1,720,970 research outputs found
"Wouldn't it be better for me to earn my own money and pay taxes?" Liquid racism and the 'ideal' refugee in UK charity representations of migrant stories
Get PDFThis study concentrates on migrant representations in stories posted on the websites of UK charity organizations. Drawing upon critical discourse analytic and narrative positioning tools, we examine migrant identity navigation in the past and present that, predominantly, leads to the construction of fulfillment identities. We discuss the ways in which these positionings promote an ideal migrant norm that contributes to wider national homogenizing discourses. We view these stories as sites of liquid racism that divide migrants who succeed and are, thus, fulfilled and migrants who are deviant. We interrogate these representations, given that charity organizations are committed to providing social assistance to migrants and refugees, thus aligning with humanitarian and antiracist discourses
Normalizing assimilation in antiracist (con)texts and (re)producing liquid racism:Argumentative inferences in Greek right- and left-wing political discourses
Get PDFThis chapter aims to show how liquid racism (Weaver 2016) emerges when assimilationist viewpoints are argumentatively normalized in mainstream (right- and left-wing) political-parliamentary discourses in Greece. I analyze two seminal speeches given by two Greek political leaders, namely PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis (New Democracy; European Peoples’ Party) and Opposition leader, Alexis Tsipras (SYRIZA; European Left), on October 31, 2019, in the Greek parliament; that is, the very day of the vote in favor of the bill proposed by the Ministry of Citizen’s Protection, which outlined the terms according to which international protection would be awarded by the Greek authorities to ‘foreign’ populations. I draw on the framework of Critical Discourse Studies (Wodak and Meyer 2016), employing tools from Social Semiotics (van Leeuwen 2008) and the Argumentum Model of Topics (Rigotti and Greco 2019) to critically examine standpoint-argument couplings inferred in the discursive representations of social actors and realized in the relevant speeches. I conclude that the two Greek politicians under study converge to claims in favor of the assimilation of migrant populations to the Greek context and therefore (re)produce liquid racism, despite their seemingly antiracist attitude and their different ideological and political stance
“The EU gave us a new beginning”: Liquid racism and affect in a curated migrant story
Get PDFIn this chapter, we trace subtle forms of racism, known as liquid racism (Weaver 2010), in a personal experience story of a migrant’s journey, curated as part of a communication campaign about the European Union (EU). Our analysis of the story is based on the examination of its structure ( emergence ), its production and reception ( wholeness ) and its curation ( embedding ; De Fina 2020) in relation to tellers’ and audiences’ affective positioning (Giaxoglou 2021a), that is, the ways in which tellers position themselves and others affectively within the taleworld, the storyrealm, and broader master-discourses. We trace liquid racism in the way the migrant’s experience is commodified and in the way his experience is collectivized, promoting an exemplary image of a ‘good’ and ‘grateful’ migrant. The chapter contributes a critical approach to storytelling that can prove useful in tracing liquid racism emerging from the production of ambiguous affective positions in antiracist narrative texts
«Η ΕΕ μας έδωσε ένα νέο ξεκίνημα»: Ρευστός ρατσισμός και συν-αίσθημα σε μια επιμελημένη αφήγηση μετανάστευσης ['The EU gave us a fresh start': Fluid racism and empathy in a curated migration narrative]
No full textΥπόρρητες μορφές ρατσισμού, οι οποίες περιγράφονται ως ρευστός ρατσισμός (Weaver 2011), εντοπίζονται ακόμα και σε λόγους ή κείμενα που φαίνεται να προωθούν τη διαφορετικότητα και τη συμπερίληψη (Archakis 2022). Στην ανακοίνωσή μας εξετάζουμε ίχνη ρευστού ρατσισμού στην ενημερωτική εκστρατεία της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης (EE) με τίτλο Η Ευρώπη Προστατεύει (ΕU Protects). Η προσέγγισή μας βασίζεται στη θεώρηση των αφηγήσεων ως πρακτικών (narratives-as-practices · De Fina 2020) και τη σύνδεσή τους με συν-αισθηματικές τοποθετήσεις (affective positioning · Giaxoglou 2021). Με τον όρο συν-αισθηματική τοποθέτηση αναφερόμαστε στους τρόπους με τους οποίους οι αφηγητές/τριες τοποθετούνται συν-αισθηματικά σε σχέση με τα γεγονότα και τους χαρακτήρες του αφηγηματικού κόσμου (taleworld), τους αποδέκτες της αφήγησης (storyrealm), αλλά και τις περιρρέουσες κυρίαρχες ιδέες και αντιλήψεις, συνιστώντας έτσι τη βάση για την πρόκληση συν-αισθηματικών αντιδράσεων, καθώς και για την κατασκευή αφηγηματικών ταυτοτήτων.
