foundation to analyze it. It seeks to endorse awareness of the aspect of language implementation and to argue explicitly for change on the origin of its finding. Critical discourse analysts realize that their own work is also driven by social, economic, and political issues, but they argue that this applies to all academics of work. The traditional division of social work ensures that scientists and other academics do not have to face their workplace in a scheme of better things and conditions that make their continued work possible. Critical discourse analysts at least make their position explicit and feel they do not need to apologize for the critical attitude of their work. By contrast, by contributing to the debate on issues of great importance to society, they continue the tradition of groundless debate that has been fundamental to democratic societies since antiquity, feeling that their work as scientists requires greater responsibility than giving facts to others interpret and use.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document