Racist discourse in the years of the Greek financial crisis: Evidence from the Greek press

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Lees ◽  
Antonis Alfieris

In the wake of Greece’s economic crisis, expressions and acts of racism have become noticeably more prevalent, particularly in light of the rise of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party. Two significant topics in public discourse that gave rise to expressions of racism were the amendment of the Greek citizenship law, which came into effect in 2010 and was heavily debated in the run up to the 2012 Greek general elections, as well as the perceived increase in immigration at the start of the refugee crisis. By investigating newspaper articles from Greek newspapers of different political affiliations during the period around the Greek general elections of 2012, we intend to provide examples of how racism was constructed in the language of the press at the time and analyse this against the background of the economic crisis in Greece.

Sociology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Dines ◽  
Nicola Montagna ◽  
Elena Vacchelli

Commencing with some recent examples drawn from Anglophone media, this introductory article reflects on the multiple ways in which crisis and migration have been interconnected over the last decade in public discourse, political debates and academic research. It underlines how crisis has not simply become a key descriptor of specific events, but continues to operate as a powerful narrative device that structures knowledge of migration and shapes policy decisions and governance structures. It explains the rationale for choosing Europe as a multidimensional setting for investigating the diverse links between migration and crisis. It ends with a summary of the contributions that are divided into four thematic strands: relationships between the economic crisis and migrant workers and their families; the Mediterranean in crisis; political and public discourses about the post-2015 ‘migration crisis’; and ethnographies of everyday experiences of the ‘refugee crisis’ on the part of migrants, activists and local people.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melani Schröter ◽  
Petra Storjohann

Corpus-assisted analyses of public discourse often focus on the lexical level. This article argues in favour of corpus-assisted analyses of discourse, but also in favour of conceptualising salient lexical items in public discourse in a more determined way. It draws partly on non-Anglophone academic traditions in order to promote a conceptualisation of discourse keywords, thereby highlighting how their meaning is determined by their use in discourse contexts. It also argues in favour of emphasising the cognitive and epistemic dimensions of discourse-determined semantic structures. These points will be exemplified by means of a corpus-assisted, as well as a frame-based analysis of the discourse keyword financial crisis in British newspaper articles from 2009. Collocations of financial crisis are assigned to a generic matrix frame for ‘event’ which contains slots that specify possible statements about events. By looking at which slots are more, respectively less filled with collocates of financial crisis, we will trace semantic presence as well as absence, and thereby highlight the pragmatic dimensions of lexical semantics in public discourse. The article also advocates the suitability of discourse keyword analyses for systematic contrastive analyses of public/political discourse and for lexicographical projects that could serve to extend the insights drawn from corpus-guided approaches to discourse analysis.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diarmaid Addison Smyth ◽  
Kieran McQuinn

Purpose The Irish fiscal position was significantly affected by the recent financial crisis. Budgetary surpluses quickly gave way to significant deficits post 2007, culminating into a lengthy excessive deficit procedure and entry into a formal EU/IMF assistance programme in 2010. Much of the deterioration in the public finances was caused by a sharp decline in property-related taxes because the Irish housing market rapidly contracted. In this paper, the authors quantify the extent to which disequilibria in the housing market can affect the tax take, finding significant implications over an extended period. Design/methodology/approach The authors attempt to quantify the extent of housing-related tax windfall gains and losses in Ireland over a 30-year period as a result of disequilibrium in the housing market. This involves a three-step modelling approach where we relate property-dependent taxes to the housing market while estimating equilibrium in the latter before solving for the tax take consistent with that equilibrium. In so doing, the authors find that the fiscal position compatible with equilibrium in the housing market has at times diverged greatly from actual outturns. Findings This paper confirms the significant role played by the housing market in influencing both the tax-take and the overall fiscal position. The authors find that there have been a number of instances where excesses in the housing market have spilled over into fiscal aggregates, notably in the housing bubble period between 2003 and 2008. However, with the on-going adjustments in the housing market, it would appear that prices and volumes have overcorrected in recent years. Overall, much greater emphasis should be given to the role of the housing market in forecasting key taxation aggregates. Originality/value The recent crisis highlighted how domestic policy mistakes (both in terms of budgetary planning and financial market regulation) can greatly amplify economic shocks. Irish budgetary policy in the run up to the financial crisis of 2008/2009 was clearly based on unsustainable levels of housing-related tax receipts. This paper highlights the need for a much more granular approach in framing tax forecasts and in assessing the public finances by more explicitly factoring in housing market developments.


