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Why do dictators ‘indigenize’ democracy? This article analyses discourses on democracy in a consolidated authoritarian regime to show how it assists in authoritarian regime-building. The article shows that in the case of Uzbekistan, Karimov’s rhetoric selected and essentialised features of an Uzbek nation, such as community, solidarity and fairness. The regime imposed such features on the Indigenous self-governing institutions, known as mahalla, to foster authoritarian control by turning community to guarantee ideological coherence, by imposing state hierarchy in the name of solidarity and by establishing local networks of patron-client relations in the name of fairness. Through quantitative content and critical discourse analyses of Karimov’s speeches from 1995 to 2015 published by the official press in Russian, the authors operationalise Karimov’s rhetoric on Indigenous democracy and through the analysis of legal acts that governed mahalla, they illustrate how such interpretations strengthened the authoritarian regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discourse analysis (DA) has emerged as a valuable method for examining communication between participants in end-of-life (EOL) care. However, there remains a gap in synthesizing the findings of discourse analytic studies focused on communication within EOL care settings. The aim of this study was to synthesize DA studies in EOL care. A systematic review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (Prisma) guidelines. An electronic database of Web of Science (WOS), MEDLINE, PubMed, and Embase was performed. 14 peer-reviewed studies published in English before January 10 2024, were included. Thematic analysis identified three overarching themes: (1) caregivers’ discursive stances on EOL care, (2) discursive practices of participants in shared decision-making conversations, and (3) discursive resources in talking illness trajectories. Findings suggest that DA has the potential to provide insights into understanding communication practices in EOL care and examining an individual’s stance on issues about EOL care, thus informing clinical practice and improving patient-centered care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reviews UK news media discourses surrounding New Zealand’s weightlifter Laurel Hubbard’s participation in the 2020 Olympics as the first ever publicly open transgender woman to compete at the Olympic Games. Discourse Analysis of 94 news and opinion articles published in the UK press before and after the Olympics, reveals contradictory portrayals of Hubbard as both having an unfair biological advantage and playing by the rules. While these discursive constructions appear contradictory on the surface, both draw on wider cisgenderist discourses to produce and police normative understandings of gender. We argue that sports media is a heightened site for the production of gendered bodies (in sport and in general), contributing to the production of ignorance around trans people, and influencing policy debates around the topic of trans inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's influence in the global South has both material and ideational aspects. In the era of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), material aspects include trade in goods, infrastructure-building, and imports of raw materials and energy. Ideational aspects include political influence and attempts to diffuse Chinese norms, some of which differ from those enshrined in the so-called 'liberal international order'. This paper posits that China's norm diffusion in the global South is attempted via practice-based normative diplomacy which includes both discursive and non-discursive practices. In theory, Chinese norms are supposed to be co-constituted by partners in a process we call 'earning recognition'. In practice, the Chinese government expects partner countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to model their behaviour and discourse on the example set by the People's Republic of China (PRC) without significant contestation. Our analysis demonstrates that the PRC's normative diplomacy has achieved a degree of earned recognition and influence, in that actors in the global South have begun to alter their behaviour along the normative lines expected by Beijing rather than those enshrined in the Western-led liberal international order. However, Chinese discursive practices have not met with the same degree of recognition as non-discursive ones, leaving space for counter-initiatives from the Western powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution investigates the campaign posters of the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) in four communication domains: in public space, in the mass media, their impact on other political actors and manipulations of the posters. This approach combines social semiotics, discourse analysis, media linguistics, and linguistic landscaping to present a comprehensive account of the posters' usage and design. Relying on social semiotics, we first analyze the posters themselves. We then show how the posters are reproduced in journalistic news media which creates a visual framing of the discussion about migration. This framing effect is also evidenced by the fact that many political actors adapt to the SVP's visual language. Consequently, the discussion about migration increasingly follows the SVP's logic. In a fourth analytical step, we show how the posters become objects of manipulation that turn them into a place of public debate. We sum up by pointing out the affordances that the posters offer to actors in these different domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the 2016 Diba Expedition to Facebook, a mass collective organized campaign directed at independence-leaning Taiwanese individuals and institutions, as an example of cyber nationalism through a highly organized meme war between anti- and pro-Taiwan independence users on Facebook. Drawing upon a social semiotic multimodal discourse analysis of the nationalist campaign, this study examines the ways Diba members deployed multimodal elements of political propaganda and popular culture in the preparation and mobilization of the campaign as well as the playful memetic interaction between the two camps on the battlefield. The analysis and discussion underscore the playful and carnivalesque ecology of Chinese social media that users deployed in the 2016 expedition while also demonstrating the dilemma of undertaking a Chinese nationalism campaign beyond the Great Firewall, where those based in the Mainland needed to overcome the state's regulations of online security to defend the motherland. This study contributes to the growing research on cyber nationalism in China and adds a further dimension to the study of Chinese social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic illness affects millions worldwide, rendering the life of those affected complex to manage. Extant research points to the need for effective and supportive care for the successful treatment, yet health care encounters for this population are often filled with negative experiences, ranging from discontinuity of care to disenfranchisement from providers. One such group dedicated to sharing struggles is the NEISVoid (No End In Sight) community on Twitter. Through the use of the hashtag, #NEISVoid, they come together to share what experiences living with chronic illness look like, in vulnerable and potentially unfiltered ways. The present study analyzes the discourse surrounding the hashtag #NEISVoid in tweets published from January 1 2020, until September 1 2022 (N = 450,914 tweets) using the mixed-method analysis of topic model network (ANTMN) approach. We identify and discuss four broad discursive themes: community experiences, symptom management, efficacy solutions, and biomedical health. We analyze this discourse through the chronic care model (CCM) and in light of research on hashtag activism. We discuss practical and theoretical implications for health communicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study raises a critical question: 'what does it mean to be smart teachers in the era of technology?'