scholarly journals What is Sustainable Agriculture? Critical Analysis of the International Political Discourse

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Janker ◽  
Stefan Mann ◽  
Stephan Rist

The concepts, ‘sustainable development’ and ‘sustainable agriculture’, have been shaped by both political discourses of the United Nations and scientific discourses. Using critical discourse and content analysis, we trace the meaning of ‘sustainable agriculture’ in both international political and in scientific discourses to examine and identify key elements of the representation of sustainable agriculture. We found that the meanings of the concept of sustainable agriculture vary markedly: International political actors primarily produce discourses on sustainable development in agriculture and on sustainable agricultural intensification. Scientists tend to emphasise issues of environmental management. Based on our findings, we highlight the differences in the meaning of sustainable agriculture between the political and scientific discourses and attempt to explain them. In addition, discursive gaps are shown that have the potential to hinder the systematic operationalization of ‘sustainable agriculture’, such as the integration of a social dimension of sustainable agriculture.

Author(s):  
Gema Rubio-Carbonero ◽  
Núria Franco-Guillén

Abstract On the 1st October 2017 an independence referendum was organised in Catalonia. The aim of this paper is to analyse the nature of the political debate going on in the Catalan Parliament during the whole process by focusing on the kind of argumentation strategies that were used by each of the leanings to legitimise their political decisions. We do that relying on a methodological distinction that differentiates between sound argumentation and fallacious argumentation. By using a Critical Discourse Analysis approach, this study offers a wide picture of the kind of argumentation used by the main political actors involved in the process of decision making in Catalonia. The results show that there is more emphasis in antagonising with the others, than engaging in sound argument exchange that could facilitate minimal points of consensus. Such results may help explain why the Catalan conflict is still unsolved at the political level.


2020 ◽  
pp. 269-289
Author(s):  
Anastasia Mikhaleva

This article discusses a phenomenon that is gaining popularity – a description of political events in the Russian Far East in the language of tribalism. The study is based on critical discourse analysis, which makes it possible to compare many texts mentioning tribalism in one form or another with the discursive and social practices in the region. The study offers a typology of tribalist political discourses, and also examines in detail one of the options common in national republics. The analysis shows that tribalism in the description of politics has little in common with real political groups; it is rather used as a tool to describe political events and explain them in a way convenient for the author. It is closely related to tradition and rooting (autochthonism). This allows us to discuss the identities of political actors and make judgments about the legitimacy of their actions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 103-119
Author(s):  
Alireza Khormaee ◽  
Rayeheh Sattarinezhad

Different representations of social actions create distinct types of discourses. Applying van Leeuwen’s 'Social Actions' framework (2008), the present study critically analyzes the power relations between the main characters of Radi’s dramas From behind the Windows and Hamlet with Season Salad. The objective of our study is to account for the differences between the discourse of the dominant and the discourse of the dominated. In order to elucidate such differences we count and analyze the characters’ social (re)actions and, in turn, identify four types of contrasts: cognitive vs. affective and perceptive reactions; material vs. semiotic actions; transactive vs. non-transactive actions; interactive vs. instrumental actions. Two opposing discourses emerge from these contrasts. On the one hand, the dominant characters mostly react cognitively and their actions are often semiotic, transactive, and interactive. On the other hand, the dominated characters’ reactions are often affective and perceptive, while most of their actions are material, non-transactive, and instrumental. As the results show, the author’s linguistic choices underscore the power relations between the dominant and the dominated characters. Building upon the fact that our analysis sheds light on the underlying ideologies and intentions of the author, we tentatively conclude that despite its being predominantly employed in the analysis of political discourses, van Leeuwen’s framework also proves effective in the critical analysis of literary works.


Author(s):  
Anna Parvin

This paper tries to indicate how the candidates of Iran’s eleventh presidential election attempted to rise to power by the means of language. In this analysis, the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe is applied. The candidates tried to win the battlefield of election by creating exclusion borders and excluding their rivals. Critical discourse analysis is a methodology that can reveal ideological purposes behind the political discourses to reflect the hidden Realities. The study of the debates between presidential candidates shows that Hassan Rouhani was elected because he could exclude other discourses resulting from the rising sociopolitical crisis. Nevertheless, He could not articulate his floating signifiers and his discourse was not hegemonic.


2021 ◽  
pp. 169-189
Author(s):  
SLAĐAN RANKIĆ

The aim of this paper is to explore the content of populist discourse in the case of the Municipal elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2020. This is done through critical discourse analysis of the relevant political actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, drawing on the populist logic approach to populism. The analytical sample consists of interviews with the political leaders of major Serbian and Bosniak parties, as well as some of the more prominent politicians. To be more precise the paper analyzes discourse of: Bakir Izetbegović, Milorad Dodik, Nermin Nikšić, Predrag Kojović, Elmedin Konaković, Branislav Borenović, Draško Stanivuković, Nebojša Vukanović, Srđan Mandić, Bogić Bogićević and the High representative Valentin Inzko. Selected interviews were held during the Municipal elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e., the months of October and November 2020. My analysis showed that all actors express one or multiple forms of populism, the most common of them being national populism and pro-state populism. Furthermore, the journalists carrying out the interviews expressed populist discourse, particularly the TV hosts of N1 and Face TV.