Journalism ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 716-735
Author(s):  
Christos A Frangonikolopoulos ◽  
Stamatis Poulakidakos
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Sophie Di Francesco-Mayot

This chapter examines the French Socialist Party (Parti socialiste, PS), which is one of the least successful of the major European social democratic parties. It focuses on the period between the 2008 global financial crisis until the end of François Hollande's presidency in 2017. The crisis of the PS is twofold: first, a political crisis that is revealed by the divisive nature of the Party's internal courants (factions). Whereas the factions initially contributed to the PS's internal democracy, over the past two decades they have significantly affected the PS's cohesiveness and ability to effectively develop and implement necessary policies. And second, an economic crisis that is exemplified by the PS's inability to adapt to its external and internal environments, such as the neoliberal imperatives of the EU, unprecedented high unemployment, and increasing insecurity.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Rohmawati Kusumaningtias

AbstractAt the time of financial crisis, one of the influential institutions in society is banking. Banking sector provide soft loans to create productive employment for the community. On the other hand, customers also need the liquidity from bank-ing. These stakeholders' needs can be met by looking at the performance of bank-ing. This study aims to determine differences in the performance of sharia banking and conventional banking during economic crisis. This study uses t-test to analyze the data. From the research, it was found that in general, the performance of conventional banking is better than sharia banking in the economic crisis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
Jani Marjanen ◽  
Ville Vaara ◽  
Antti Kanner ◽  
Hege Roivainen ◽  
Eetu Mäkelä ◽  
...  

This article uses metadata from serial publications as a means of modelling the historical development of the public sphere. Given that a great deal of historical knowledge is generated through narratives relying on anecdotal evidence, any attempt to rely on newspapers for modeling the past challenges customary approaches in political and cultural history. The focus in this article is on Finland, but our approach is also scalable to other regions. During the period 1771–1917 newspapers developed as a mass medium in the Grand Duchy of Finland within two imperial configurations (Sweden until 1809 and Russia in 1809–1917), and in the two main languages – Swedish and Finnish. Finland is an ideal starting point for conducting comparative studies in that its bilingual profile already includes two linguistically separated public spheres that nonetheless were heavily connected. Our particular interest here is in newspaper metadata, which we use to trace the expansion of public discourse in Finland by statistical means. We coordinate information on publication places, language, number of issues, number of words, newspaper size, and publishers, which we compare with existing scholarship on newspaper history and censorship, and thereby offer a more robust statistical analysis of newspaper publishing in Finland than has previously been possible. We specifically examine the interplay between the Swedish- and Finnish-language newspapers and show that, whereas the public discussions were inherently bilingual, the technological and journalistic developments advanced at different pace in the two language forums. This analysis challenges the perception of a uniform public sphere in the country. In addition, we assess the development of the press in comparison with the production of books and periodicals, which points toward the specialization of newspapers as a medium in the period after 1860. This confirms some earlier findings about Finnish print production. We then show how this specialization came about through the establishment of forums for local debates that other less localized print media such as magazines and books could not provide.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 61-82
Author(s):  
Terézia Nagy

In my study I would like to show how the refugees’ situation, motivation and lifestyle have been criminalized in the public discourse (political, press and social public discourse) despite the fact that the Hungarian asylum procedures seem to be converging to the EU standards. I will approach the acceptance of and behaviour towards refugees in two ways: based on my experience from fieldwork carried out in diasporas in Budapest and based on my analysis of the press from the perspective of the host society. These approaches are important because my results show that socio-cultural acceptance is demonstrated almost exclusively by the diasporas even though the economic and official procedures manifest in the body of the host (Hungarian) society. I would also like to speak about the picture the Hungarian media and the government’s discourse show of people crossing the border illegally, how it raises fear and uncertainty among them. This kind of influence conveys messages which hinder fitting in in various aspects, obstruct integration, and at the same time make transnational communication among refugees stereotypical and equivocal. Consequently, ethnically or religiously homogeneous connections are getting stronger, while the importance of diasporas with weak economic, political and advocacy background is also increasing. However, the newcomers hardly ever enter the Hungarian scene.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengya Cao

In recent years, the financial crisis has affected the economies of all countries in the world. At that time, it seriously restricted the development of the world economy. From a modern perspective, the difficult period of the world economic crisis caused by the financial crisis has passed, but the negative impact of the economic crisis can not be eliminated in a short time. Dispersed, the crisis has brought both opportunities and challenges to the country as well as heavy economic losses. Under the background of economic globalization, only by making a scientific and effective analysis of the world economic situation and keeping up with the trend of the world economy, can we effectively promote the domestic economic development and industrial structure, and enable our economy to develop healthily and substantially.


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