. To provide a concrete and comprehensive answer, the authors analyse multiple discourses revolving around SMART education, an education technology reform initiative in South Korea. This article critically examines the significance of SMART education as dominant discourse to shed light on the formation of smart teachers. The results show that SMART education is conceptualised as 'panacea' that can practically solve all kinds of educational problems, which leaves no choice for teachers but to accept it. The authors also analyse teachers' perceptions and practices by drawing on interviews conducted in a Korean smart city, where the SMART education was first enacted. It is argued that smart teachers are supposed to be 'adaptive' to survive by proving themselves as 'compatible'. This article concludes that it is necessary to imagine more diverse versions of smart teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I compare arguments mobilized for and against a policy to publicly fund private schools, including religious private schools, in Alberta and Ontario, Canada, and highlight how the arguments reflect each province's historical, ideological, and social contexts. Grounded in Maarten Hajer's argumentative discourse theory and based on findings from argumentative discourse analyses of 275 media articles, submissions to nine parliamentary committee meetings, and 14 interviews, I show how actors with disparate interests and values formed discourse coalitions as they pursued their policy preference by mobilizing one of two storylines: (1) public funds are for public schools or (2) private schools deserve public funds. The findings demonstrate that policy supporters and opponents mobilized the same arguments in both provinces between 1990 and 2020 with opposing outcomes. I conclude by highlighting aspects of the provinces' historical, social, and discursive contexts that help explain these different outcomes and consider the effects of Alberta's policy to fund private schools with public funds on enrollment and equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a discourse analysis of 12 Swedish sexuality education texts intended for preschool practitioners and published between 1969 and 2021. Using Fairclough's framework, we identify three discourses about children's sexual play in relation to children's sexual agency in the texts: child sexuality as encouraged and entangled with adult sexuality; child sexuality as conditioned by what is perceived as normal or abnormal in children; and child sexuality as repressed. These three discourses mainly appear chronologically, but also overlap and connect with one another. When analysis begins from children's position and a theoretical understanding of children's and adults' agency as interdependent, it becomes possible to see how the child is construed as agentic, and how the adult role changes from encouraging sexual play to regulating and monitoring behaviour so that it does not occur. Over time, discourse on young children's sexual play has changed our understanding of both adults and children. Adults are increasingly construed as less knowledgeable in relation to young children's sexuality, and young children have become understood as more dangerous and in need of having their sexuality constrained and civilised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2021, a member of the Belgian conservative political party (N-VA) sparked online controversy regarding inclusive sexuality education by criticising the Genderbread Person, an educational tool used to explain gender identity and sexual orientation. This study analyses the notion of childhood innocence in online debate about the Genderbread Person utilising a mixed-methods approach. Using the framework of anti-genderism and heteroactivism, it analyses resistance against and the support for informing children about gender and sexual diversity. Based on 673 tweets, the study identifies who features in this debate, which positions are articulated, and which discursive themes (de)legitimise inclusive sexuality education. Using qualitative analysis, we identify four discursive themes against and three in favour of inclusive sexuality education based on how children are represented in this online discussion. Our quantitative analysis indicates that social media debate is primarily supportive of inclusive sexuality education. However, the findings suggest anti-gender beliefs are beginning to find their way into Belgian online debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rich literature has argued that so-called aspiration-raising policies tend to individualize structural conditions and thereby reproduce forms of inequality through young people's aspirations. This paper explores how aspiration-raising policy discourses are lived in ways that both accentuate but that might also contest their terms. Drawing on Lauren Berlant, we theorize aspiration as ongoing performances that can be altered and remade in affective scenes of interruption. We put our theorization to work in a longitudinal study that followed a young woman, Marie, throughout her upper secondary education. Whilst Marie's performances of aspiration predominantly chimed with such individualistic policy discourses, she would also describe moments where these performances were seemingly interrupted. These were moments where Marie vividly experienced concerns related to planetary crises. The analysis carefully unpacks these moments, and we argue that they bring Marie into contact with the political stakes in her life and lead her to search for alternative, more sustainable, and collective modalities of aspiration. Hence, supplementing previous studies that have shown how inequality is reproduced through aspirations, the paper contributes with new understandings of how alternative modalities of aspiration may emerge that potentially exceed structural limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critiques of international education policy frequently take issue with how it stabilises neoliberal values at the expense of the progressive aims of education. Yet the humanism underpinning these debates can work to exclude environmental concerns from the remit of educational policy. This article offers a posthuman critique of the Australian Strategy for International Education 2021–2030 that does not take for granted that international education policy should be humanistic but considers how it comes to be affirmed as such. Through a discourse analysis of the Strategy and supporting materials, this article identifies three manoeuvres that affirm the policy as humanistic. Firstly, neoliberal values and notions of wellbeing are wedded together in a shared understanding that the Strategy must be student centred. Secondly, the Strategy reinscribes divisions between humans and nature by casting land as a passive backdrop for human activities. And thirdly, the Strategy makes a claim to perpetuity by linking the acquisition of human skills with a sustainable and prosperous future. The conclusion contends that international education policy cannot ignore the impacts of human activity on the world and must nurture the vast range of interdependencies that sustain life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines public discussions on Kazakh and Russian in post-Soviet Kazakhstan between 1989 and 2019 by using the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse. It focuses on how conflicting knowledge orders of the sociolinguistic reality are discursively (re)produced and advanced by various social actors in order to be accepted as 'true' and 'legitimate' in Kazakhstani society. Based on the concept of gift, the article reconstructs the language conflict as a dynamic discursive process of meaning-making and knowledge ordering in which the cultural values of the Kazakh and Russian language gifts and self-perceptions of Kazakhs and Russians are negotiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