Η ανάλυσή μας επικεντρώνεται στην αφήγηση ενός Σύριου πρόσφυγα, όπως παρουσιάζεται στην ιστοσελίδα της συγκεκριμένης ενημερωτικής εκστρατείας. Τα ερευνητικά μας ερωτήματα είναι τα εξής: (1) Πώς η αφήγηση προσωπικής εμπειρίας ενός πρόσφυγα γίνεται αντικείμενο επιμέλειας στο πλαίσιο της εκστρατείας της ΕΕ; (2) Τι είδους συν-αισθηματικές τοποθετήσεις των αφηγητών/τριών και των αποδεκτών της αφήγησης εντοπίζουμε στην επιμελημένη αφήγηση; (3) Πού εντοπίζουμε ίχνη ρευστού ρατσισμού και τι συνιστά ρευστό ρατσισμό στην περίπτωση που εξετάζουμε;
Τα αποτελέσματα της ανάλυσής μας καταδεικνύουν τον τρόπο με τον οποίο η αφήγηση της μεταναστευτικής εμπειρίας επιμελείται ως μια δημόσια αφήγηση (public narrative· Ganz 2015), η οποία προωθεί τις αξίες της ενσωμάτωσης, προστασίας και ασφάλειας της ΕΕ.
Εντοπίζουμε ίχνη ρευστού ρατσισμού τόσο στην εργαλειοποίηση της προσωπικής εμπειρίας του Σύριου μετανάστη όσο και στην επιμέλειά της ως μια αφήγηση που επικεντρώνεται σε συν-αισθηματικές τοποθετήσεις του αφηγητή ως πρόθυμου να ενσωματωθεί στη χώρα υποδοχής, αλλά και να εκφράσει την ευγνωμοσύνη του προς την ΕΕ. Τέτοιου είδους επιμελημένες αφηγήσεις προωθούν αλληλεγγύη στους μετανάστες με όρους ιδεολογιών ενσωμάτωσης και με έμφαση στη θετική εικόνα της ΕΕ. Παρά τον ρόλο που προτίθενται να παίξουν έναντι κυρίαρχων αρνητικών αναπαραστάσεων των μεταναστών/τριών, η ουσιαστική δυνατότητα παροχής φωνής σε αυτούς/ες είναι πολύ περιορισμένη.
[Implicit forms of racism, described as fluid racism (Weaver 2011), are found even in discourses or texts that appear to promote diversity and inclusion (Archakis 2022). In our communication we examine traces of liquid racism in the information campaign of the European Union (EU) entitled Europe Protects (EU Protects). Our approach is based on considering narratives as practices (De Fina 2020) and connecting them with affective positioning (Giaxoglou 2021). By the term affective positioning we refer to the ways in which the narrators affectively position themselves in relation to the events and characters of the narrative world (taleworld), the recipients of the narrative (storyrealm), but also the surrounding dominant ideas and perceptions, thus providing the basis for eliciting affective responses, as well as the construction of narrative identities.
Our analysis focuses on the narrative of a Syrian refugee, as presented on the website of this particular information campaign. Our research questions are: (1) How is a refugee's narrative of personal experience curated within the EU campaign? (2) What kind of affective positionings of the narrators and recipients of the narrative do we detect in the edited narrative? (3) Where do we find traces of fluid racism and what constitutes fluid racism in the case under consideration?
The results of our analysis demonstrate how the narrative of the migrant experience is curated as a public narrative (Ganz 2015), which promotes EU values of integration, protection and security. We detect traces of fluid racism both in the instrumentalization of the Syrian immigrant's personal experience and in its elaboration as a narrative that focuses on affective positionings of the narrator as willing to integrate into the host country, but also to express his gratitude to the EU. Such such curated narratives promote solidarity with migrants in terms of integration ideologies and with an emphasis on the positive image of the EU. Despite the role they intend to play against dominant negative representations of migrants, the actual possibility of giving them a voice is very limited.
