scholarly journals Lost in Self-Identification?

1969 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 103-124
Author(s):  
Justinas Lingevicius

The main purpose of the research is to analyze how NATO’s identity is constructed through the discourses from three NATO Summits – Lisbon, Chicago and Wales. The research is based on post-structuralistic theoretical background which emphasizes the role of identity in the context of security policies. To study identity means to analyze discourse. Therefore, the research is based on discourse analysis searching for the meanings relevant to identity construction. The main representations of NATO’s identity discussed include the role of Western values, partnership, threats and challenges, the role in global politics and community building. The research has revealed that an existence of NATO’s self-identification relies on complexity and multidimensionality. One of the main reasons affecting the interaction among different aspects is related with fluster between modern and postmodern security logics. Thus, issues in international area and more or less real threats affect how these representations interact and dominate against each other.

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Jing Ye ◽  
Xiaoying Liu

Discourse analysis is an essential branch of linguistics, and cohesion and coherence are the core issues of discourse analysis. However, many scholars carry out discourse analysis from a specific perspective, and few analyze it from multiple levels simultaneously. Besides, the analysis of the speech is relatively few. Therefore, the study of the multi-level analysis of that style is valuable. This paper is divided into three parts. The first part is the introduction of the theoretical background, expounding the academic research of Halliday, a foreign expert, and Hu Zhuanglin, a domestic representative, and the introduction of the discourse Two Truths to Live by. The second part is the main body of this paper, which explains the function and effect of cohesion and coherence theory by analyzing the sentences in selected texts. Finally, it summarizes the research results. It examines the role of cohesion and coherence in expressing the author's intention and highlighting the theme of the work, so as to cultivate the ability of writing papers, speeches, and other writing styles.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-136
Author(s):  
Evgeni Nikolaevich Molodychenko

There has recently been a notable increase in the amount and perceived significance of new lifestyle media. Besides the instructive and entertaining function, these media arguably play a more fundamental sociocultural role of constructing identities. In consumer societies, these identities are to a great extent enacted through the acquisition of commodities and engagement in commodified practices, which thereby become semiotic resources of identity stylization. The purpose of this article is to explore the discursive mechanisms underpinning the process of formulating commodities and practices as such semiotic resources. To this end, several discourses from new online men’s magazines have been analyzed drawing on a model of discourse analysis that sees discourse as one of the “moments” of the social practice it is embedded in. The results indicate that the mechanism behind the processes in question can be described as a metasemiotic project. As such a project unfolds in discourse, various commodities and practices are being typified by a metasemiotic term. One of the most frequent prototypical metasemiotic terms in these resources is stylish man . The term is instantiated in texts by several lexemes, including the lexeme style and its derivatives, as well as lexemes naming various “masculine personas” such as man , guy, kid, gentleman, bad ass. It has been shown that an increasing number of commodities and practices are being “theorized” by the discourse of new online men’s magazines and typified by this term. One important feature behind the workings of the metasemiotic project is intertextuality. Specific texts are always dialogically linked to other texts of lifestyle discourse, while object-signs are reformulated and imbued with different social values. These results contribute to the exploration of contemporary lifestyle media and discursive mechanisms of identity construction used by them, and, in a more general sense, to recent discussions of operationalizing wider sociocultural context in textually oriented discourse analysis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ausima Malik ◽  
Raja Nasim Akhtar

This paper reflects only part of a broader research project in which narratives between India and Pakistan have been analyzed as propagated through the medium of film. Existing literature highlights that events from 1947 partition between India and Pakistan, have been used methodically by establishments on both side to recontextualize the realities of partition and violence associated with that, blaming each other for being the cause, suppressing much of what actually transpired, evading any clear position, while promoting triumphant discourses of nation, sacrifice and socio-economic insinuations. The focus of this paper is to examine how visual modality as explained by Machin and Mayr (2012), plays a part in shaping opinions and narrating events. Employing Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) to analyze the discourses realized by a partition based movie, this paper highlights that the way ‘other’ is depicted to experience partition, and has been represented to suit the ‘self’s’ account. The representation is a vital part of the legitimization of one particular discourse of partition, used to marginalize other likely discourses in both countries. The study has implications for understanding post-colonial and post-separation socio-cultural development in Pakistan and India. The outcomes of the study can be utilized to identify the ways both countries can use media and narratives to enhance socio-cultural ties and policies; thereby welfare of people on both sides.