VET researchers and policy-makers have historically displayed a keen interest in the future. Two assumptions link VET to the future. The first is that there is a singular object called VET and, secondly, that it can influence a forthcoming state of reality. This relationship is investigated through a rarely utilised post-structuralist discourse analysis of Australia's development of national vocational education and training policies. The performative language of policy-makers treats VET as a singular object and portrays the future as rational and predictable. By demonstrating that VET and potential realities exist in multiple forms, it might be possible to better utilise VET's capacities to produce more desirable national futures. The findings suggest that despite continual reform of the sector, just three strategic positions and their supportive discourses have guided federated policy making. The first generally neglected technical and adult education, followed by the creation of a federally funded novel type of educational institution which eventually led to the establishment of VET quasi-markets. Each underpinning discourse exploited the productive power of language to give effect to governments' desire to improve manifold futures by deploying alternative versions of VET. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although digital advances have enabled hundreds of universities to offer massive open online courses (MOOCs) to millions of students worldwide, the high dropout rate on these MOOCs indicates a disjunct between the potential of the offer and the success of its uptake. Many studies point to issues relating to interpersonal connection as a major factor in this disjunct. Interviews with students support the conclusion that lecturers' interpersonal tone is crucial to shortening psychological distance in pre-recorded videos. However, it is unclear how the interpersonal tone preferred by students can be realised discursively. This paper captures discursive instances by modelling an engagement framework and identifying particularly useful strategies through comparison of a high-rated and a low-rated engineering MOOC course delivered on Coursera. Findings show that in the high rated course the lecturer consistently anticipated students' state of mind and in response constructed a discourse that performed several interpersonal functions. On the other hand, in the low-rated course the lecturer mostly anticipated and addressed knowledge gaps and issues of difficulty, but not students' emotional responses, and so deployed far fewer interpersonal strategies in the lecture discourse. These findings shed light on how lecturers can use interpersonal language in pre-recorded lectures to improve student engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the Soviet strand of nihonjinron, or the theory of Japaneseness, which gained popularity in USSR in the 1970s–1980s. Its purpose is twofold. The first is to contribute to the literature on Soviet perceptions of Japan by critically examining the overwhelmingly popular essentialist discourse on Japan's culture and national character. The second goal is to contribute to the literature on nihonjinron which so far has focused mostly on Japan and the Anglophone countries. By critically analyzing the role of this construct in the Soviet discursive space during the period of late socialism, I argue that it was fundamentally different from the one it performed in Japan or the West in terms of its relationship to the hegemonic discourse. In the case of the Soviet Union, this article argues, the narrative on Japan's unique culture existed simultaneously both inside the hegemonic discourse and outside of it, creating a deterritorialized space. Along with other, similar spaces, nihonjinron exposed the incongruities of the Soviet system and made its collapse completely natural to the Soviet people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored visually impaired youths' perspectives toward feeling valued in integrated physical education. Situated in an experiential qualitative approach, this study utilized inclusion understood as an intersubjective experience broadly, and feeling valued specifically, as a conceptual lens to guide and inform methodological and data interpretation decisions. Eighteen visually impaired youth completed two interviews each using video conference technology or phone call, and audio recorded, transcribed, and subjected to reflexive thematic analysis. Three interrelated themes were constructed, depicting the participants experiences and perspectives of what it means to be valued, and if they felt valued, within integrated physical education: (a) feeling valued is contingent on others, (b) value is unavailable without accessibility, and (c) being valued for possessing (non-athletic) characteristics. Participants described feeling valued or unvalued based on accommodative (e.g. peers acknowledging their impairment) or un-accommodative (e.g. teachers forgetting their impairment and needs) experiences with others within the PE context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practicum periods are an essential part of early childhood education and care (ECEC) teacher training. To support a student's learning, they need supervision by an expert ECEC teacher to process and analyse information, and supervisory discussions are key forums for that. The aim of this study is to examine the cultural scripts that are identifiable through discourse analysis of supervisory discussions between an ECEC student teacher and a supervising ECEC teacher. In the analysis we focused on the practical cultural script, phases of the supervisory discussions and the structure of the supervisory relationship. The data comprised recorded supervisory discussions. Three discursive phases can be identified in supervisory discussions: (1) the Launching phase, (2) the Reflective phase and (3) the Closing phase. The supervising ECEC teacher is responsible for conducting the discussion and for extending the topics of supervisory discussion. The results of our study show that practices in the ECEC centre dominate supervisory discussions and the role of educational theory remains at the margins. The results further highlight the need to develop collaboration between universities and ECEC centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people's room for autonomy and independent life choices is challenged by intensive parenting practices and ambiguous ideals underpinning the youth-parent relationship. In this article, we explore how young people make sense of and relate to parental influence as they are about to make choices of higher education. Through Foucauldian discourse analyses of interviews with 23 young men and women (19 years) in Oslo, Norway, this study sheds light on how the youth reconciled ideals of self-expression and self-determination with perceived parental influence. We demonstrate how their 'autonomous self' is portrayed as 'accountable' and 'malleable', to allow for parent's influence through their subject positions as 'advisor' and 'socialising agent'. These subject positions overlap with discourses of intensive parenting previously described as disciplining the modern parent. We discuss whether youth contribute to the cultivation of 'the intensive parent', and the potential the ideal of autonomy holds for