Narrativas e identidades híbridas de imigrantes: análise de narrativas autobiográficas escritas por estudantes imigrantes na Grécia
Get PDFAs one of the primary means for identity construction (see DE FINA, 2015), narrative has recently been examined in relation to immigrant and refugee movements. Having at our disposal elicited, written autobiographical narratives of immigrant students living in Greece, we investigate the identities they construct therein. Our sample consists of 118 essays collected from 8 different lyceums situated in different parts of the Peloponnese, Greece. The students who wrote the essays were bilingual immigrants of various origins (mostly from Albania).
The broader theoretical framework of our study is that of Critical Discourse Analysis. One of the most important research issues within Critical Discourse Analysis concerns the investigation of the relationship between the macro-level of dominant discourses and the micro-level of the individual (in the present case, narrative) positionings towards dominant discourses (see VAN DIJK, 2008). For the analysis of the narrative positionings of the immigrant students we employ the model of three dilemmas proposed by Bamberg (2011) in combination with the concept of face threat (BROWN and LEVINSON, 1987).
The analysis shows that the decision of some immigrant students to reveal their victimization, due to racist behaviors by majority people, constitutes a threat against the collective face of majority people. We support the claim that these immigrant students position themselves in a complex manner towards the national, xenophobic and homogenizing discourse by projecting themselves as victims and victimizers simultaneously, and thus constructing hybrid resistance identities.Como uno de los principales medios para la construcción de identidades (véase DE FINA, 2015), la narrativa ha sido examinada recientemente en relación con los movimientos de inmigrantes y refugiados. Teniendo a nuestra disposición narrativas autobiográficas escritas y escritas de estudiantes inmigrantes que viven en Grecia, investigamos las identidades que construyen en ella. Nuestra muestra consta de 118 ensayos recogidos de 8 liceos diferentes situados en diferentes partes del Peloponeso, Grecia. Los estudiantes que escribieron los ensayos eran inmigrantes bilingues de diversos orígenes (principalmente de Albania).El marco teórico más amplio de nuestro estudio es el del Análisis crítico del discurso. Una de las cuestiones de investigación más importantes dentro del Análisis crítico del discurso se refiere a la investigación de la relación entre el macro-nivel de los discursos dominantes y el micro-nivel de los posicionamientos individuales (en el presente caso, narrativo) hacia los discursos dominantes (véase VAN DIJK, 2008). Para el análisis de los posicionamientos narrativos de los estudiantes inmigrantes empleamos el modelo de tres dilemas propuestos por Bamberg (2011) en combinación con el concepto de amenaza facial (BROWN y LEVINSON, 1987).El análisis muestra que la decisión de algunos estudiantes inmigrantes de revelar su victimización, debido a comportamientos racistas por parte de la mayoría de la gente, constituye una amenaza contra el rostro colectivo de la mayoría de la gente. Apoyamos la afirmación de que estos estudiantes inmigrantes se posicionan de manera compleja hacia el discurso nacional, xenófobo y homogeneizador al proyectarse como víctimas y victimizadores simultáneamente, y así construir identidades híbridas de resistencia.Como um dos principais meios para a construção da identidade (ver DE FINA, 2015), a narrativa foi recentemente examinada em relação aos movimentos de imigrantes e refugiados. Tendo à nossa disposição narrativas autobiográficas eliciadas e escritas de estudantes imigrantes que vivem na Grécia, investigamos as identidades que aí constroem. Nossa amostra consiste em 118 ensaios coletados em 8 liceus diferentes situados em diferentes partes do Peloponeso, Grécia. Os alunos que escreveram as redações eram imigrantes bilíngues de várias origens (principalmente da Albânia).
O quadro teórico mais amplo de nosso estudo é o da Análise Crítica do Discurso. Uma das questões de pesquisa mais importantes dentro da Análise Crítica do Discurso diz respeito à investigação da relação entre o nível macro dos discursos dominantes e os posicionamentos do nível micro do indivíduo (no presente caso, narrativa) em relação aos discursos dominantes (ver VAN DIJK, 2008). Para a análise dos posicionamentos narrativos dos alunos imigrantes, utilizamos o modelo dos três dilemas proposto por Bamberg (2011) em combinação com o conceito de ameaça facial (BROWN e LEVINSON, 1987).