2020 ◽  
pp. 002252662097950
Author(s):  
Fredrik Bertilsson

This article contributes to the research on the expansion of the Swedish post-war road network by illuminating the role of tourism in addition to political and industrial agendas. Specifically, it examines the “conceptual construction” of the Blue Highway, which currently stretches from the Atlantic Coast of Norway, traverses through Sweden and Finland, and enters into Russia. The focus is on Swedish governmental reports and national press between the 1950s and the 1970s. The article identifies three overlapping meanings attached to the Blue Highway: a political agenda of improving the relationships between the Nordic countries, industrial interests, and tourism. Political ambitions of Nordic community building were clearly pronounced at the onset of the project. Industrial actors depended on the road for the building of power plants and dams. The road became gradually more connected with the view of tourism as the motor of regional development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luara Carvalho ◽  
Elisa Maria Barbosa de Amorim-Ribeiro ◽  
Marcelo do Vale Cunha ◽  
Luciana Mourão

AbstractWork experiences during undergraduate studies can be remarkable in the journey of undergraduate students. The objective of this study was to assess, by analyzing semantic networks, the role of work experiences in the meanings those individuals attribute to professional identity. The sample consisted of 2291 students (60% women) divided into three groups: do not work, work in a field related to their course, work in a field not related to their course. The semantic networks of these groups were composed of words uttered from the professional identity prime. We chose to work with the critical network, obtained from the analysis of the incidence-fidelity indexes of the word pairs. The results evidence that work experiences are related to how undergraduate students attribute meaning to professional identity, in such a way that three different networks were formed for these groups. The network of those who work outside their field was the only one that integrated words with negative content, while the semantic networks of those who do not work and those who work in their field, despite containing words that do not always coincide, present a similar macrostructure. We conclude that work experiences play an important role in the meanings that undergraduate students attribute to professional identity. The study innovates by revealing elements of professional-identity construction, besides allowing for reflections on the effects of work experiences during the college period.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-183
Author(s):  
Jan Guncaga ◽  
Lilla Korenova ◽  
Jozef Hvorecky

AbstractLearning is a complex phenomenon. Contemporary theories of education underline active participation of learners in their learning processes. One of the key arguments supporting this approach is the learner’s simultaneous and unconscious development of their ability of “learning to learn”. This ability belongs to the soft skills highly valued by employers today.For Mathematics Education, it means that teachers have to go beyond making calculations and memorizing formulas. We have to teach the subject in its social context. When the students start understanding the relationship between real-life problems and the role of numbers and formulas for their solutions, their learning becomes a part of their tacit knowledge. Below we explain the theoretical background of our approach and provide examples of such activities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 672-690
Author(s):  
Kyle Rapp

AbstractWhat is the role of rhetoric and argumentation in international relations? Some argue that it is little more than ‘cheap talk’, while others say that it may play a role in persuasion or coordination. However, why states deploy certain arguments, and why these arguments succeed or fail, is less well understood. I argue that, in international negotiations, certain types of legal frames are particularly useful for creating winning arguments. When a state bases its arguments on constitutive legal claims, opponents are more likely to become trapped by the law: unable to develop sustainable rebuttals or advance their preferred policy. To evaluate this theory, I apply qualitative discourse analysis to the US arguments on the crime of aggression at the Kampala Review Conference of the International Criminal Court – where the US advanced numerous arguments intended to reshape the crime to align with US interests. The analysis supports the theoretical propositions – arguments framed on codified legal grounds had greater success, while arguments framed on more political grounds were less sustainable, failing to achieve the desired outcomes. These findings further develop our understanding of the use of international law in rhetoric, argumentation, and negotiation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELISE VAN NEDERVEEN MEERKERK

ABSTRACTThis article explores the role of different social groups in early modern Dutch towns in organising and financing poor relief. Examining both the income structure of Dutch urban poor relief organisations and voluntary donations and bequests by citizens reveals what motivations lay behind their involvement, and how and why these changed over time. In the seventeenth century, ‘middle groups’ donated more often and higher mean amounts, reflecting their efforts to contribute to urban community building. In the eighteenth century, the elite became relatively more involved in charitable giving. Also, the urge to give to one's own religious group seems to have increased in this period.


Author(s):  
H. Ensaff

Populations' diets typically fall short of recommendations. The implication of this on ill health and quality of life is well established, as are the subsequent health care costs. An area of growing interest within public health nutrition is food choice architecture; how a food choice is framed and its influence on subsequent food selection. In particular, there is an appeal to manipulating the choice architecture in order to nudge individuals' food choice. This review outlines the current understanding of food choice architecture, theoretical background to nudging and the evidence on the effectiveness of nudge strategies, as well as their design and implementation. Interventions emphasising the role of nudge strategies have investigated changes to the accessibility, availability and presentation of food and the use of prompts. Empirical studies have been conducted in laboratories, online and in real-world food settings, and with different populations. Evidence on the effectiveness of nudge strategies in shifting food choice is encouraging. Underpinning mechanisms, not yet fully explicated, are proposed to relate to salience, social norms and the principle of least effort. Emerging evidence points to areas for development including the effectiveness of choice architecture interventions with different and diverse populations, and the combined effect of multiple nudges. This, alongside further examination of theoretical mechanisms and guidance to engage and inspire across the breadth of food provision, is critical. In this way, the potential of choice architecture to effect meaningful change in populations' diets will be realised.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document