Leaving the Discursive Definition of Populist Social Movements: The Case of the Yellow Vest Movement

In this article, I analyze whether the case of the Yellow Vest movement fits Paris Aslanidis’ definition of populist social movements, and find that within the discursive theoretical framework Aslanidis adheres to, it does. However, I use the case of the Yellow Vest movement to demonstrate how this discursive approach lacks explanatory potential. I therefore propose moving away from a discursive definition of populist social movements, and advocate for studying political content as a way of detecting common interests shaped by political and societal structures that are shared by participants in a populist social movement. A theory of populist social movements must look at political and economic structures as well as individual agency, framing, and collective identity as a way to explain mobilization. A discursive approach to populism, which only considers language, is therefore not sufficient to explain movements such as the Yellow Vest movement.

Emergence and Development of Contact Idioms in the Frame of Philosophy of Global Evolutionism

Based on observations of the emergence of pidgins, their further extension and transformation into creole languages (all these forms of language are denoted by the term "contact idioms" in this article), the hypothesis is put forward in this part of the exploration that the origin and development of the human language seem to be similar in many dimensions to the emergence and development of contact idioms. In support of that hypothesis, both the general conceptions of some contemporary evolutionary linguists (in particular, D. Bickerton, W.T. Fitch, T. Nikolaeva, B. Bichakjian) are described and evolutionary strategies for some particular languages and language families are surveyed. The similarity of evolutionary vectors of pidgins and creole languages and several of the other language families is assumed. Based on the considered linguistic material, it is postulated that the law "ontogeny manifests a repetition of several phylogenetic stages" or the recapitulationist theory – with all its ambiguousness from the standpoint of present-day biology – seems to be true for linguistic evolution. Attention is focused on the importance of using a comprehensive communicative-discursive approach to the study of glottogenesis, as described in the works of domestic and international linguists who specialize in evolutionary linguistics and general linguistics and whose names are mentioned above. The relevance of the material of contact idioms and languages of other groups and families listed in this paper for such purposes is emphasized.

The Foundations of Branching Space-Times

In this chapter the reader is guided through the construction of the core theory of Branching Space-Times. This discursive approach culminates in proposing a set of postulates that a structure of the core theory of Branching Space-Times (common BST) has to satisfy. The theory’s basic notion is that of a set of events, partially ordered by a pre-causal relation. Histories are then defined as maximal directed subsets of the base set. The chapter proves essential facts about histories and the postulates that the core of BST is assumed to satisfy. Among other things, it proves the so-called M-property that determines how any two point event in a common BST structure are related.

Lost in translation: a comparative analysis of developing regions' receptions of the responsibility to protect norm

<p>The way in which different regions are receiving the international norm of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) has been attracting increasing attention within academia in recent years, most notably after the NATO led intervention in Libya in 2011. Academics have attempted to analyse the extent to which R2P has been diffused in various states and have argued that states within developing regions have begun to localise R2P to make it more congruent with their pre-existing norms and practices in order to increase its acceptance. These studies have utilised traditional theories of norm diffusion which conceive of norms as static entities with fixed content and as such they have not attempted to analyse how the norm has been changing as a result of this process. Furthermore these studies have tended to analyse the diffusion of R2P in isolation from other states and other regions and as such, no comparative analysis of how regions have received R2P exists. This thesis employs a discursive approach, seeking to look at how R2P has been received within three developing regions (Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America) and in doing so aims to find how regions receptions of R2P differ and whether the content of R2P has changed between them. It finds that since the 2005 World Summit, receptions to R2P have not significantly altered and that where R2P is being gradually diffused it is increasingly becoming a norm for prevention rather than response.</p>

Lost in translation: a comparative analysis of developing regions' receptions of the responsibility to protect norm

<p>The way in which different regions are receiving the international norm of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) has been attracting increasing attention within academia in recent years, most notably after the NATO led intervention in Libya in 2011. Academics have attempted to analyse the extent to which R2P has been diffused in various states and have argued that states within developing regions have begun to localise R2P to make it more congruent with their pre-existing norms and practices in order to increase its acceptance. These studies have utilised traditional theories of norm diffusion which conceive of norms as static entities with fixed content and as such they have not attempted to analyse how the norm has been changing as a result of this process. Furthermore these studies have tended to analyse the diffusion of R2P in isolation from other states and other regions and as such, no comparative analysis of how regions have received R2P exists. This thesis employs a discursive approach, seeking to look at how R2P has been received within three developing regions (Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America) and in doing so aims to find how regions receptions of R2P differ and whether the content of R2P has changed between them. It finds that since the 2005 World Summit, receptions to R2P have not significantly altered and that where R2P is being gradually diffused it is increasingly becoming a norm for prevention rather than response.</p>

THE INTELLIGIBILITY OF LEARNING SITUATIONS IN THE PROCESS OF THE DISCURSIVE APPROACH OF THE LITERARY TEXT IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM

This paper provides some methodological reflections on the discursive specificity of the literary text. Through the discursive approach of the literary text we exploit the conditions of the literary communication focusing on the communicative, situational, textual and intra-textual instances. We point out the potentiality of the learning situations in the process of the development of the communiicative competence on the basis of the literary text.

Pierre Ostiguy, Francisco Panizza & Benjamin Moffitt (eds). Populism in Global Perspective. A Performative and Discursive Approach. New York: Routledge, 2021

Los editores del libro plantean un enfoque original en tanto combina, por una parte, lo preconizado por el enfoque lógico-discursivo (Laclau, 2005), y por otra, el enfoque socio-cultural/performativo. Y es en esta combinación de propuestas donde se visualiza el aporte, pero también, la tensión del escrito. Es un aporte, en tanto viene a “superar” una concepción del populismo que se basa, principalmente, en su capacidad articulativa, formal, otorgándole un contenido cultural pero también político. Se apunta, entonces, a entender cómo opera el significante pueblo, las prácticas identitarias entre el líder y sus seguidores, y principalmente, a identificar cuáles son los elementos culturales y sociales que dan forma a una construcción hegemónica. Es en estos aspectos, donde el “contenido” cuenta y mucho. Con todo, la tensión está presente en la medida que lo performativo puede ser entendido como una performance o como el acto de creación de la cadena equivalencial, que superaría la construcción del discurso populista.