Representing Reality: Discourse, Rhetoric and Social Construction

Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards

The author explores the Biblical tale of Adam and Eve, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and the phenomenon of shame and guilt, its connection with religion, and its place and significance in human society.

Key words
Other – shame – guilt

Resumo
O autor explora a lenda de Adao e Eva, contada no livro de Milton “Paraiso Perdido”, e o fenomeno da vergonha e da culpa, a sua ligacao com a religiao e o seu lugar e significância na sociedade humana.

Palavras-chave
Outro – vergonha – culpa

https://recil.grupolusofona.pt/bitstream/10437/40/1/nr1Shame%2520and%2520Guilt.pdf

Shame and Guilt

Climate strongly influences global wildfire activity, and recent wildfire surges may signal fire weather-induced pyrogeographic shifts. Here we use three daily global climate data sets and three fire danger indices to develop a simple annual metric of fire weather season length, and map spatio-temporal trends from 1979 to 2013. We show that fire weather seasons have lengthened across 29.6 million km2 (25.3%) of the Earth's vegetated surface, resulting in an 18.7% increase in global mean fire weather season length. We also show a doubling (108.1% increase) of global burnable area affected by long fire weather seasons (>1.0 σ above the historical mean) and an increased global frequency of long fire weather seasons across 62.4 million km2 (53.4%) during the second half of the study period. If these fire weather changes are coupled with ignition sources and available fuel, they could markedly impact global ecosystems, societies, economies and climate.

Climate-induced variations in global wildfire danger from 1979-2013

There ain't no black in the Union Jack

>> During the past 20 years, there has been a burgeoning literature on racial discourse in Western liberal democracies that has been informed by several disciplines. This literature has analysed linguistic and discursive patterns of everyday talk and formal institutional talk that can be found in parliamentary debates, political speeches, and the media. One of the most pervasive features of contemporary race discourse is the denial of prejudice. Increasing social taboos against openly expressing racist sentiments has led to the development of discursive strategies that present negative views of outgroups as reasonable and justified while at the same time protecting the speaker from charges of racism and prejudice. This research has demonstrated the flexible and ambivalent nature of contemporary race discourse. The present article reviews these discursive patterns or ways of talking about the other and emphasises the significant contribution that this work has made to research on language and discrimination.

/pdf/the-language-of-race-and-prejudice-a-discourse-of-denial-4jsz19v8za.pdf

The Language of “Race” and Prejudice A Discourse of Denial, Reason, and Liberal-Practical Politics

This article presents a discursive analysis of student talk on disadvantage and affirmative action from two focus group discussions on ‘race’ relations in Australia. Our analysis builds upon previo...

New racism, meritocracy and individualism: constraining affirmative action in education:

The proliferation of the subtle and slippery nature of the new racism has made it increasingly difficult to define racism and to develop an effective anti-racist rhetoric with which to challenge it...

Constructions of racism in the Australian parliamentary debates on asylum seekers

As Van Dijk (1992) has documented, one of the pervasive features of contemporary race discourse is the denial of prejudice. During the last 50 years, social norms against openly expressing racist sentiments has led to the development of ways of talking that present negative views of out-groups as reasonable and justified, while at the same time protecting speakers from charges of racism and prejudice. It goes without saying that a ‘prejudiced’ or ‘racist’ identity is no longer a valued identity. Negative representations and evaluations of minorities are commonly preceded by ubiquitous disclaimers such as ‘I’m not racist but . . . ’ or ‘I have nothing against migrants but ... ’. Contemporary race talk, therefore, is strategically organized to deny racism. A closely related but largely ignored phenomenon associated with the denial of prejudice is a political climate that creates what is tantamount to a social taboo against making accusations of racism in the first place (Augoustinos and Every, 2007). Such charges and accusations are invariably met with not only strong denials, but also moral outrage and are often treated as more extreme than racism itself. This Special Edition publishes new discursive work on the delicate discursive and argumentative management of accusations of racism and their accompanying denials.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0957926509360650

Accusations and denials of racism: Managing moral accountability in public discourse:

 Whilst there has been a proliferation of research on the role of nationalism in the exclusion of asylum seekers, less attention has been paid to how nationalism can be mobilised in accounts opposing, rather than supporting, harsh anti-asylum seeker regimes This paper compares the ways in which ‘Australia’ is constructed and used in parliamentary speeches on asylum seekers by both refugee advocates and those seeking harsher asylum seeker laws in Australia This dual focus is particularly important as it highlights the flexibility of nationalist discourse, in that the same constructions of the nation may be used for both exclusive and inclusive purposes Whilst typologies of inclusive and exclusive nationalisms, such as Smith's (1991) ethnic/civic typology, focus on the content of nationalist ideologies, we argue that the inclusivity or exclusivity of nationalism can best be determined by examining the subject positions, political solutions and social realities they make possible, and who these discourses benefit and oppress

Danielle Every

Papers

The Language of “Race” and Prejudice A Discourse of Denial, Reason, and Liberal-Practical Politics

New racism, meritocracy and individualism: constraining affirmative action in education:

Constructions of racism in the Australian parliamentary debates on asylum seekers

Accusations and denials of racism: Managing moral accountability in public discourse:

Constructions of Australia in pro- and anti-asylum seeker political discourse