conformity to normalizing powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On June 29, 2019, Carola Rackete docked the rescue ship Sea-Watch 3 on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, in defiance of a ban imposed by Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. The migrants rescued by the Sea-Watch 3 had been blocked at sea for the previous two weeks, making it to international headlines and sparking a heated debate around sovereignty and humanitarianism in the face of the European migration crisis. On her arrival, Rackete was arrested for refusing to obey a military vessel and aiding illegal immigration. This paper investigates social media and international news discourses around the Sea-Watch 3 docking, to be regarded as a critical incident capable of catalysing attention and generating a significant media resonance. Results show how both social and traditional media contributed to the proliferation of misogynous attacks against Captain Rackete, at the intersection between right-wing populist discourses of Italian 'sovranism' and European anti-immigrationism. By triangulating the role of the media, intersectional hostility and populist ideology, this paper sheds light on how these three factors feed into each other in the discursive construction of the 'Fortress Europe' of present times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Far-right attacker manifestos provide researchers and practitioners with insights into the thoughts, beliefs, and motivations of their authors. However, a systematic analysis of the gendered ways in which these attackers construct and present their experiences and opinions has not yet been produced. This study fills that gap by analysing the presentations of masculinity across 19 far-right manifestos authored by men. Discourse analysis of terrorist manifestos can unearth where mainstream and extremist discourses coalesce: which elements are taken from the mainstream and embedded into extremist discourse, and what parts of extremist discourse are utilised by mainstream actors. Drawing on the theories of Connell, Firestone, and Laclau, I argue that the attackers in this study discursively construct themselves as men in reference to hegemonic ideas of what constitutes "the man" in Western society. They also attempt to justify their actions and mobilise others to do the same by appealing to "the (white) child" and the duty of themselves as (white) men to protect it. Women are almost entirely neglected in the manifestos, which reflects sexist attitudes surrounding women's agency and presence in society. This paper contributes to the understanding of hegemony and gender in far-right discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial music artists seek celebrity capital, which has central value in the music industry and broader society. Previous literature suggests that besides advantages, fame is connected to interpersonal issues in close relationships. The marginalised celebrity discourses emerging from well-known artists' close interpersonal relationships are examined to better understand the interpersonal dynamics of fame. Relational dialectics theory is applied to study celebrity discourses in the romantic relationships of 11 Finnish music artists. Contrapuntal analysis of the data indicates that fame emerges as competing celebrity discourses privileging separateness, closedness, asymmetry, publicity and inauthenticity. The discursive interplays illuminate the dominating celebrity persona, increased mistrust, social and emotional distance, and asymmetrical power dynamics in artists' romantic relationships. These meaning-systems are linked to decreased self-disclosure and increased social distance, which are negatively connected to relationship formation and maintenance. The dominant perception of fame as harmful for relationships challenges the popular perceptions of fame as worth pursuing. Increased awareness of the interpersonal dynamics of fame can help individuals in managing the fame-related tensions in close interpersonal relationships, which are known as vital for well-being. The research adds to the understanding of the relational production of fame and introduces the interpersonal communication perspective on celebrity studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Swedish preschool has been subjected to significant changes. As there is a lack of studies examining how teachers in music rhetorically position themselves within this context, the aim is to study subject positions that are constructed in conversations between preschool music teachers (PMTs) and to discuss these positions in relation to the quality of preschool practice in music education. The theoretical and methodological framework is grounded in social constructionist theories and the empirical material consists of group conversations with PMTs. The results reveal three prominent discourses, the discourses of Proficiency, of Subordination and of Resistance. In conclusion, the PMTs show that they are opposed by other pedagogues in various ways. This makes the possibility of establishing a music-teaching practice on their level of expertise severely restricted, which in turn has an impact on the quality of the preschool practice in music education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundObjectiveMethodsResultsConclusionSustainability has become a ubiquitous imperative across all sectors of society, including healthcare. Building on the broader discourse on sustainable development, sustainability is used in relation to social, ecological, and economic concerns with varying degrees of emphasis and often related to a sense of durability.To provide a detailed analysis of the concept of sustainability in current physical therapy literature and advance its deliberate future implementation.Setting out from a critical exposition of prevalent models of sustainability, we conducted a critical discourse analysis to (1) examine the implementation of the concept of sustainability in physical therapy academic literature and (2) critically evaluate its hitherto use in light of the broader discourse surrounding sustainability.Our analysis identified a focus on the cost-effectiveness of healthcare interventions, and the use of so-called “weak” and “strong sustainability” models in the physical therapy literature. Other models and the broader critical discourse surrounding sustainability are only gradually finding their way into physical therapy literature.Physical therapy lacks comprehensive exploration of both general and profession-specific understandings of sustainability. Nuanced engagement with sustainability and its alternatives is necessary to ensure its meaningful implementation in physical therapy research, education, and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The move towards EMI in higher education has been connected to university internationalisation, which reflects neoliberal trends. Research has underscored the need to consider socio-economic factors, materialities and ideologies surrounding EMI. Our study taps into this line of inquiry by focusing on how Swedish universities promote EMI programmes in business and economics in four videos. We take a novel approach to examine discursively constructed ideologies surrounding EMI by conducting a critical multimodal analysis of the videos. The analysis reveals how the use and representations of English – combined with different symbols, artefacts and concepts – are used to position these EMI programmes as both global and local. References to international rankings and multinational business partnerships position them on the global education market. At the same time, the programmes are locally situated in the academic tradition and entrepreneurial context of Sweden. Images of nature, the fika, or Scandinavian design present them in a way similar