A análise mostra que a decisão de alguns estudantes imigrantes de revelar a sua vitimização devido a comportamentos racistas por parte de pessoas maioritárias, constitui uma ameaça à face coletiva da maioria. Apoiamos a afirmação de que esses alunos imigrantes se posicionam de forma complexa em relação ao discurso nacional, xenófobo e homogeneizante, projetando-se como vítimas e vitimizadores simultaneamente, construindo assim identidades híbridas de resistência
Legitimizing and resistance identities in immigrant students' school essays: towards a culturally sustaining pedagogy
No full textThe aim of this paper is to show that the ambivalent identities projected by immigrant students could serve the goals of a culturally sustaining pedagogy which seeks to perpetuate cultural pluralism at school. In our view, language teaching should not limit itself to correcting their lexicogrammatical "errors", but could also concentrate on the content of immigrant student essays, so as to bring their identities to the surface. To this end, we investigate the ways young immigrants living in Greece position themselves towards the dominant assimilationist discourse in Greek society. We discuss immigrant students' ambivalent identities showing their wish to legitimize themselves as members of the host community and simultaneously to resist its monoculturalist pressures. We finally argue for the exploitation of immigrant students' texts involving their experiences and identities: such texts could enhance all students' critical language awareness and could foster multiculturalism and multilingualism at school.The aim of this paper is to show that the ambivalent identities projected by immigrant students could serve the goals of a culturally sustaining pedagogy which seeks to perpetuate cultural pluralism at school. In our view, language teaching should not limit itself to correcting their lexicogrammatical "errors", but could also concentrate on the content of immigrant student essays, so as to bring their identities to the surface. To this end, we investigate the ways young immigrants living in Greece position themselves towards the dominant assimilationist discourse in Greek society. We discuss immigrant students' ambivalent identities showing their wish to legitimize themselves as members of the host community and simultaneously to resist its monoculturalist pressures. We finally argue for the exploitation of immigrant students' texts involving their experiences and identities: such texts could enhance all students' critical language awareness and could foster multiculturalism and multilingualism at school
National discourses, fragments of otherness, and the denial of gaze: Representational minimization and simplification of the Other in pro-migrant media texts
Get PDFThis paper investigates the social representation of migrants in western/European discourses. Our main claim is that the video texts under study, although explicitly pro-migrant, do not affirm the realities of migrants, but rather seem to draw more on national and western-oriented discourses, thus providing a calculated projection of visibility to migrants. That is, the video texts overrepresent a “tolerable”, “simplified” migrant who is socioculturally and linguistically familiar with the European/western audience. This familiar and thus tolerable migrant seems to be in contrast with some distant, vague and threatening “intolerable” Others, who remain largely minimized, delegitimized, and denied a gaze in advance. The racist background of this process is deconstructed on the basis of two theoretical premises: a) that the stereotypical representation of the “Other as threat” often continues to underpin pro-migrant discourses when they are articulated in terms of tolerance; and b) that such discursive scaffolding is more implicit, pushed to the margins of the representations that sustain these discourses and involves a more or less fragmented representation of otherness. The language and the degree of explicitness and marginality of such representations will be explored in our data through a discursive analysis based on the categories of highlighting and minimization respectively, which will be conceptualized drawing upon van Leeuwen’s (2008) framework
Teaching oral speech : the case of direct speech in oral narratives : evidence from teaching Modern Greek conversational material.
No full textTalking different heterosexualities : the permissive, the normative and the moralistic perspective-evidence from Greek youth storytelling.
No full textThe aim of this article is to investigate the construction of heterosexual identities in Greek youth talk. More specifically, we explore how Greek adolescents construct themselves as heterosexuals through storytelling. In terms of theoretical framework, our article follows a dynamic approach to identity construction. Our analysis focuses upon naturally occurring narratives produced by female and male informants. These narratives deal with incidents of the adolescents’ everyday lives and are related to their perceptions towards sexual affairs. We consider storytelling as one of the forms of verbal behaviour that has proved to be significant for identity work, as it forms the means through which narrators display aspects of their identities. Taking into account the way our narrators construct their stories, in relation to the ethnographic observations we have collected concerning our informants, we propose a pattern of narrativization showing how they display their positioning towards the ethics of heteronormativity
- …
