Discourse, Power and Society – serie

Through case-study research, Majka Ryan offers a systematic microanalysis of discretion in a specific context of residence-based welfare conditionality derived from the labour movement directive 2004/38/EC. The latter is utilised in the coordination of social security benefits for mobile EU citizens across Europe. Ryan reveals that in Ireland and other jurisdictions, official rights, be they supranational or local, when translated into practice are shaped by different political, organisational and decision-making actors, consequently leading to an uneven distribution of substantive rights and unequal outcomes for different groups of people, disproportionately affecting those who must prove their deservingness. This book evidences how residence-based welfare conditions create a context where power is exercised freely by street-level decision-makers and illustrates how that power affects different groups in society, and consequently, how through those practices, the hegemonic discourses around legitimacy of access to public resources are reproduced.

In Brexit, Facebook, and Transnational Right-Wing Populism, Natalie-Anne Hall takes Brexit as a case study for examining the critical consequences of the diffusion of transnational right-wing populist politics on social media. Through multi-method, qualitative research with avidly engaged pro-Brexit Facebook users in the tumultuous post-referendum period, Hall explores the effects of this participation on the on- and offline experiences of these individuals and on their interpretation of events surrounding Brexit. The book examines the socio-political and technological opportunities for this engagement with right-wing populist politics and the consequences of this engagement for transnational White victimhood and what Hall coins “Right victimhood.” Hall demonstrates how the “mainstream” political issue of Brexit acted as a catalyst for engagement with more extreme forms of right-wing politics via Facebook.

Media discourses play a powerful role in shaping public understanding of inequality—yet they often obscure, distort, or individualize its causes.Critical Explorations of Media and Inequality examines how mainstream media systems reproduce and legitimize unequal social structures by marginalizing, sensationalizing, or blaming those most affected. Bringing together leading and emerging scholars, this edited collection explores the persistent gaps, tensions, and ideological forces at work in media representations of class, poverty, homelessness, welfare, and immigration across diverse global contexts. Organized around the themes of changing media work practices, authoritative voices, representations, and implications, the chapters interrogate how neoliberalism and shifting journalistic norms continue to shape—and limit—the public conversation on inequality. Through rich empirical analysis and interdisciplinary insight, this volume offers a timely intervention into the politics of media framing and the structural silences that sustain social injustice.

Popular, political and media discourses frame the issue of migration and shape how and when it enters the public and political consciousness. These discourses are of crucial importance as they influence both the general public’s perception of migration and the policies which regulate both the act of migration itself and migrant residents.Public and Political Discourses of Migration brings together an interdisciplinary group of established and emerging scholars, whose work interrogates the relationship between discourse and migration. Through the application of a variety of theoretical lenses drawn from the broad canon of discourse studies, each contribution unpicks the productive power of discourse in shaping the reality of migration, migration policy and migrant lives in the twenty-first century. The cases examined emerge, as do their authors, from a wide spectrum of national, political and cultural contexts. They are linked by their fundamental questioning of ‘common sense’ and ahistorical approaches to migration. They address the question of whose interests are served by prevailing discourses and the structures they underpin. Ultimately, they ‘make strange’ accepted ‘truths’ regarding migration in the twenty-first century.

Popular, political and media discourses frame the issue of migration and shape how and when it enters the public and political consciousness. These discourses are of crucial importance as they influence both the general public’s perception of migration and the policies which regulate both the act of migration itself and migrant residents.Public and Political Discourses of Migration brings together an interdisciplinary group of established and emerging scholars, whose work interrogates the relationship between discourse and migration. Through the application of a variety of theoretical lenses drawn from the broad canon of discourse studies, each contribution unpicks the productive power of discourse in shaping the reality of migration, migration policy and migrant lives in the twenty-first century. The cases examined emerge, as do their authors, from a wide spectrum of national, political and cultural contexts. They are linked by their fundamental questioning of ‘common sense’ and ahistorical approaches to migration. They address the question of whose interests are served by prevailing discourses and the structures they underpin. Ultimately, they ‘make strange’ accepted ‘truths’ regarding migration in the twenty-first century.

Why should we be worried about neoliberalism if we are not able to fully appreciate its deleterious effects? How can we fully appreciate its intricacies and power without attending to and seeking to potentially reconcile the various critical theorizations of how it actually operates? The Discourse of Neoliberalism offers a critical political economy-meets-poststructuralist perspective on the relationship between neoliberalism and power. By advancing a geographical approach to understanding the discursive formations and material consequences of neoliberalism, the book exposes how processes of neoliberalization are shot through with violence. It argues that reading neoliberalism as a discourse better equips us to understand the power of this variegated economic formation as an expansive process of social-spatial transformation that is intimately bound up with the production of poverty, inequality, and violence across the globe. It illuminates the vital and ongoing power of neoliberalism in order to open up a critical space for thinking through how life beyond neoliberalism might be achieved.

Why should we be worried about neoliberalism if we are not able to fully appreciate its deleterious effects? How can we fully appreciate its intricacies and power without attending to and seeking to potentially reconcile the various critical theorizations of how it actually operates? The Discourse of Neoliberalism offers a critical political economy-meets-poststructuralist perspective on the relationship between neoliberalism and power. By advancing a geographical approach to understanding the discursive formations and material consequences of neoliberalism, the book exposes how processes of neoliberalization are shot through with violence. It argues that reading neoliberalism as a discourse better equips us to understand the power of this variegated economic formation as an expansive process of social-spatial transformation that is intimately bound up with the production of poverty, inequality, and violence across the globe. It illuminates the vital and ongoing power of neoliberalism in order to open up a critical space for thinking through how life beyond neoliberalism might be achieved.

Poor News examines the way discourses of poverty are articulated in the news media by incorporating specific narratives and definers that bring about certain ideological worldviews. This happens, the authors claim, because journalists and news editors make use of a set of information strategies while accessing certain sources within specific social and political dynamics. The book looks at the case of the news media in Britain since the industrial revolution and produces a historical account of how these media discourses came into play. The main thesis is that there have been different historical cycles that reflect particular hegemonic ideas of each period. Consequently, the role of mainstream journalism has been a subservient one for existing elites when it comes to the propagation of dominant ideas.

Poor News examines the way discourses of poverty are articulated in the news media by incorporating specific narratives and definers that bring about certain ideological worldviews. This happens, the authors claim, because journalists and news editors make use of a set of information strategies while accessing certain sources within specific social and political dynamics. The book looks at the case of the news media in Britain since the industrial revolution and produces a historical account of how these media discourses came into play. The main thesis is that there have been different historical cycles that reflect particular hegemonic ideas of each period. Consequently, the role of mainstream journalism has been a subservient one for existing elites when it comes to the propagation of dominant ideas.