to tourist destinations. Tokens of economic and cultural eliteness create an extra layer of distinction, contributing to the added ‘elite’ value of EMI, where English is both taken for granted and serves a gate-keeping function. Findings provide insight into how EMI is promoted to international students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how Indigenous peoples have been portrayed in citizenship education in Taiwan since the downfall of the authoritarian regime in 1987. The trajectory of citizenship curriculum development elucidates how attitudes towards cultural citizenship and multiculturalism came into play to form the narratives we find in schools. Four versions of the official curriculum from 1983, 1999, 2010 and 2019 and the textbooks authorised for use with each are examined. Interviews with curriculum developers are also conducted to provide explanations behind the curriculum design. Through content and discourse analysis, it is discovered that Taiwanese citizenship education has evolved along conservative, liberal, pluralistic and critical multicultural constructs, and that portrayals of the Indigenous population have swung from depicting invisible, archaic and mythical figures to showing visible contemporary faces. The latest curriculum has adopted ‘question-based’ and ‘inter-curricular communication’ strategies to go beyond simplistic carnival-like multicultural celebrations. These thought-provoking and counter-narrative features aim to bring out critical perspectives in class though the latest curriculum still has room for improvement in terms of its subtlety of intersectionality and its action-oriented design. This Taiwanese case can be an example to young democracies in how a critical framework can be incorporated into the curriculum-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractBackground: This study investigates the discourse on anxiety management strategies within the TikTok platform, analyzing a substantial dataset of 45,639 comments collected over a year.Aims: The primary aim is to explore the various strategies users employ to manage anxiety, focusing on how these strategies are discussed and shared on TikTok.Methods: A mixed-method approach was utilized, combining Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) for topic modeling with qualitative analysis. This methodology allowed for the identification of nine distinct topics, which were further grouped into three main categories: Self-Empowerment and Coping Strategies, Community Support and Social Connectivity, and Recognizing and Navigating Triggers.Results: The analysis revealed a diverse range of strategies users employ to manage anxiety, spanning personal coping mechanisms, social support networks, and the recognition and mitigation of triggers. These findings underscore TikTok’s role as a dynamic space for sharing, exploring, and validating experiences related to anxiety management.Conclusions: TikTok offers unique opportunities for identity construction and community support amidst the challenges of anxiety. However, the study acknowledges limitations, such as potential biases in keyword-based data collection and the complexity of capturing multimodal discourse on the platform. The conclusion emphasizes the need for further refinement of digital mental health platforms, calling for sophisticated algorithmic solutions to enhance user support and content relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractPurposeMethodsResultsConclusionsInternational Medical Programmes (IMPs) form a distinctive modality in medical education, with diverse student populations, English as a language of instruction and ‘globalized’ curricula. A lack of common understanding of IMPs’ purposes and role in the medical education landscape triggers critiques. This study aims to document the effects of different discourses used to justify the purpose of IMPs.We use a discourse analysis approach to explore the different ways in which the purposes of IMPs are constructed at the regulatory, institutional, and individual level, and how these discourses interact. The research situates in two IMPs, in the Netherlands and in Hungary. Key-informant interviews, policy documents, and scholarly literature form the archive.The purpose of IMPs is constructed discursively around three distinct narratives and associated practices: around serving the institutions that host them, around serving the (global) public interest, and around serving individual students. Co-existence and misalignments of these three discourses cause conflicting practices and confusion among stakeholders.This study illustrates how diverging perspectives on internationalization in medical education create tensions for learners and staff. Articulating a clear and explicit meaning to internationalization may reduce uncertainties, and may reinforce realistic expectations of what constitutes a good outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) was an Australian-led and largely Australian-funded state-building project, which included the strengthening of the police force and state bureaucracy and which took place over a 14-year window from 24 July 2003 to 30 June 2017. A few months beforehand, former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer argued that the deployment of Australian troops to the Solomon Islands would be unjustifiable to Australian taxpayers and likely resented in the region. In this article, I argue that RAMSI became thinkable and legitimate through representations of Solomon Islands in Australian political discourse and media during the mission’s early years (2003–2007) which depended on carceral and colonial logics of containment, control and intervention. The credibility of RAMSI depended on the existence of a perpetrator of violence to be contained and innocents to be saved. These representations reproduce colonial constructs of the dangerous, racialised Other and depend on the carceral assumption that criminality is an individual aberration or failure, rather than one which is socially, culturally and historically produced. These discourses have carceral effects as they contribute to the naturalisation of policing and (neo)colonial control as solutions to social and economic problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On a closed psychiatric ward, conflict and disagreement may exist between patients and psychiatrists on how to interpret the patient’s condition. This forms a complexity for implementing contemporary ideals such as shared decision making, which would require a substantial degree of epistemic flexibility from both psychiatrists and patients. Recently, authors have argued that psychiatrists are pluralistic and pragmatic in their interpretation of the patient’s condition, implying a space for this flexibility in the clinical encounter. In this article we present an empirical study in which we aim to describe, understand, and explain this epistemic space and the dynamics between the psychiatrist’s and patient’s interpretation. We aim to explore and contextualize philosophical discussions through empirical research. We performed a qualitative inquiry on a closed psychiatric ward and found that both patients and psychiatrists were epistemically flexible, but epistemic negotiations were more complex and variegated than often presumed. We constructed an empirically grounded typology of different types of epistemic interaction, which shows that this interaction can only be properly understood if one acknowledges that it is shaped by different professional, societal and personal norms and values. We conclude by discussing the scope and limits of the epistemic space that we found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific literature shows that gender transition is effective in improving the general well-being of transgender people. However, so far, little