The Power of Discourse
(2017) WPMM40 20171Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- To the reader acquainted with academic discourses about working time reduction, the public discussion about such a policy seems incomplete. This raises the question of how and why certain academic discourses are taken up in the public debate, while others are excluded. This thesis aims at developing a theoretical framework to explore this question in the light of social power relations. It thereby draws on Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis, Bourdieu’s field theory and Gramsci’s political theory. How the theoretical considerations can fruitfully guide an empirical analysis is then shown through the example of working time reduction discourses in Austria. For this purpose frequently quoted academic publications are analysed. This is... (More)
- To the reader acquainted with academic discourses about working time reduction, the public discussion about such a policy seems incomplete. This raises the question of how and why certain academic discourses are taken up in the public debate, while others are excluded. This thesis aims at developing a theoretical framework to explore this question in the light of social power relations. It thereby draws on Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis, Bourdieu’s field theory and Gramsci’s political theory. How the theoretical considerations can fruitfully guide an empirical analysis is then shown through the example of working time reduction discourses in Austria. For this purpose frequently quoted academic publications are analysed. This is then complemented through an analysis of the manifesto of the Austrian Labour Union Federation and the party programme as well as the latest election programme of the Austrian Green Party. The analysis shows that while one can broadly distinguish between an economic, a sociological and an environmental academic discourse about working time reduction, only the former two are taken up by the political actors. The excluded environmental discourse thereby constitutes a potential resource in challenging existing power relations on a discursive level. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8907621
- author
- Brandl, Jana LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- WPMM40 20171
- year
- 2017
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Critical Discourse Analysis, Working Time Reduction, Bourdieu, Fairclough, Gramsci
- language
- English
- id
- 8907621
- date added to LUP
- 2017-06-27 14:56:07
- date last changed
- 2017-06-27 14:56:07
@misc{8907621,
abstract = {{To the reader acquainted with academic discourses about working time reduction, the public discussion about such a policy seems incomplete. This raises the question of how and why certain academic discourses are taken up in the public debate, while others are excluded. This thesis aims at developing a theoretical framework to explore this question in the light of social power relations. It thereby draws on Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis, Bourdieu’s field theory and Gramsci’s political theory. How the theoretical considerations can fruitfully guide an empirical analysis is then shown through the example of working time reduction discourses in Austria. For this purpose frequently quoted academic publications are analysed. This is then complemented through an analysis of the manifesto of the Austrian Labour Union Federation and the party programme as well as the latest election programme of the Austrian Green Party. The analysis shows that while one can broadly distinguish between an economic, a sociological and an environmental academic discourse about working time reduction, only the former two are taken up by the political actors. The excluded environmental discourse thereby constitutes a potential resource in challenging existing power relations on a discursive level.}},
author = {{Brandl, Jana}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Power of Discourse}},
year = {{2017}},
}