Author(s):  
Fizza Farrukh ◽  
Farzana Masroor

Abstract Power, conforming to particular political groups of the society, is exercised on the masses by making them believe in the legitimacy of that dominance. This association enables the groups to exercise their power and promulgate their ideologies through their discourse as well. One illustration of this discourse appears in the form of political manifestos. Utilizing the tool of language, the political actors (as agents of political parties) set agendas, pertinent topics and position their stance in these manifestos. Framed under critical discourse analysis, the current study attempts to investigate this act of ‘legitimation’ promulgated by Chilton (2004) and the strategies of Authority Legitimation, devised by Van Leeuwen (2008). The article illustrates how the power-holders utilize their linguistic resources to authorize their stance, idea, and action. The study helps explicating the relation between power, ideology and language and promulgates consciousness regarding the reality constructed by humans, as social and political actors.


Genealogy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Carmelo Moreno

To analyse the Spanish national question requires considering the relationship between the idea of the nation and the phenomenon of nationalism on one side, and the question of political plurality on the other. The approval of the Constitutional text 40 years ago was achieved thanks to a delicate semantic balancing act concerning the concept of nation, whose interpretation remains open. Academic studies of public opinion, such as the famous Linz-Moreno Question—also known as Moreno Question—that measures the possible mixture of Spanish subjective national identity, are equally the object of wide controversy. The extent to which political plurinationality is a suitable concept for defining the country is not clear because, amongst other reasons, the political consequences that might derive from adopting the concept are unknown. This article sets out the thesis that Spain is a plurinational labyrinth since there is neither consensus nor are there discursive strategies that might help in forming an image of the country in national terms. The paradox of this labyrinth is that, since the approval of the Constitution in 1978, the political actors have accepted that nationality in Spain is insoluble without taking the plurinational idea into account. But, at the same time, it is not easy to assume such plurinationality in practical terms because the political cost to those actors that openly defend national plurality is very high. For this reason, political discourses in Spain on the national question offer a highly ambiguous scenario, where the actors seek windows of opportunity and are reluctant to take risks in order to solve this puzzle situation. The aim of this paper is to analyse which indicators are most efficient for testing how the different actors position themselves facing the phenomenon of the Spanish plurinational labyrinth. The clearest examples are what we refer to here as the concepts of (i) intersubjective national identity and (ii) plurinational governments.


2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 606-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreja Vezovnik

In 1992, the Slovenian Ministry of Interior Affairs deprived 25,000 ex-Yugoslavians of their citizenship. This symbolic act of violence is the most severe symptom of the Slovenian transition towards democracy. Since 1995 this group of erased citizens is known as the Erased of Slovenia. This contribution is a critical analysis of political discourses on the issue of the Erased that appeared in the Slovenian printed press between 1995 and 2008. The presented qualitative analysis explores 312 units of op-ed articles, mainly commentaries and editorials, which have been selected on the basis of two keywords: erased, erasure. The contribution aims to show that the notion of the Erased functioned as the “nodal point” around which two antagonistic political discourses were formed. The aim of the analysis is to find out which empty or hegemonic signifiers are produced in this antagonistic relation and how this affects the political desubjectivation of the Erased.


2000 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 669-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELAINE CHALUS

Political historians have recognized that politics and high society interacted in eighteenth-century England; and most would also recognize the presence of elite women in the social world of politicians. These assumptions have not, however, been subjected to much scrutiny. This article takes the social aspects of politics seriously and aims to provide an introduction to social politics – the management of people and social situations for political ends – and, specifically, to the involvement of women therein. Politics in eighteenth-century England was not just about parliament and politicians; it also had a social dimension. By expanding our understanding of politics to include social politics, we not only reintegrate women into the political world but we also reveal them to have been legitimate political actors, albeit on a non-parliamentary stage, where they played a vital part in creating and sustaining both a uniquely politicized society and the political elite itself. While specific historical circumstances combined in the eighteenth century to facilitate women's socio-political involvement, social politics is limited neither to women nor to the eighteenth century. It has wider implications for historians of all periods and calls into question the way that we conceptualize politics itself. The relationship between the obstinately nebulous arena of social politics and the traditional arena of high politics is ever-changing, but by trivializing the former we limit our ability to understand the latter.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Jarjani Usman

The Free Aceh Movement, locally called Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM), developed several unique political discourses after having signed a peace accord with the Government of Indonesia (GoI) in Helsinki in 2005. The discourses created are metaphorical in Acehnese language, aimed to structure people’s mind and to be accepted and transformed into their actions that supported GAM during pre-public election post conflicts. However, research on analyzing the metaphors is scant. This research used Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980a, 1980b) conceptual metaphor and Fairclough’s framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to critically analyze the political discourses in order to unveil the meaning and their ideology position. The research shows the most commonly used metaphor was ELECTION IS A BATTLE. However, the currently used political metaphors are more persuasive, urging people to voluntarily come back to their political party, than previously used ones that seemed to strongly force people to be on their side.


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