attention has been paid to the actual role of the body concerning the existential dilemma that holds the person hostage during transition. This study investigates the relationship between the body—here considered in its concrete, experienced, imagined, and intersubjective dimensions—and gender identity. Twenty-five transgender people who live in Italy were interviewed to identify interpretive repertoires and identity positionings. Four main repertoires and positionings emerged: 1) Interpretative repertoires on the body in transition, where an enduring influence of gender binarism and biological determinants were observed; 2) Expectations regarding medically induced modifications of the body ranging from self-confidence to uncertainty; 3) Positionings toward medically induced bodily modifications, ranging from enthusiasm to resignation; and 4) Inter- and Intrapersonal positionings, where the other than self was found to act as a self-confirming resource or as a constant unpredictable and potentially threatening source of disconfirmation. Practitioners need to develop a stronger awareness of the different dimensions, meanings, and discourses surrounding bodily experience to more effectively intervene in their clinical practice with transgender people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current research on the in-class discursive realities in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) classrooms has been mostly restricted to whole class scenarios, whereas student-student interactive discourse in task-based activities is largely ignored. This study explores peer interactions among university students in an EMI marketing course in China, specifically focusing on repair practices. The data mainly comprised transcribed recordings of 26 peer interactions during two types of tasks, i.e. topic discussions and simulations. Findings reveal that the task type plays an important role in how various trouble sources are addressed. In both task types, there is a dominance of factual repairables, which are addressed through various collaboratively constructed repair trajectories. However, the relatively informal yet concept-related topic discussions elicit more frequent repair in general and linguistic-form related repair in particular than the relatively formal but hands-on natured simulations, though the latter type of task leads to more procedural and processing-related repairs. Implications are discussed regarding the importance of raising teachers' awareness that different activities hold different language and content learning opportunities in peer interactions in EMI classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines a 'circulatory' system of gender inequity in Australian universities where gender bias prevents women from accessing senior decision-making roles and stultifies their capacity to act as gender change agents. It has been mooted that equity quotas for senior roles can derail this circuit of male privilege in academia. Yet a plastic reading of the shape of gender equity policy and practice in Australian universities over the last 40 years reveals an increasing acceptance of individualism, which positions women's liberation as being achievable through self-responsibilisation. If these discourses remain unchallenged, gender quotas for senior roles alone will likely only benefit those entrepreneurial women admitted to senior positions, rendering the causes of gender inequity hidden and exonerated. Using a novel methodology that combines a 'plastic' with a complex systems lens of policy manoeuvres, we suggest gender quotas, accompanied by strategy designed to develop leaders' gender competency and change agency, are required to support more sustainably equitable work structure within the academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn Chinese culture, the family is central to the decision-making around care provided to terminally-ill patients. Previous research examined the preferences that patients and relatives have in regard to the family’s role in end-of-life care. Our article takes a discourse analytic perspective and focuses on how familial dynamics are interactionally constructed by patients in audio-recorded end-of-life care consultations in Hong Kong hospitals. We document three ways that patients construct family dynamics. First, patients expressed a reluctance to talk to their family members about their condition. Second, patients talked about their families as being reluctant in accepting and “believing” the reality of their condition. Third, patients reported an epistemic divide between themselves and their family regarding knowledge and understanding of their illness. Our findings provide insights into how to conceptualize family dynamics in interactional terms. We also reflect on how our findings can complement existing research on end-of-life care in Chinese contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As policymakers attempt to cope with climate chaos, traditions of water injustice persist. Meanwhile, water problems and solutions in the U.S. arid region have long been discussed through the discourse of conservation. This essay traces water conservation discourse back to Theodore Roosevelt's 1901 First Annual Message to better understand its relationship to U.S. water colonizing ideologies in today's context. Attuned to colonization as practices of extraction and ideological articulation, I argue that Roosevelt articulated water policies in the name of the progressive "public interest" with a set of moral, legal, and infrastructural water logics. These logics link the value of progressive water management to specific capacities that expand white settler ecologies in arid regions. Roosevelt's early-twentieth-century articulations are palpable in contemporary calls for water conservation, suggesting major implications for presidential and environmental rhetoric as well as water policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the apparatus of practices dedicated to reducing long-term diet-associated health risks so as to question how risk is framed and worked upon in everyday risk governance contexts. In 2020–2021, I conducted 10 semi-structured interviews with public & environmental health researchers and programme managers at both federal (Canada) and provincial (Quebec) levels, as well as with clinical practitioners (clinical physician, dietician). I also used these interviews and the information provided by my interviewees to gather a corpus of materials comprised of clinical protocols, empirical guidelines, governmental screening programmes, and more. In the analysis, I contrast testing practices dedicated to preventing and controlling chronic conditions associated with food ingestion such as type 2 diabetes, with others dedicated to predicting and preventing health conditions associated with the ingestion of pesticides and contaminants. I use Foucauldian discourse analysis methods as well as Sheila Jasanoff's (1999) "songlines of risk" in her analysis of environmental risk assessment practices to analyse how the risk mitigation practices under study integrate different approaches to risk and thus different ways of caring for health and bodies. This leads me to a discussion on the biopolitical approach to risk and health that informs these practices and the apparatus they constitute, contributing to orienting where the onus of the responsibility lies when it comes to managing or preventing diet-associated health conditions. I argue that the apparatus plays a role in invisibilizing the environmental factors in disease causation and reinforcing the individualisation of health (responsibility) rather than its collectivisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractAs trusted public institutions, museums could offer crucial opportunities for climate learning. Yet, empirical research on effective approaches is limited. One potential pathway is through strategic framing, given that much research in climate communication suggests the value of specific frames. We developed an innovative climate exhibit, A Climate of Hope (ACOH), guided by five strategic frames: hope, gain, local, community, and playful. To investigate visitor learning at a prototype of ACOH, we collected data from 31 groups as they interacted with a prototype of ACOH while wearing audio recorders. Integrating theories of knowledge and discourse, we investigated learners’ use of resources at ACOH through qualitative discourse analysis and mixed-methods analysis. We found that learners brought a diverse array of resources, some of which were related to incoming views of climate change. We interpret our results as speaking to the potential of framing climate messages through a gain frame. We provide implications for educational practice around climate change in informal spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite numerous critiques of the pioneering works of developmental child psychology, these key ideas continue to resonate within the field of ECEC (early childhood education and care). This article seeks to re-animate the critique through a closer look at two current tendencies within the Nordic countries: a growing and increasingly strict age segregation of kindergarten children; and a minor oppositional movement of family groups gathering children from one-to-six years of age. Looking towards Piaget as one of the main pioneers of developmentalism, we question whether strict age segregation is justified based on his theories – a close re-reading of two of Piaget's major works would suggest not. Through reflections of kindergarten teachers working with age-homogeneous groups, we trace other discourses that developmentalism is entangled with. The analysis and deconstruction of the teachers' reflections point to the need to explore age segregation within a neoliberalist political context and further, show how this results in institutionalised othering. Through mobilising an agential realist reading we explore how narratives of kindergarten teachers that work with age-heterogeneous groups might inspire alternative ways of thinking/practising, and re-energise the critique of developmentalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discourses of social justice are becoming increasingly prevalent in educational spaces, with rising numbers of teachers and teacher education programs expressing their aims to teach towards social justice. Yet, recent scholarship has documented the contested meanings of social justice in contemporary educational contexts. This qualitative case study aims to build upon existing literature by examining how two equity-oriented Black educators in an urban elementary school conceptualized and critiqued the discourses of social justice circulating in their school. Through thematic and discourse analysis of data generated through teacher inquiry group meetings and interviews, it examines their experiences with the language of social justice becoming associated with dehumanization and white saviorism, and it documents the equity-oriented pedagogical positions constructed by these teachers in opposition to such discourses. This analysis draws attention to contemporary (mis)uses of social justice discourses and proposes implications for justice- and equity-oriented teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In both policy-making and academia, the realisation is growing that transitions striving for sustainability have to be just to be socially accepted. This insight has given rise to institutionalised approaches to a "just transition" – but also beyond these, justice is a key challenge in the governance of sustainability transitions. In this paper, we examine how justice arguments are being used in national-level discourses of transition governance in Sweden. Analysing 121 policy-related documents from 2019 to 2021, we found that justice was discursively treated in a way that essentially stifled change. Political actors attempted to trump each other's justice claims rather than to genuinely engage with them. Justice concerns that would not serve re-election, such as solidarity across social boundaries, were almost absent from the material. Based on these findings, we critically explore how justice arguments contribute to politicizing transition governance in particular ways, rendering some policy options impossible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to conceptualize "Pyramid-hierarchy" model of the educational policy discourse system in China. Education discourse system is the external education expression form of ideological and theoretical system and knowledge system. Constructing the discourse system of educational policy with Chinese characteristics is a system consisting of a series of internal logical relations, including seven levels of discourse foundation, discourse core, discourse mode, discourse attitude, discourse transmission and discourse innovation. The educational policy discourse system with Chinese characteristics draws lessons from several important elements in the meaning of community, namely mutual emotion, mutual dependence, and common action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Sweden, the Compulsory School for Students with Intellectual Disabilites (CSSID) is currently experiencing political change, as this type of school is being renamed and is undergoing organisational changes. The inclusion of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) in schooling, and in general society, has been challenged and debated for decades; such debates are at the heart of some of these changes. In this study, we have systematically investigated the policy work (e.g. government reports and statements) preceding and governing the changes. Hence, the purpose of the study is to contribute knowledge on how policy documents inscribe meaning to the inclusion of children with ID. Results show that discourses on inclusion are connected to neoliberal values and practices, such as assessment, global comparison, and accountability. It has been suggested that this may have a profound and long-term effect on how children with ID are fabricated and hence, how the child with ID and their education can be understood in terms of being included in the idea of 'all students' in policy, and in addition, in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" to examine the profound implications of assistive technologies within the context of normativity. While Vonnegut's narrative unfolds in a dystopian future where "desistive devices" are used to enforce equality, Vonnegut's insights subtly underscore the intricate facets of othered-being that challenge the normativity of assistive technologies. Drawing from the insights of crip studies, this examination argues that assistive technologies often perpetuate and idealize normative bodymind ideals, presenting a consistent framing of the normative human. Through a discourse analysis, this study demonstrates how assistive technologies, despite their variability in individual experiences, embody a normative rationality of human, mindbody existence. These technologies, rather than accommodating diversity, tend to impose a particular standard of "normalcy." In conclusion, the analysis proposes a departure from this normative trajectory. It advocates for a future direction in assistive technologies that fosters and embraces "aberrant-being." By challenging established norms and persistently questioning the constructs of normativity, assistive technologies can evolve to engage with aberrant-being and enliven cripped-embodiment. This exploration paves the way for a more inclusive and diverse future in assistive technology, where human differences are cherished rather than subdued. This piece highlights the need for a critical examination of the normative underpinnings within the field of assistive technologies, emphasizing that these technologies often perpetuate societal norms and may inadvertently limit the diverse experiences of individuals with disabilities. It calls for a shift in the design and implementation of assistive technologies, advocating for a more individualized approach that moves beyond accommodationism and grapples with the multiplicity of beingness that disability invokes. By drawing from the insights of crip studies and the critique of normativity in Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron," this piece invites the field of assistive technologies to challenge established norms, embrace othered invocations of being, and embrace the rich tapestry of human experiences, regardless of their deviation from traditional notions of ability and functionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses the theoretical underpinning of the so-called semantic gap. By analysing the discourses on ideals and practices of image search and image use in terms of different understandings of 'information' and 'communication' this study illuminates the epistemological foundation of different ways of thinking about image descriptions. More precisely, it compares the discourse for metadata production, standards and information management with the discourse among humanities scholars. Close readings of handbooks, best practice and interviews with metadata producers discloses a discourse imbued by a mechanical model for communication and information transmission and a focus on objectivity and effectiveness. Simultaneously, interviews with humanities scholars and close readings of recent archival theory reveal another understanding of metadata as historically, institutionally, and even individually situated interpretations. As this study shows, attentiveness to the theoretical underpinning of the different ideals, wants and needs of metadata for images may illuminate why these differences exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the right to leisure – enshrined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) – this article addresses how the Council of Europe's (2016) Convention on an 'Integrated Safety, Security and Service Approach at Football Matches and Other Sports Events' ('Saint-Denis Convention') provides a legal pathway towards what we conceptualize here as the right to 'safe leisure'. This right to 'safe leisure', we locate within broader right to leisure discourses which this article reconsiders. We contend that the Convention has wider ramifications for the intersection between human rights and leisure and that the Convention's potential resides in the fact that it enhances the existing and orthodox conceptualizations of leisure. Following an unpacking and operationalization of the right to leisure, this conceptual article then showcases how the 2016 Convention enshrines distinct duties and obligations which establish a clear right to 'safe leisure' within a significant realm of leisure life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate on nuclear energy in France offers insights into how energy, the environment, the economy, and society intersect. These insights are crucial to understand the future of sustainable energy. In this paper, the French nuclear debate as it emerged on Twitter during the Presidential campaign of 2021–2022 is analysed through a two-step discursive approach. Discourse Network Analysis is used to create a snapshot of the debate in terms of coalitions of actors and discourses; then, an interpretive approach is employed to analyse the meanings attached to the sets of policy positions obtained through DNA. The article shows who are the main actors and the most common arguments. Furthermore, it shows that, in France, pursuing the use of civil nuclear is framed as a pragmatic choice in the face of climate change and insecure energy supplies; in populist terms as a form of energy that could turn back the clock of globalisation; and as an impasse that prevents France from embracing a truly sustainable energy agenda. By unveiling this set of discourses, the article challenges the idea of 'French nuclear exceptionalism' often found in the literature and the media and contributes to the larger literature on nuclear discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents' significance in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is emphasized in the research, but primarily from the perspective of ECEC professionals. Drawing on discursive institutionalism, we analysed what parents of young children in Finland constructed as essential in ECEC from the child's point of view in their discussions concerning the forms of ECEC services. We found that parents constructed ECEC through two interconnected frames: enrichment and safety. The frames indicate that an individual child and her well-being here and now are considered essential in ECEC for Finnish parents. Parents' interpretations differ from one of the global discourses of ECEC, which emphasizes children's development for the future. On the other hand, parents' discourses maintain the cultural distinctions traditionally present in the Finnish ECEC institution. Our study underscores the significance of scrutinizing the construction of educational institutions in the discourses of those whose everyday lives these institutions are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how domestic alternative media reported the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. It pays special attention to whether the Conversation Canada, as an emerging not-for-profit journalism organization founded on the premise of "explanatory journalism", has taken a different approach to COVID-19 reporting than three long-standing Canadian alternative media: Canada's National Observer, Rabble, and Tyee. A combination of quantitative content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis found that the pandemic's far-reaching impacts gained the main emphasis in the surveyed media. These media also provided slightly divergent accounts of what precipitated the pandemic's disastrous results. Additionally, the way the Conversation Canada framed COVID-19 expressed a close resemblance to academic writing, especially in terms of the strategic use of in-text citations for making compelling arguments. These findings highlight the indispensable role that progressive alternative media play in the effective public communication of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the abundance of research exploring the formats, functions, and processes of teacher reflections, many pre-service teachers still perceive it as an abstract and daunting task, owing to the insufficient provision of authentic and practical training and support. This article examines the immediate and long-term effects of explicitly teaching reflective practice (RP) on three student teachers’ professional learning in a language pedagogy course within a pre-service teacher education programme. Drawing on data from multiple sources, including semi-structured interviews, field observation, and reflective essays, the findings suggest that student teachers’ RP, in terms of its breadth (i.e. content focus) and depth (i.e. discursive use of language), showed immediate improvement after the practical workshops with an explicit focus on RP. In the second round of interviews conducted two years later, the importance of RP was reiterated by the participants, who highlighted the evidence-based nature of RP while outlining practical challenges that hindered their RP in actual school contexts. The findings further highlight the issue of authenticity in RP and provide practical suggestions for pre-service teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]